I. Statement of Purpose
Discussions about the shape of our communities and neighborhoods and, by inference, the form of
our metropolitan region, are high on the public agenda. Our destiny as a region has historically been shaped by a series of individual, often disconnected, public and private decisions. Taken together, these
decisions form the basis of an agglomerated regional landscape and an economy which inevitably functions inefficiently, and often ineffectively. Alternatively, we can act with common purpose on key decisions,
according to mutually accepted strategies, so that the region formed by those individual, community-scale decisions is indeed greater than the sum of its parts.
The purpose of the Initiative for a Metropolitan Community is to carefully identify those areas
where local governments can act with common purpose, to develop fact-based analysis which will lead to sound regional strategies, and to recommend specific actions to be taken at the local and regional level which
might implement those strategies.
The "audience" for this Initiative is principally the elected leadership of the St. Louis region, those holding local and state office who are making decisions every day which shape their communities and region. Also participating in the Initiative will be selected leaders from the public and private sectors who can contribute knowledge, guidance and leadership.
Our expectations are not revolutionary but evolutionary, that our elected leadership can identify
discrete actions that can create a better, more equitable, more cooperative, more informed environment for sustainable development and redevelopment throughout the St. Louis region.
Perhaps more important than any specific actions however (which may be modest at the outset), is the process from which those actions result. It is the building of this decision-making process and the definition of new kinds of intergovernmental relationships which could lead ultimately to a more unified region.
II. "The Problem"
"A problem clearly stated is a problem half solved."
Dorothea Brande
"Every problem has in it the seeds of its own solution."
Norman Vincent Peale
Why should we care about the issues of metropolitan growth? After all,
much of our region is quite prosperous. Job growth has been strong, compared to the region's recent past.
Developers and homebuilders enjoy a free market environment, with some generous incentives from the public sector often supporting their efforts. Among large metropolitan regions, St. Louis is one of the easiest to get around.
(1) Areawide, traffic congestion is comparatively low by national standards. Local taxes are among the lowest of any metropolitan area.
Given these conditions, why are we concerned about the future of the St. Louis region? Why should
people in Alton care about what is happening in Wildwood?
How are the citizens of St. Clair County affected by events in Jefferson County? Answering these questions persuasively is the key to having a healthy discussion about the future of our region. Despite the efforts by the Peirce Report, St. Louis 2004, and various church groups and environmental organizations, it is quite clear that we have not yet provided evidence which has persuaded the public and even some of our elected leadership of our common destiny as a region. Put another way, we haven't effectively defined the problem. Perhaps that explains the difficulty in naming it (choose among urban sprawl, smart growth, and urban choice, for example), or for that matter, even agreeing that there is a problem.
We often define matters relating to metropolitan growth in terms of physical symptoms...a
faltering downtown, decaying neighborhoods, traffic congestion...rather than in terms describing the quality of our lives. Discussions about the future growth of this region must deal with a wide range of
conditions fundamental to metropolitan growth --- economic, social, and physical. The problem must therefore be stated in these terms. The following is a first attempt to define the dimensions of "the problem."
Racial Disparity - Measuring disparities between the black and white population in 35 metropolitan regions(2) using 15 separate variables reflecting income, employment, housing, and health care, the St. Louis
region ranks 32nd. Only Detroit, Memphis and Milwaukee rank lower. While racism is likely one cause of these disparities, much can be attributed to other causes, including the pattern of development.
Economic Disparity - Measuring economic disparities between the region's core and its surrounding suburbs using 5 variables, St. Louis ranks 27th out of 35. (3)
Since African-Americans are concentrated in the region's core, there is certainly a relationship with racial disparities here, but the explanation is not that simple, since the concentration of poor whites is greatest in the region's core as well.
