Columnist Jamala Rogers
Mayor Slay sent his top development person to testify at the Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity hearing on the infamous Team Four Plan. Barbara Geisman stood before the panel of African-American Congress-people and declared that she didn’t bother to read the plan because it was “not relevant.”
That gave our visitors a good sense of the arrogance and racist insensitivity of the current administration towards its black residents.
The hearing was chaired by St. Louis native U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters and organized by U.S. Rep. Wm. Lacy Clay. Myself and a number of participants were called upon to testify how the Team Four Plan had impacted the North Side and to suggest remedies for developing urban areas. When I perused my archives on Team Four, it was one of those sobering times when you say, “If I knew then what I know now …”
The 1974 Team Four plan divided the city into three areas: conservation, redevelopment and depletion. The first two concepts speak for themselves. The North Side was designated a “depletion” area, where destabilization efforts included lack of private and public investment and reduction of services. The goal was not just to take land but to dilute the political power of a burgeoning black population.
The stage was set for Team Four, with the rapid succession of entities such as the Land Reutilization Authority being created and laws being passed to carry out the City’s black removal plan. The City had an arsenal of weapons at its disposal, from redlining to eminent domain. It was like getting sucka-punched in the dark. You knew you were in a fight, but couldn’t tell where the punches were coming from.
The City’s initial denial of its despicable plan, plus the plan’s unbelievable features, made it a challenge to organize black folks to respond accordingly. No one wants to believe that their government is implementing a plan to let their neighborhood die on the vine. Can you imagine trying to convince an African American in the historic Ville neighborhood that our most revered institution – Homer G. Phillips Hospital – would be closed as a part of the plan?
Groups like the Ad Hoc Committee and the Coalition Against Team Four were successfully in beating back the plan, but not the concept. The plan has been sanitized and continually updated, but the goals of Team Four prevail.
There are no neighborhoods with the number of vacant lots or abandoned buildings as the North Side. The City continues to get funds for our “depressed areas,” yet there is no demonstrative change. Team Four has become a self-fulfilling prophecy, with some citizens even believing that the North Side is not worthy of development. There is an objective reason why our neighborhoods look like parts of Iraq, and it’s not because all of us are trifling and irresponsible.
I advanced seven recommendations to the subcommittee. They call for increased accountability and transparency, up and down the ladder. Alderpeople and others must get sufficient training on land use planning. The Community Development Agency must live up to its name. There have been millions of dollars allocated to the North Side that have been squandered, whether it was by so-called neighborhood development associations or by the City’s duplicity with developers who don’t comply with HUD guidelines to ensure our fair share of housing, contracts and jobs.
Team Four is alive, but never unopposed. Organized forces keep pushing back. When the covers were pulled off Paul McKee of McEagle Properties and his buy-up of land, that plan was temporarily stalled. Citizens Coalition to Fight Eminent Domain Abuse is currently fighting the misuse of federal block grant monies by the City highlighted by a HUD audit. The citizens group will hold a community meeting on the issue on Thursday, March 13 at 6 p.m. at the Gateway Classic Foundation.
Jamala Rogers is a columnist for The St. Louis American and one of the founding members of the Organization for Black Struggle based in St. Louis.