Week 12: News Article - Barissa

St. Louis turns to data to guide development

January 29, 2014 12:00 pm  - By Tim Logan tlogan@post-dispatch.com 

http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/st-louis-turns-to-data-to-guide-development/article_88e96f4f-7f8f-5f31-b4a3-50f73df0b28d.html

This article discusses the use of data to supplement the way development spending has been determined and be used as a tool for redevelopment in the city of St. Louis. The idea is to use this method to make better use out of federal money and hope to get private money to redevelop projects.  It is hoped and can possibly be a way to recognize the city’s resources by supplementing the previous way of analyzing the city with the use of wards or neighborhoods. Instead of break the city up into wards and neighborhood, breaking the city into 360 sections and sorted into 9 areas will be used. Within these areas 10 data points will be collected such as home prices and amount of vacant land to provide information on the city’s housing market.

Aldermen and those involved with neighborhood development met at a conference to put this method to use to break down the data in St. Louis.  The results found that “neighborhoods south of I-44 and west of Kingshighway reflect mid-market home prices and high homeownership. St. Louis city neighborhoods surrounding Martin Luther King Drive and Natural Bridge Avenue reflects low home prices and high vacancy. Far north city neighborhoods reflect high homeownership, but also a high foreclosure rate. The final areas of Lafayette Square and the Central West End reflected pricey home prices and ownership.” These results reflect that in many parts of the city specifically north city the housing market is struggling. It also reflects that in some areas a street can separate high market to low market value.

I found this article interesting because with my research in the JVL neighborhood I can see some of the issues this article is bringing up and the benefits of the use of data. Our first step in planning our community initiatives was to find out the data in our communities. Without data it is difficult to truly understand and compare neighborhoods. The JVL neighborhood is low in the housing market, along with other north city areas. Initiatives have been put in place to help revitalize the JVL neighborhood, and hopefully more money will get put in place in these areas with the use of this data analysis method.

What are the strengths and what are the weaknesses of the use of data?

Can the use of data analysis be effective in any areas of your community?

Do you think this data analysis method will be used and benefit St. Louis city neighborhoods?