Southern Illinois University Edwardsville SPARK SIUE Faculty Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity 2018 St. Louis Currents: The Fifth Edition Andrew Theising [email protected] E. Terrence Jones Ph.D. University of Missouri-St. Louis Follow this and additional works at: https://spark.siue.edu/siue_fac Part of the American Politics Commons, Cultural History Commons, Economic History Commons, Environmental Studies Commons, Leisure Studies Commons, Other History Commons, Other Political Science Commons, Public Economics Commons, Social Justice Commons, Taxation Commons, and the Urban Studies and Planning Commons Recommended Citation Theising, Andrew and Jones, E. Terrence Ph.D., "St. Louis Currents: The Fifth Edition" (2018). SIUE Faculty Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity. 136. https://spark.siue.edu/siue_fac/136 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by SPARK. It has been accepted for inclusion in SIUE Faculty Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity by an authorized administrator of SPARK. For more information, please contact [email protected],[email protected]. St. Louis Currents The Fifth Edition Edited by Andrew J. Theising Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and E. Terrence Jones University of Missouri–St. Louis Managing Editors: Heather Birdsell and Hugh Pavitt SIUE Institute for Urban Research © 2016 The Board of Trustees of Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, IL All Rights Reserved. No portion of this book or its illustrations may be reproduced in any form without the expressed written permission of the copyright holder, except by a reviewer, who may use brief quotations and images. Photographs by Paul Groenier ©2016, unless otherwise identified. Used by permission and protected by copyright. SIUE Institute for Urban Research Staff: James Hanlon, Ph.D., Director Hugh Pavitt, MPA, Senior Research Fellow Heather Birdsell, Office Support Associate Jonathan Thurston, MPA, Graduate Research Assistant Justin Huff, MPA, Graduate Research Assistant Table of Contents Acknowledgments v Introduction from SIUE 1 Julie Furst-Bowe Introduction from FOCUS St. Louis 3 Yemi Akande-Barch Introduction from the St. Louis Metropolitan Research Exchange 5 Mark Abbott From the Editors 8 Andrew J. Theising and E. Terrence Jones St. Louis as Historical Hub 10 Jeffrey Smith The Fight for Homer G. Phillips Hospital and the Making of Health Care Politics 26 Taylor Desloge Leisure and Entertainment in Greater East St. Louis, 1950-1995 46 Anthony Cheeseboro The Problem of Regional Exclusivity: The “High School” Question and Its Implications 59 Sarah VanSlette with Kiley Herndon Poor Education 72 Mark Tranel The Region’s Parks and Their Impact 84 John Loren Wagner St. Louis in the Anthropocene: Responding to Global Environmental Change 103 John Posey Dividing Sales Tax: Conflict and Consensus 122 Jim Brasfield The St. Louis Regional Economy: Recession, Recovery, and Reinvention 137 Robert M. Lewis and Ruth Sergenian St. Louis Currents | iii Rebounding Neighborhoods in St. Louis: Causes and Consequences 156 Todd Swanstrom and Hank Webber The Community Development System in St. Louis: The Times, They are a-Changing 176 Karl Guenther and Todd Swanstrom Sustainability in St. Louis: Regional Plan, Local Action 196 Mary Rocchio and Medora Kealy A Demographic Portrait of a Mosaic Immigrant Population in the St. Louis Region 214 Onesimo Sandoval Unbuilding and Rebuilding St. Louis 225 Patty Heyda iv | St. Louis Currents Acknowledgments The editors gratefully acknowledge the financial support and production assistance of the SIUE Institute for Urban Research in the preparation of this volume, especially Director Jim Hanlon and Associate Provost Jerry Weinberg. Special recognition goes to the managing editors of this volume, Heather Birdsell and Hugh Pavitt, whose management of the day-to- day activity was essential to the project. The editors are also grateful to Josh Stevens, Barbara Northcott, and the staff of Reedy Press for guidance and patience in the production process. Jonathan Thurston and Justin Huff provided substantial technical assistance. The editors are grateful for the additional helpers at SIUE and UMSL, who made this work possible. ST. LOUIS CURRENTS St. Louis Currents | v Introduction St. Louis recently concluded celebration of its 250th anni- versary, and this is an appropriate time to look back at the issues that shaped the region and to consider the issues facing it in the decades to come. St. Louis Currents provides both that thoughtful look back and mindful consideration of the future. From the very first issue ofCurrents in 1986, the book has been an important resource for civic leaders in our community. The St. Louis region is home to some wonderful assets— social, economic, and political. The area has a wonderful diversity that reflects a long and vibrant history. It has been an economic engine that played a pivotal role in the national economy’s devel- opment and continues to showcase cutting-edge technology and