Slow Regional Growth
- While job growth has been greater than in recent times in our region, population growth rates are still very low in St. Louis, particularly in the age range between 18 and 64, typically the most economically productive part of the population. In metropolitan comparisons we rank near the bottom in population growth, 29th out of 35 metropolitan regions. St. Louis population has increased 2.6 percent in the '90's, compared to increases of 8.0 percent in Kansas City and 4.9 percent in Chicago, our nearest metropolitan neighbors. The fastest growing metropolitan areas (Phoenix, Atlanta and Denver) grow faster in a year than St. Louis has in the decade.
Out-migration
- The St. Louis region continues to lose population in comparison to the expected "natural" growth rate (births minus deaths). While this rate has been halved from the rate during the 1980's, out-migration has still been around 40,000 people during the '90s. This out-migration rate remains one of the highest among our metropolitan peers, 29th out of 35. The rate of job growth does not support the natural increase in population.
Non-Sustainable Systems
- It is increasingly apparent that there is insufficient revenue to pay for needed expansion of many of our regional systems (e.g. transportation, sewers, schools) in the growing frontiers of the metropolitan region while maintaining existing systems in the region's core.
Non-Sustainable Ecosystems
- We have not yet found the right balance between economic growth and personal freedom with the preservation of the quality of the region's natural resources such as air, water, wetlands, farmland and energy. While we have failed to meet national standards for air quality, other regions like Detroit, Pittsburgh, San Francisco have taken the necessary steps to do so and have succeeded in meeting those standards.
Non-Sustainable Economic Development
- Many major development projects do not, in fact, reflect free market conditions. Large incentives are offered by state and local government, either to compete with neighboring communities or to fill a gap in the project's financing. Many of these developments cannot sustain themselves without public funds, sometimes on a continuing basis.
Diminishing "Sense of Community"
- While many of our local communities remain strong, others are weakened by apathy and cynicism. At the regional level, the loss of "metropolitan community," that common sense of pride, purpose and destiny which is so important to healthy progress, is inevitably diminished as well.
III. Conditions Affecting Regional Change
The shape of metropolitan areas nationwide is affected by a number of nearly universal
circumstances which arise from global changes in our society, economy and environment. These conditions may not be problems, but they form a landscape, much of which cannot be altered locally, which determines
the effectiveness of metropolitan solutions to problems.
Technology, especially advances in telecommunications, is affecting the social, spatial,
and commercial relationships that define metropolitan regions. For example, the commercial relationships that historically led to the creation of strong downtowns often don't exist anymore.
The advent of the Internet and other forms of real-time communication means that many businesses which traditionally depended on physical proximity can now locate almost anywhere. Conversely, the advent of modern manufacturing and inventory management techniques featuring "just-in-time" deliveries of parts and materials make physical proximity a real advantage for some industry clusters.
Changes in family structure
are leading to more and smaller households, more female-headed households, and more multiple worker households. These changes affect many of our metropolitan systems and services. The exploding need for child daycare, the location of daycare facilities close to employers and the dramatic growth of "trip-chaining" are examples of how family structure affects regional development.
Cheap energy
is fueling growth in travel. Vehicle-miles traveled are increasing at a rate many times that of population and employment. Trips are getting longer and more numerous. Tripmaking in our region has grown by 50 percent in the past twenty-five years, while vehicle-miles traveled has increased by nearly 140 percent. Population has only grown by 2.8 percent during this period and employment by 42 percent
Ascendance of grass-roots citizen activism
affects the ability of leaders to execute any long-term strategy. Citizens are often galvanized into action to say "no" to projects or issues that affect them directly. Governing by referendum is becoming commonplace in many areas. The same fervor that energizes citizen action is not however, often present in creating solutions to complex community problems or advancing positive change. While we celebrate traditional American values of individualism, there is a general devaluing of leadership.
Dramatic fiscal constraints affect government at all levels.
This effect is magnified in St. Louis where tax rates are already among the lowest of any metropolitan area. In fact, St. Louis is lowest among 35 major metropolitan areas in government revenue measured as a percent of personal income.(4) Nonetheless, government here is subject to the same public pressure to downsize, even while absorbing the effects of devolution from federal and state governments.
