View of Central West End

Introduction

  Central West End is an urban neighborhood in the City of St. Louis, Missouri. This neighborhood is known for being home to some of the city’s best dining, hotels, shopping, nightlife, and art and has even been listed as one of America’s Top 10 Neighborhoods by the American Planning Association. I chose to look at this area in St. Louis for a few reasons. First, I have a personal connection to the area as I lived there briefly when I was younger, and my father currently resides around there. Second, the neighborhood is, in my opinion, a great option for a sustainability district because it has great potential and the ability to implement more sustainable practices. While many of the homes and buildings in Central West End are older, the area is constantly being developed with new buildings being constructed all the time. This means that there is potential to incorporate sustainability into the construction process and create greener and more efficient buildings. Furthermore, the area is already decently bikeable and walkable in a way that cannot be found anywhere else in St. Louis, and it is close to the city’s public transportation system. Lastly, this area is well known as being more progressive than other parts of the city, so I am confident that this neighborhood in particular is well suited to embrace greater social, economic, and environmentally sustainable practices. I will begin this sustainability district plan by going over some of the history of the neighborhood and talk about how it was developed. Then, I will look at the physical, economic, and social characteristics that define the Central West End neighborhood. I will then go over my recommendations for implementing greater sustainability in the area and how it can be turned into a proper sustainability district. I will conclude by going over a plan for evaluating the progress of my proposed sustainability initiatives.

History and Development of Central West End

  In the late 1800s, a 1400-acre city park, known today as Forest Park, was developed just west of downtown St. Louis. This park attracted a lot more people to the area, especially wealthier families who wanted to live in an urban area that still had a lot of green space. By the end of the century, the park was complete and had expanded to include several of the streets that make up the Central West End neighborhood. In 1904, St. Louis had the privilege of hosting the World’s Fair, which only brought more attention to Central West End given its close proximity to Forest Park and the fair. The area became extremely popular and attracted individuals, families, and businesses from all over St. Louis city as well as the county. With the exception of the Great Depression, the neighborhood flourished for the next several decades. Around the time of the second World War, however, people started to move out west to the suburbs and Central West End lost a bit of its popularity. Additionally, in 1959, the famous St. Louis tornado hit the neighborhood, causing a substantial amount of damage. However, thanks to insurance money, the Central West End was well repaired and became even more popular than it was before. To this day, the area is very popular among tourists, as it is known for its beautiful and distinct architecture as well as its close proximity to many of the major St. Louis attractions such as the St. Louis Art Museum, the Cathedral Basilica, the St. Louis Zoo, and Forest Park. It also has Washington University just to the west and St. Louis University to the east, which has brought in a much younger crowd to Central West End as well as greater diversity. Central West End is one of the most popular neighborhoods in St. Louis for both young individuals and families. It has a national reputation as being eclectic and artistic, with the area hosting several art galleries and shows as well as fun nightlife, concerts, and social events.

About Central West End

  Central West End has a great location within St. Louis and is very centrally located, with the downtown area to the east and the suburbs of St. Louis County to the west. It is bordered by Delmar Boulevard to the north, Interstate 64 to the south, North Vandeventer Avenue to the east, and Lindell Boulevard to the west. Below is a map showing the neighborhood boundaries.

Central West End Neighborhood Map

  Central West End is located very close to Forest Park and has a number of other smaller parks within or around the area. There are many gated residential neighborhoods that have large, stone houses and lush, landscaped yards. There are also taller apartment buildings in the area, mainly along Euclid Boulevard, which is the central street running through the neighborhood. The median household income in Central West End is around USD\$53,000 and the average annual household income is around USD\$88,000. Below is a map showing the median household income in the City of St. Louis, which does not include St. Louis County.

  If you look at the above map, you will see a large grey rectangle around the center and to the left, and this is where Forest Park is located. The Central West End neighborhood is located at the top right of Forest Park, where there is a mix of pink and purple. This map is interesting because there is a somewhat distinctive difference between south St. Louis and the north side of the city. The top half of the map is darker than the bottom half, which is a pattern we will see as well in a later map. Below, I have created a map that looks at the median household income just in Central West End. 

As you can see here, there is a significant range when it comes to median household income in Central West End. This was not a surprising thing to find, mainly because the neighborhood is known for being very diverse and home to a number of different people and families in dissimilar economic situations. On the one hand, Central West End is home to many of St. Louis’s wealthiest families who own large homes within the gated residential neighborhoods. On the other hand, there are also a lot of cheaper apartment buildings there that are home to people who are undoubtedly less affluent. The area is most likely attractive to wealthier people because of its beautiful large homes and close proximity to the financial district downtown as well as Forest Park. It is also attractive to less wealthy people because of its various options for public transportation and its relatively affordable apartment buildings. 
What I found in terms of the racial characteristics of St. Louis City and Central West End was not very shocking but is nonetheless interesting and important to look at. The below maps show the percentage of the populations that are Asian, Black, Hispanic, and White. The second map just looks at the Central West End neighborhood.

