Economics, Politics and City Design

Vincent C. Schoemehl Jr. E c o n o m i c s , Politics and City Design I know little about the technical aspects of urban design. I know nothing about the technical aspects of architecture, construction or odier items relat­ ed to development. But I have been mayor of St. Louis for more than eight years, and I was a member of the Board of Aldermen for six years before that. So I do know something about how cities work, how people think, how politics works and the underlying economics of the city. The Mayors' Institute for City Design helped me to organize my thoughts about how development affects the economy and how development and design work together to accelerate the economic impact of that devel­ opment. It helped me to understand — and to persuade odrers — that what makes a city successful is the quality of the environment it offers. I want to talk about the economics of cities, the economics of develop­ ment within cities and the politics of development. I want to tell you the story of a success, the stoiy of a failure and the story of a project whose out­ come is yet to be determined. I want to share with you some of the experi­ ences I've had as a mayor of a city that has had its share of difficulties. From Basket Case to Turning-Around City The following articles by Vincent C. Schoemehl Jr. and Tom Martinson •were inspired by a Midwest regional meeting of the Mayors' Institute for City Design, held in Minneapolis in October, 1989. Schoemehls ankle is an edited version of a talk he gave at the meeting. Martinson V article is an expanded version of commons he made at the meeting. Here is a thumbnail sketch of St. Louis: The city is the heart of a metropoli­ tan area of more than 2.5 million people, but it has just under 405,000 residents, down from nearly one million in the mid-1950s. I t experienced a period of rapid decline during the 1960s and even greater decline in the 1970s, during which, according to the 1980 Census, 27 percent of the population left. The national news media picked up on these figures: The New York Times called us the gateway out and the Wall Street Journal said we were a genuine basket case. Time offered this advice: The last man out should turn out the lights. P L A C E S