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Old 12-25-2009, 01:36 PM
 
Location: Everett, WA
271 posts, read 654,988 times
Reputation: 81

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Does someone know the reason for the huge population decline in St. Louis from the 1950's to the present?

Looking over statistics, the 1950 population was 856,796 and has been steadily declining to 344,262 in 2005 (last year I have exact figures)

Now, I understand people moving to the suburbs, various industries closing down etc but that seems to be a huge drop in a relatively short period of time. What happened? Did parts of St. Louis break away to become their own city? Are there parts of St. Louis that have become truly abandoned and are full of vacant buildings, houses etc.?
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Old 12-25-2009, 03:48 PM
 
Location: Clayton, MO
1,521 posts, read 3,580,423 times
Reputation: 441
Back in the 1880's St. Louis was a boom town. The city father's decided they didn't want to pay for all the sprawling infrastructure these new residents desired so they shored up the current city limits as they are today. St. Louis continued to boon until roughly 1940-1950. Much white flight, and sprawl occurred mainly because of the interstate high way system and the automobile. (people could live farther from where they work. With such a small geographical area - roughly 66 square miles - the city bled residents to the inner burbs, then the outer burbs, and now the exurbs.

This same poor decision by the early city fathers continues to haunt our metro with those silly lists and polls. Especially the crime stats (what a joke).

Long story short - we are a spreading society in america - and there is simply not any undeveloped land within the city, so much of the new development -sprawl- occurs outside the city limits.

St. Louis and St. Louis county would benefit GREATLY if they merged into one entity. There are many difficult obstacles (political, economical, and social) that need to be sorted out first. Unfortunately, I think the elder generation may need to die off first before such steps forward can be taken.

merry xmas
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Old 12-25-2009, 11:15 PM
 
Location: Shaw Neighborhood, St. Louis City
325 posts, read 846,604 times
Reputation: 156
The city population has been trending up Since 2000. Not drastically, but still it's growing!

Where I live, the decline came with the building of highway 44. It has been referred to as the Mason-Dixon Line. Neighborhoods were cut in half and the great White Flight began to occur.
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Old 12-25-2009, 11:19 PM
 
1,817 posts, read 4,905,820 times
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Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Old 12-26-2009, 06:14 AM
 
91 posts, read 164,701 times
Reputation: 39
Don't forget the high murder rate leading to the decline in city population.
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Old 12-26-2009, 07:59 AM
 
Location: Shaw Neighborhood, St. Louis City
325 posts, read 846,604 times
Reputation: 156
Quote:
Originally Posted by STL4eva View Post
Don't forget the high murder rate leading to the decline in city population.
In the 1950's?
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Old 12-26-2009, 09:11 AM
 
Location: in a pond with the other human scum
2,361 posts, read 2,520,026 times
Reputation: 2803
The interstate highways made white flight to the suburbs, with the ability to commute into town, possible. That, combined with the (in retrospect) short-sighted decision by the city to freeze its boundaries, meant that the city couldn't grow physically. As I understand it, they were afraid of not being able to extend city services to new areas. Sounds logical, right? All the small towns surrounding St. Louis incorporated, preserving in amber as it were St. Louis' decision. Other cities grew to take in the newly-created suburbs-- St. Louis couldn't.

Later, socio-economic factors undoubtedly hastened the decline, but from what I can tell, those two factors started it.
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Old 12-26-2009, 01:24 PM
 
Location: St Louis
1,117 posts, read 2,913,228 times
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If you want more info I would encourage you to read the book called "Mapping Decline". It provides good insight on all the factors that contributed to its decline.
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Old 12-26-2009, 01:42 PM
 
Location: Huntington Beach, CA
5,888 posts, read 12,938,775 times
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..then there is always the possibility that people actually want to leave this area.
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Old 12-26-2009, 01:50 PM
 
Location: The City of St. Louis
938 posts, read 3,491,471 times
Reputation: 789
Quote:
Originally Posted by DinsdalePirahna View Post
..then there is always the possibility that people actually want to leave this area.
The metro area has always been growing, while the city itself has not. Most of the people leaving St. Louis moved to the 'burbs, rather than other regions.
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