Looking at the percentage of the population that is black versus white is very interesting and really shows how racially segregated St. Louis City is. As you can see in Figure 4, the top right map shows that the vast majority of black people reside in north St. Louis, while the exact opposite can be said for the bottom right map showing the percentage of the population that is white. St. Louis has a well-deserved reputation as being very segregated. A street called Delmar Boulevard divides the city in half, with the majority of the black population living north of the street and the majority of the white population living south of the street. Central West End in particular is interesting because Delmar boulevard makes up the northern neighborhood boundary, so the area is just south of it. It is basically one of the neighborhoods that is situated right in between the black and white populations. Central West End is a medium blue neighborhood on the top map and a green neighborhood on the bottom map. Furthermore, the map that just shows the neighborhood really gives you a sense of how diverse of an area it is. 
The public transportation system in St. Louis City is pretty lacking and has a reputation as being dirty, dangerous, and a last resort when it comes to getting around. St. Louis has a train system called the Metrolink and a bus system called the Metrobus. Below is a map of the neighborhood and the train and bus stops that are around the area.

Transit Map in Central West End

As you can see, there are a decent number of bus stops in the area and the Metrolink train has some stops there as well. Central West End is one of the neighborhoods, I would argue, with the best public transportation in the city, or at least the greatest potential to have a decent public transit system. St. Louis is exceptionally spread out, with the main neighborhoods having a lot of space in between them. Getting around within the Central West End is pretty easy, and you can take the Metrolink train east to downtown or west to the airport. However, this being said, St. Louis is one of those cities where you really need to have a car if you want to get around. If you are lucky enough to have a car, then Central West End is great because of its central location and close proximity to the highway that will take you east to downtown or west to the suburbs. In terms of transport, something else that is unique about Central West End is that it is probably the only somewhat bike-friendly and walkable neighborhood in the city. There are some bike paths, and the streets were designed to be relatively pedestrian friendly. If you live in the neighborhood, you can get pretty much anything you could need on a daily basis just by walking less than twenty minutes. Overall, St. Louis City, including Central West End, has much better public transportation systems than the County, but it would still be very difficult to live there without access to a car. Furthermore, the Metrolink train is not like the CTA in Chicago, where there are a number of different train lines that reach most corners of the city. The Metrolink in St. Louis City has one line and just goes from downtown to the airport. Not only can it not take you many places, but it is also known amongst St. Louisans as being dangerous in terms of crime.

Sustainability in St. Louis City

The City of St. Louis government released a sustainability plan in 2013. Figure 8 shows the results of surveys that were done and, even though the data is from nearly ten years ago, it is interesting to see what people in St. Louis think about sustainability in their city. The first question asked for one word that you would use to describe what a unique characteristic of a sustainable City of St. Louis could be. The top responses were neighborhoods, architecture, the river, open space, and parks. The second question asked for one word that describes a bold action that could be taken to make St. Louis more sustainable. The top answers were education reform, collaboration, promote city living, and urban agriculture.

2013 Sustainability Plan, City of St. Louis

The plan consists of seven broad goals that attempt to capture all the elements of a sustainable city. The goals focus on urban character, vitality, and ecology; arts, culture, and innovation; empowerment, diversity, and equity; health, well-being, and safety; infrastructure, facilities, and transportation; education, training, and leadership; and prosperity, opportunity, and employment. The plan is meant to apply to the entire City of St. Louis, however, it acknowledges that the needs and preferences of different neighborhoods is important to consider and will determine what can get done there. “The City’s demographic and cultural diversity is a great asset – the mix of backgrounds, ethnicities, lifestyle preferences and race enriches and presents opportunities. If we can find ways to be more integrated and bridge artificial divides, we will have more success reaching out collective sustainability aspirations.” (City of St. Louis Sustainability Plan, 2013) This plan also makes it clear that these are not rules that must be followed but are instead just some general guidelines and recommendations that St. Louis neighborhoods and communities can use as a guide to implement more sustainable practices into their everyday lives.

