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By Linda F.
Jarrett
When cities
need help in defining their growth or lack thereof, they call
for David Rusk.
As a much
sought-after urban expert, Rusk gives speeches and conducts workshops
on how unplanned sprawl, racial segregation, and concentrated
poverty interact and impact a region's growth patterns, social
equity and quality of life.
Rusk recently
held a "Workforce Housing Summit" at the behest of FOCUS
St. Louis, the Metropolitan Congregations United and the RCGA
on engaging workforce housing in the city and what it would mean
to the future of St. Louis.
"I've
been to St. Louis a number of times," Rusk says. This time,
however, for the housing summit, he was "focused on work
force housing, and is there a need for such a market that by the
normal measure looks quite affordable."
ELASTIC
AND INELASTIC CITIES
Most cities
in trouble are defined as "elastic," he says, meaning
that their boundaries were set and they cannot expand with the
growth of the region.
"When
you think of St. Louis as a City, you may think of cities like
Cleveland or Detroit. These are cities first and foremost, because
their boundaries were set before the age of sprawl, and they cannot
expand with their boundaries," he says. "When St. Louis
was carved out as an independent city in 1876, I'm sure the city
fathers felt that they had all the land they would ever need,
and that wasn't true."
Much of the
City's growth has occurred outside the City's boundaries.
Rusk gave,
as an example of an elastic city, Albuquerque where he was mayor
from 1977 to 1981. During that time, the city grew from three
square miles to 183 square miles and from 35,000 to 505,000.
"When
you're mayor of St. Louis," he says, "You're mayor of
a shrinking core city in a modestly growing region, so your problems
are different of those inelastic cities such as Phoenix, Indianapolis,
Charlotte or Austin."
THE STATE
OF THE CITY
He says that
St. Louis had been in constant decline through the 2000 census.
"However, it appears to have at least bottomed out. Having
lost about 59 percent of its population by 2000 since its peak
in 1950 (from 856,796 to 348,189).
Rusk ran updated
numbers for the city and identified three milestones of decline:
—
A 20 percent or more loss of population since the City's population
peak in 1950.
—
A disproportionate minority population (Blacks and Hispanics)
in the City compared to its suburbs (typically 3 to 1, or more)
and, most critically.
—
A substantial gap between City per capita income and suburban
per capita income, with the City's income below 70 percent of
suburban per capital income.
"Cities
that had passed all three milestones I have characterized as 'Past
the Point of (almost) No Return," he says. "I used to
characterize it as 'Past the Point of No Return' because through
the 1990 census, no such city had every made up ground subsequently."
Rusk says
that, however, during the 1990s, Chicago escaped his list when
its city/ suburb income ratio rose from 66 percent to 72 percent.
But all is
not lost, he says. "According to the Census Bureau's estimates
for 2007, St. Louis has posted a modest but real gain to 350,759
or 0.7 percent. Most encouragingly, the city/suburban income percentage
rose slightly from 67.4 percent in 2000 to 68.9 percent in 2006."
RESEARCH
Rusk's study
for the Workforce Housing Summit was more specialized than his
previous visits. This entailed asking five suburban cities, (Maplewood,
Clayton, Richmond Heights, Rock Hill and Brentwood) a private
employer (Lutheran Nursing Home), and a school district (Maplewood-Richmond
Heights) some specific questions such as:
¥ How much
existing and new housing was available?
¥ What was the average price?
¥ How many city employees?
¥ How many city employees lived in the city?
¥ How many could afford to live in that city?
For example,
the study showed that of the 142 Richmond Heights City employees,
only nine lived in the City, and that no City employee could afford
the cheapest housing in that city.
"We also
analyzed the daily commute," Rusk says. "We asked if
it was a problem for them and for the City. This was very specific
research that depended upon the cooperation of these communities."
He says that
if the St. Louis area were a market where the average family couldn't
afford the price of the average home, "I would be pushing
mixed income housing everywhere. But when you look at the St.
Louis area's overall figures, the average family can afford the
average home being brought on the market.
In fact, economic
development leaders in St. Charles County have made workforce
housing a key part of the County's economic development stratgey.
The need that
the study identified in these target municipalities was that the
people who work for city government, the local school district
or work at the local hospitals are becoming unable to live in
those communities. "They absolutely can't afford to buy the
new housing and even the price of existing housing is beginning
to escalate beyond their abilities."
"So,"
he says, "the question for our Summit wasÑis there a more
focused need?"
THE ROLE
OF THE ST. LOUIS PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT
Contrary to
what many think, Rusk says that the problems of the City schools
have little to do with the school board.
The socio-economic
status of the child's family and the socio-economic status of
the child's classmates have far more to do with the educational
outcomes than the school board has," he says.
"It's
a function of the fact that the St. Louis Public Schools are overwhelmed
by low income children, and the multiple problems that they can
bring from their homes and families to school," he says.
Rusk's studies
in other metropolitan areas show a correlation between the proportion
of low income students in the school and the average test scores
in the school.
"Typically,
I only have to know one fact about the school," he says.
"Tell me the number of children who qualified for free and
reduced price meals, and I will tell you the average test scores,
plus or minus four percentage points with 90 percent accuracy."
St. Louis
City had over 12,000 students going from the City schools to the
suburban districts.
"The
problem with the St. Louis plan," Rusk says, "is that
your classmates ought to be your playmates. I think that opportunity-based
housing is the key. It should be affordable shelter built where
the job supply is strong and growing, and in a place where the
children of those families can go to a high performance school."
GOAL FOR
ST. LOUIS
St. Louis
has much more going for it, unlike other "endangered cities"
in the country, Rusk says. "You've got two great universities,
major high quality hospital complexes, and venues for the principle
professional sports. Plus, you have museums, art galleries, concert
halls, convention center and a lot of great old neighborhoods
with quality homes."
"The
goal of the St. Louis area should be racial and economic diversity
and stability everywhere," he says. "And not lay the
greatest burden on dealing with the poor on the City of St. Louis,
East St. Louis and a couple dozen of the older suburban municipalities."
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