In 2016 the Missouri Historical Society, in conjunction with the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Missouri Humanities Council, created “A City Divided: Housing Polarization in St. Louis,” a symposium that addressed issues related to housing segregation and its lasting impact on the St. Louis region.
The symposium included a keynote lecture by University of Iowa professor Colin Gordon based on his book “Mapping Decline: St. Louis and the Fate of the American City.” His lecture presented a historical analysis of discriminatory housing policies from the 1920s through today, including St. Louis real estate agents’ use of restricted covenants to racially segregate neighborhoods. The symposium also welcomed a distinguished panel of local and national experts.
To continue this conversation, on December 8 and 9, “Beyond Mapping Decline: Fighting a Lasting Legacy” will explore steps that St. Louis and Baltimore are taking to confront issues of blight and neighborhood decline. Working with Nneka N’namdi, founder of Fight Blight Bmore (FBB), and representatives from St. Louis–area initiatives, this conference will encourage St. Louisans to think about how they can empower themselves and their neighbors to break down the lasting legacy of housing inequality.
There are an estimated 25,000 abandoned structures throughout St. Louis – a problem that the city cannot handle on its own. City officials say a formal working relationship among legal clinics, community development organizations, and neighborhood nonprofits is close to addressing these vacancy issues. For example, the Kranzberg Foundation has begun to develop affordable housing and studio space in vacant buildings in Gravois Park. Chris Hansen, the foundation’s executive director, will discuss this new initiative during the symposium.
With 16,800 vacant buildings and lots, Baltimore is facing a similar struggle. N’namdi said it is important that the public is aware of these issues.
“People living in neighborhoods with blight are not only losing access to home equity, community history, and public-sector improvements, they are also being exposed to community-based trauma resulting in long-term stress from fear of unsafe property implosion, toxic exposure, and crime,” N’namdi said.
She points to a study called “Neighborhood Blight, Stress, and Health: A Walking Trial of Urban Greening and Ambulatory Heart Rate” that revealed participants’ heart rates elevated when they walked past vacant lots but slowed after the lots were cleaned and greened.
FBB has created a mobile application to document, report, and track environmental hazards created by demolition sites or the structures that preceded them.
“The app will follow reports of blight, view blight and related data, and utilize a variety of analytical tools on those data sets,” N’namdi said.
“There will be a gamification aspect to the tool, which encourages users to walk the neighborhood, communicate with neighbors, and share personal narratives about property history. FBB is unique because it will bring together original crowd-sourced data with existing municipal and private data sources to create information to positively impact blight remediation.”
“Beyond Mapping Decline” will create a thought-provoking space for scholars and community advocates to discuss racism, poverty, and post-industrial decline. N’namdi said she hopes that, as a result of this collaboration, “St. Louis, Baltimore, and other cities with concentrations of blight will know that people living in blighted communities will be the best resource for resolving the issue.”
N’namdi said that developers who come into blighted neighborhoods should have to pay a portion of their development fee to residents or community groups who act as project consultants. That’s because neighborhood residents often do the grassroots legwork to galvanize the community and the government to carry out redevelopment through surveys, focus groups, and community development plans, and N’namdi believes those efforts ought to be compensated.
N’namdi calls the legacy of urban renewal one of disinvestment and displacement.
“If St. Louis – and others – plans to be a healthy city in the future, it must resist redevelopment that lacks equity as a core principle,” she said. “Specifically, the city must work to dismantle the racism in law, policy, and practice that is in large part responsible for blight in first place. Otherwise, redevelopment will just usher in an era of urban colonialism.”
“Beyond Mapping Decline: Fighting a Lasting Legacy” will take place at the Missouri History Museum on Saturday, December 8 and Sunday, December 9, from 1-5 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. Visit www.mohistory.org for more information.