Sustainability Challenges

There are a number of challenges that are potentially keeping Central West End from becoming a proper sustainability district. It is important to look at these challenges because it helps us and those in positions of power to figure out which areas of concern need the most attention and funding. Speaking of funding, this is a huge issue when it comes to sustainability, especially in St. Louis City where there is limited money dedicated to this area. Fragmentation is another significant challenge when it comes to implementing sustainability. People, communities, and different neighborhoods are very far away from each other, and this fragmentation makes it hard to adopt sustainability initiatives for a place that is made up so many different communities with various needs and circumstances. This is also the case within the Central West End neighborhood where people can have either very low or very high incomes. Attitude poses another challenge not just in Central West End but in all cities. A lot of people just do not care that much about climate change or are just not willing to make more sustainable lifestyle choices even if they do believe that it is a serious problem in need of addressing. Education, or the lack of education, is another challenge. St. Louis County is home to some of the best and highest-ranking high schools in the country, but the same cannot be said for St. Louis City. Education levels are not the best, and if people are not even completing high school or college, then how are they supposed to know anything about sustainability or properly understand the science behind climate change? Another challenge is the lack of decent public transportation in Central West End. While, as was previously mentioned, the public transit system is better than in other parts of the city, it still does not take you many places and has a reputation as being grimy and unsafe. While Central West End claims to be bikeable, there are also no bike rental systems set up in the area. Another challenge is the issue related to bureaucracy and the St. Louis City government. Even though the mayor of St. Louis City has been described as being pretty progressive, there still has not been a sustainability plan put forth by the city’s government since 2013. The local government is not doing enough to encourage sustainability in St. Louis neighborhoods and should allocate more funding and energy into creating a new sustainability plan that is properly enforced. 
When creating a sustainability district, it is not effective to just think about the environmental aspect of sustainability. This requires also looking at the social and economic features of sustainability and working to ensure that one is not successful at the expense of the others. “Urban sustainability presents intertwined issues of environmental protection, economic viability, and social equity… Cities cannot be sustainable over the longer term if their economic growth impairs the environment that they depend upon for clean air, fresh water, food supplies, and other ecosystem services. Globally, the sustainability of human life – including that of poor and vulnerable populations – requires both equitable distribution of economic resources and protection of a healthy environment.” (Herring 2022) A major challenge that Central West End faces when trying to become a sustainability district is the complicated task of taking an interdisciplinary approach that looks at all aspects of sustainability and incorporates multiple sectors while implementing new policies. According to Bugliarello (2006), a city will be unsustainable if the interactions between the environment and the biological (humans, animals, and plants), the social (organizations, religion, customs, etc.), and the machines (housing, infrastructure, etc.) are not balanced. There will undoubtedly be trade-offs and interactions between these components, but it is essential to ensure that focusing on one does not mean that other areas are neglected. (Bugliarello 2006)

View of Central West End

Sustainability Recommendations

  I have a number of ideas and recommendations for making the Central West End neighborhood into a sustainability district. Transit is one major aspect of the neighborhood that could make a significant difference and better public transport would make it cheaper and more convenient for people to travel around the neighborhood and more easily reach the surrounding areas. Investing money into the Metrolink and Metrobus systems would be beneficial because then there could be more stops so people could use it more and if the facilities were nicer and cleaner then it would be more appealing to everyone. Furthermore, bike rental stations, similar to the Divy bikes in Chicago, should be installed in and around the neighborhood. This would make biking more accessible to people and encourage them to take a greener mode of transportation. More bike lanes should also be installed along the roads that connect the main streets of the neighborhood and that can take you to nearby neighborhoods such as The Delmar Loop or Downtown. Promoting urban conservation and the utilization of empty spaces are some other recommendations. The neighborhood has a unique biodiversity with many small green areas and large trees. There are also areas, however, that are left empty and should be turned into either a new green space for the community or should be developed into a new green and energy-efficient building. The new buildings that are constructed in the area should not only be energy-efficient and be built with sustainability in mind, but they should also be affordable and accessible to all kinds of people. Having greater access to public transit, green spaces, and affordable housing are all extremely important for creating a sustainability district. There are a number of things that can be done to improve the social sustainability of the Central West End. For example, embracing diversity and different cultures is important, especially in a city and neighborhood that can be seen as very culturally and racially segregated. To promote equity, there should be affordable and equal access to all of the neighborhood's amenities and transportation systems. Greater attempts should be made to reduce homelessness and support those that are unemployed or have low incomes. Additionally, there should be more programs put in place to promote greater education, youth development, and community empowerment. The health and safety of the local community should also be improved upon. There should be easily accessible and affordable healthy food options and physical activity should be encouraged. Furthermore, everyone in the community should have equal access to local health services. Lastly, while Central West End has a reputation for being one of the nicer neighborhoods, many families might be hesitant to live there because of the crime that is known to happen there. Crime prevention is important for encouraging a sustainable society and doing this is only possible if people are able to find decent jobs and an affordable place to live. Central West End, as was previously mentioned, is well known for having beautiful old buildings with a distinctive architectural style, especially in the gated residential streets. These older homes and other buildings should be updated to utilize cleaner forms of renewable energy. Incentives to make the switch to cleaner energy should be put in place so people will be more motivated to make the change in their homes. There is also a lot of construction constantly taking place in the area as it is being developed and improved upon. Sustainable practices and methods should be adopted and utilized at every step of the construction process, and the new buildings should be energy efficient and LEED certified. Furthermore, greater efforts should be made to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in every industry and within people's homes. Waste should also be minimized, and the recycling system should be improved upon. In some parts of the country such as California, residents can throw away their trash and recycling together, and then everything is separated at the recycling plant. This makes it so that everyone has to recycle and could potentially create more jobs for people in the area who need them. Central West End has a decent public school system, but the graduation rate can always be higher, and the quality of education can always be improved upon. The people in the neighborhood are probably much more likely to support the adoption of more sustainable policies and practices if they are more environmentally literate. Therefore, greater education on environmental topics such as climate change and sustainability should be implemented in schools and made accessible to adults as well. Education should also be made more affordable in general so that everyone can afford to learn and become more easily qualified for better jobs. Ensuring greater employability is also important for sustainability, and sustainability leads to a greater quality of life in the neighborhood which can help maximize economic productivity.