unbridled creativity. The region is home to major institutions, such as Scott Air Force Base and the Federal Reserve Bank, that shape the quality of life here and abroad. The magnificent Gateway Arch stands over the Mississippi River as a memorial to those brave women and men who settled the western expanse of the country. St. Louis has long served as a testament to their vision and success. The issues raised by the events of Ferguson, Missouri, remind us that there is much work to be done. This region, like other major metropolitan centers, still grapples with social inequal- ity, zones of economic distress, and questions of institutional per- formance. The challenges facing the area are great, but the creativ- ity and resilience shown by the people of the region over time give hope that we can meet these challenges for the benefit of all. Southern Illinois University Edwardsville is pleased to join with FOCUS St. Louis and the St. Louis Metropolitan Research Exchange to help produce this latest volume of St. Louis Currents. This new volume provides insightful perspectives on critical issues that have shaped the region’s historical experience and will direct the path before us. The essays in this volume were chosen carefully to illustrate key perspectives on a variety of issues—some long familiar and some less so. Taken together, they provide an interesting and educational examination to inform our region’s citizens and leaders. Universities have an important role to play in metropolitan areas. Universities are centers of thinking and knowledge, and are important threads in the metropolitan fabric. SIUE is proud to have called the St. Louis region home for nearly sixty years and is also ST. LOUIS proud to be preparing area leaders for the twenty-first century and beyond. CURRENTS Julie Furst-Bowe Chancellor, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville St. Louis Currents | 1 About the Sponsor Julie A. Furst-Bowe, Ed.D., served as the eighth chancellor of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) from 2012 to 2015. Dr. Furst-Bowe is recognized nationally and internationally for her expertise in systems thinking in higher education and has authored several articles and edited a book on this topic, Quality and Performance Excellence in Higher Education. In 2012, she edited a book on advancing STEM education and serves as editor of the International Journal of Excellence in Education. For more than a decade, she has served as a quality improvement consultant for numerous colleges and universities across the United States and has shared her experience with educators in sixteen countries throughout North America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Dr. Furst-Bowe has been appointed by the U.S. secretary of commerce to serve on the Board of Overseers for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, an award that provides the highest level of national recognition for performance excellence that a U.S. organization can achieve. She is also a founding board member of the National Consortium for Continuous Improvement in Higher Education and serves as higher education chair for the American Society for Quality. ST. LOUIS CURRENTS 2 | St. Louis Currents Introduction FOCUS St. Louis is pleased to share the fifth volume of St. Louis Currents, a series that has provided insight on the region for three decades. FOCUS and its predecessor organizations have always been in a unique position to assemble this regional per- spective because the organization always has used its diverse voice to speak on issues important to the greater St. Louis region. Regionalism has only grown in importance over the last three decades. More and more, it is difficult to survive in a com- petitive environment alone. There is so much good to offer on both sides of the river that it makes sense to team up and cel- ebrate our successes together. City and suburb, urban and rural, Illinois and Missouri all have shown the ability to come together at critical junctures. FOCUS St. Louis has been proud to have facilitated some of these partnerships and prepared some of the leaders making these important decisions. The St. Louis region has weathered many storms. In the last great recession, the St. Louis region saw the closure of three automobile assembly plants (the two Chrylser plants in Fenton and the Ford plant in Hazelwood), yet the St. Louis region did not see unemployment rates much different than the national average. While this was painful for the region, lesser regions would have been devastated beyond recovery by such a loss. The St. Louis region absorbed the hit and was able to see recovery over time, albeit slow. This is a testament to the region’s diversification of its economy, its ability to shift from traditional economic roles to new ones. No single jurisdiction made this happen. There was no single agency, no single industry, no single elected official able to take responsibility. It was a cooperative effort of public, private, and nonprofit over the years that worked for the benefit of all.