For many years, much of the black community in St. Louis has been suspicious, even fearful, of development, and for understandable reasons. Urban renewal often has meant gentrification, which just as often has meant spiked rents, eviction or forced exodus through eminent domain. Change also tends to stir fears, especially when economic and political power beyond most citizens’ comprehension is at play.
Also, media venues, including this newspaper, do not always explain the facts and benefits of economic development as well as we could do. Those stories often appear on the Business page and are cast in insider language. They do little to help the person on the street understand development and why it can be valuable.
A program at the Washington University School of Architecture, directed by artist and professor Bob Hansman, is exemplary in bringing the dynamics of development down to the street. It also provides a very useful model for developers and the politicians who often try to smooth their way in the community.
The Hewlett Program in Architecture educates freshmen students about the history of architecture and development in St. Louis and trains them to understand the dynamics of development, very much including the controversial aspects that have left the community suspicious. Then it drops students into the Wellston Loop, an area of the city badly in need of development, with a small non-profit community development group that is actively pursuing collaborations for bringing the community back to life.
The students are required to partner with community members in devising their plans for development. This results, not in condominium lofts or tourist attractions, but in modest retail spaces with second-story apartments, community centers, libraries and grocery stores.
Until now, these designs have gone no further than architectural models. Both the Wellston Loop Community Development Corporation and the director of the Hewlett Program are pursuing avenues for moving beyond the miniature model and into tangible improvements in this distressed North City neighborhood.
Mayor Francis G. Slay, Alderman Jeffrey Boyd and Rodney Crim, director of the St. Louis Development Corporation, have an opportunity to show meaningful support for a fledgling project with an approach that could help detoxify the issue of development in the black community. Washington University Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton; Carmon Colangelo, dean of the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts; and Bruce Lindsey, dean of the College of Architecture, have an opportunity to show that the region’s most prestigious university wants its students to form meaningful relationships within the St. Louis community and to influence at least one poor neighborhood for the better.
And anyone engaged in development here should consider the Hewlett Program’s motto: “Community Building, Building Community.” If these two critical endeavors are pursued in tandem, then there will be considerably less reason for anyone to fear economic development in the St. Louis metropolitan area.