The prevalence of blight and brownfield redevelopment in St. Louis (Missouri)

This is a study, which focuses on the inter-relationships between the environment, housing conditions, politics, and economics as they relate to brownfield redevelopment efforts. Accordingly this study addresses two questions: Where is blight most prevalent? And what determines brownfield redevelopment? The geographic focus of this analysis is the City of St. Louis, Missouri.; The first question, which asks where blight is most prevalent in local communities, is addressed in the context of environmental justice and the changes within environmental policy throughout the last three decades. Measures used to locate blight include environmental, land, and housing data. Once blight has been located, the second goal of this study is to analyze where brownfield redevelopment efforts are occurring, both private and public. Brownfield redevelopment efforts—specifically the Missouri Voluntary Cleanup Program (VCP) administered by Missouri Department of Natural Resources (MDNR), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) funded initiatives, and a variety of other publicly sponsored brownfield redevelopment efforts are located within the city.; Visualization of data using Geographic Information System software found that block groups with high levels of blight are located in both residential neighborhoods and commercial corridors. Blighted neighborhoods were most often located within north and some southeast St. Louis neighborhoods. Multiple and logistic regression models support results found in the literature that low income and predominately minority communities are significant predictors of blight in St. Louis.; The cleanup of contaminated sites under the policy umbrella of brownfield redevelopment has assisted the economic revitalization of the city as a whole. The availability of monetary and non-monetary incentives tied to the VCP program and the leveraging of other economic incentives available from local, state, and federal agencies has increased brownfield redevelopment. Redevelopment is now occurring at sites where the fear of liability under CERCLA had once brought real estate transactions to a halt. This study found that blight was more likely to be located in poor and minority communities and that the most blighted communities are usually not candidates for brownfield redevelopment.