The Thrills, Chills, and Spills of Resident-Led Planning in the US: The Case of East St. Louis

March 12, 2009 7:00am-9:00am, Hotel Fort Garry
MPPI Breakfast Seminar

A once thriving river port city boasting one of the highest employment, wage, and homeownership rates in the American Midwest, referred to as the Pittsburgh of the West, East St. Louis experienced devastating deindustrialization, disinvestment, and suburbanization in the 1970s causing a former Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development label it "Beirut by the River". While local, state, and Federal officials gave up on this majority African American city and its people, a small group of committed church women formed a small citizen organization committed to restoring the environmental, economic, and social health and well-being of their community. Using an empowerment approach to economic and community development that integrates the key theories and methods of participatory action research, direct action organizing, and popular education these women, working with architecture, landscape architecture, and planning students have succeeded in rebuilding the city's poorest neighborhood. In the process, they have developed a highly effective bottom-up, bottom-sideways" approach to community planning and development.