The local tax structure, with its emphasis on locally based sales taxes, often shapes
development without regard to regional economic, physical and social objectives.
Public subsidies such as tax increment financing (TIF), where anticipated sales tax receipts are used as incentives for development, compound the impact of local reliance on sales tax.
The number of local governments
in the region, 770 at last count, is more per capita than any other metropolitan region in the nation except Pittsburgh. (5) We have more local governments with taxing power per capita than any other area.
Service industries
have displaced manufacturing as the dominant sector in most metropolitan economies. The much-heralded transformation from a goods-producing economy to an information and services based economy is perhaps more wrenching in St. Louis, long a manufacturing center. This important shift deeply affects physical, economic and social structure of the region.
The demographics
of our region, particularly the concentrations of population in the ages under 18 and over 64 in the region's core affect local economies and require added public services. Conversely, the somewhat smaller portion of our population in the income-producing ages between 18 and 64 defines, in part, the areas's labor market.
IV. Defining Solutions
"For every complex problem there is one solution which is simple, neat and wrong."
H.L. Mencken
"Plurality which is not reduced to unity is confusion;
unity which does not depend on plurality is tyranny."
Blaise Pascal
The problems faced by the St. Louis region are not unique, particularly among areas of our age,
geography, demographics and size. Despite those shared experiences, there are few "best practices" that can simply be transplanted from another region and expected to substantially address the issues
that face the St. Louis area. While some seemingly simple and effective measures have been suggested repeatedly in the popular press, urban growth boundaries and tax-base sharing foremost among them, there is
little reason to believe that these are politically practical.
More important, there is evidence that such measures would be effective in St. Louis. Put simply, our solutions will be in large part homegrown, achieved by cooperative action, and reflecting a sense of unity among the communities of the region.
The purpose of the Initiative for a Metropolitan Community is to bring community leaders together,
particularly those from local and state government, in an environment where substance, fact and ideas will dominate, rather than emotion or confrontation.
It is our objective to look for key intersections between sometimes competing philosophies, so that the initial outcomes might consist of actions where there is broad consensus.
Five committees have been designated, each co-chaired by members of the East-West Gateway Board of
Directors. These committees will be places where information is shared, competing ideas discussed and proposals advanced. Membership of the committees will consist of local elected officials, state
legislators and "resource" members from affected agencies and organizations. Ultimately, proposals will be advanced to a "Congress of Governments," to take place in March 1999.
Actions approved at that time will be pursued through the combined efforts of the people and agencies participating in the Initiative.
While it is far too early to suggest specific outcomes of the Initiative, it
is possible to describe how those outcomes should come about. They must be based on fact and legitimate analysis using agreed upon methods.
Actions must reflect a plurality "reduced to unity" in order to survive implementation. Finally, actions must evolve from discussions which accept the following five guiding principles: (6)
- Healthy, sustainable growth can take place in all areas of our region, urban, suburban and
rural.
- The orderly growth of the St. Louis region can be best accomplished by coordinating the
efforts of cities and counties. It is through coordination of the locally based decision-making authority that rests with cities and counties, now and in the future, that sustainable regional growth
patterns can be established and reinforced.
- Local elected officials representing the citizens of the St. Louis region should exercise the
leadership and have the primary responsibility for dealing with those problems which require action on an areawide basis.
- Discussions concerning the growth of the region and regional public investments affecting
such growth should include meaningful representation from across the St. Louis region. Those discussions should include opportunities for all citizens, businesses and interest groups to participate.
- Decisions affecting the growth of the region should consider all costs and benefits, direct and indirect, short- and long-term.
Note:
This problem statement is subject to revision. Currently efforts are under way to develop statements particular to each of the defined Working Groups. Once available, these statements will be incorporated into this web site.
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