Green Space in Central West End

Sustainability Plan Evaluation

In order to properly evaluate the sustainability programs and measure their success in Central West End, a sustainability committee should be formed to implement sustainable initiatives and do the quantitative and qualitative research necessary to track their progress. Greenhouse gas emissions should be tracked and measured, as should other initiatives such as reducing energy consumption and improved waste management. It is important to keep track of how much greenhouse gases or energy use is being reduced or increased every year in order to assess whether the recommendations made above have led to effective policies. Surveys should also be given every few months to the people living in Central West End. The surveys should ask about the resident’s opinions on the sustainability initiatives that have been put in place, whether they have participated in adopting a more sustainable lifestyle, and what they think could be done to improve the quality of life and sustainability in the neighborhood. It is important that both quantitative and qualitative data is collected and analyzed, because the former lets us know the progress of initiatives being put in place while the latter tells us how the people are responding to them, both of which are very vital when measuring the impacts of sustainability initiatives. Some of the recommendations this plan has made are ideas to be implemented in the long-term while others can be executed and completed in a shorter timeframe. Whatever recommendation is being evaluated, the most important way that sustainability initiatives can be tested for effectiveness would be to create a team of people whose jobs it is to create the sustainability district and measure the results of the initiatives that are put in place.

View of Central West End

Conclusion

Central West End is a vibrant neighborhood in the City of St. Louis, with excellent potential to become the city’s most sustainable neighborhood. While there are a number of sustainability challenges that Central West End needs to overcome in order to be effective, I am confident that with the right policies, initiatives, and incentives put in place that this area could become substantially greener and a more pleasant place to live. Sustainability districts are not only beneficial for the environment, but they also have the potential to improve the economic situation in an area as well as the quality of life for the people there. In Central West End, there are green spaces that can be improved upon, streets that are bikeable and pedestrian-friendly, potential opportunities for improved public transportation, and plenty of ways for new energy-efficient buildings to be constructed. If the local politicians dedicate more funding and resources to implementing sustainabile policies and the residents of the neighborhood commit to helping turn Central West End into a sustainability district, there is no doubt that this St. Louis neighborhood could become an inspiration for other neighborhoods in the city.

Bibliography

  “About the CWE.” About The CWE | Central West End, July 2, 2020. https://cwescene.com/about/. 
  Bugliarello, George. “Urban Sustainability: Dilemmas, Challenges and Paradigms.” Technology in Society 28, no. 1-2 (2006): 19–26. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techsoc.2005.10.018. 
  “Central West End Neighborhood Map.” St Louis. Accessed March 7, 2022. https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/government/departments/planning/documents/central-west-end-nghbrhd-map.cfm. 
  “Central West End Neighborhood Overview.” St Louis. Accessed March 8, 2022. https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/live-work/community/neighborhoods/central-west-end/central-west-end-overview.cfm. 
  “Central West End: St. Louis, Missouri.” American Planning Association. Accessed March 6, 2022. https://www.planning.org/greatplaces/neighborhoods/2014/centralwestend.htm. 
  “City of St. Louis Sustainability Plan.” St Louis. Accessed March 7, 2022. https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/government/departments/planning/documents/city-of-st-louis-sustainability-plan.cfm. 
  Herring, Angela. “The Very Big Issue of Urban Sustainability.” College of Social Sciences and Humanities, February 14, 2022. https://cssh.northeastern.edu/the-very-big-issue-of-urban-sustainability/.