Sally J. Scott, Ph.D.Independent Consultant
Recently HUD commissioned a market value analysis of St. Louis neighborhoods, and City officials indicated that the data would help guide the allocation of federal housing and community development funds. This is an important and positive step forward for community development decision making in St. Louis, and everyone who cares about the city’s neighborhoods should take a close look at the study.
One piece of the puzzle that deserves effective and coordinated action is the fate of the city’s ‘middle’ neighborhoods. Middle neighborhoods show signs of wear and tear – modest population loss, lower standards of property maintenance, declining social capital — but are not yet deeply distressed and have significant social and physical assets on which to build. Long-term population loss and disinvestment in St. Louis mean that such neighborhoods are at risk of sliding into decline, but deep distress is not inevitable. Given their strengths, these areas could also attract new residents and regain vitality. The “Healthy Neighborhoods” approach to revitalization may be what these neighborhoods need.
What characterizes the Healthy Neighborhoods approach? Pioneered in Battle Creek Michigan in the 1990s by David Boehlke, Executive Director of Neighborhoods, Inc., the approach views the decision-making of current and potential residents – whether to stay or go, whether to buy or look elsewhere — as the key factor in neighborhood decline or revitalization. As Boehlke writes in Great Neighborhoods, Great City, “The necessary ingredient in any neighborhood revitalization strategy must be to create good reasons for people to make decisions that benefit themselves while producing results that serve the whole community.”
To influence resident decision making in a way that benefits the larger community, the Healthy Neighborhoods approach utilizes strategies that target four elements of neighborhood stability: a positive image, a viable real estate market, good physical conditions, and strong social connections. In Baltimore, Healthy Neighborhoods, Inc. has used this approach since 1998 to generate over $100 million in investment in 41 neighborhoods throughout the city. Major federal funds, like a $26 million Neighborhood Stabilization Program grant awarded in 2010, have been integrated into the overarching Healthy Neighborhoods framework.
Could this work in St. Louis, which shares historical ties and market challenges with Baltimore? The St. Louis Market Value Analysis points to a set of neighborhoods, or parts of neighborhoods, that are candidates for such an initiative, because they are neither deeply distressed nor thriving. Home sale prices for these areas are in the vicinity of the citywide average ($71,927) and vacancy rates are around or below the citywide average (14.07%). Middle neighborhoods in St. Louis, as in Baltimore, have significant strengths on which to build: historic and varied housing stock; parks, schools, libraries, and businesses; creative and determined residents.
A quick scan of the 2000 and 2010 census numbers indicates that middle neighborhoods in St. Louis continue to undergo significant demographic and racial change. Efforts to build social capital and market middle neighborhoods would need to take into account that the only growing segment of the population citywide in St. Louis from 2000 to 2010 was “non family,” i.e., people living alone or not with relatives.
More difficult to determine is the strength of the associations and organizations working to stabilize these neighborhoods. In the Baltimore, Healthy Neighborhoods Inc. works with both professionally staffed community development organizations and single-staff or volunteer neighborhood associations. Having a strong core organization that can creatively generate partnerships among neighborhood organizations, citywide nonprofits, foundations, banks, anchor institutions, and city government has been essential in Baltimore.
Looking ahead, the critical question is whether strengthening the middle neighborhoods of St. Louis is a priority for city residents and leaders. If so, a working group representing neighborhoods, nonprofits, banks and city government should form to consider the Healthy Neighborhoods approach to revitalization.
Articles in “From the Field” represent the opinions of the author only and do not represent the views of the Community Builders Network of Metro St. Louis or the University of Missouri- St. Louis.
