Closing the Gateway: Street Barriers as Public Policy in St. Louis, MO

This presentation from the 2017 Urban Affairs Association annual meeting describes the systematic closure of streets in St. Louis, Missouri. We also present initial analyses showing that, at the neighborhood level, higher numbers of closures are not associated with lower levels of crime.

Transcript

1. CLOSING THE GATEWAY UAA 2017 / MINNEAPOLIS, MN / APRIL 21, 2017 Christopher Prener, PhD 
 Joel Jennings, PhD
 Taylor Braswell, BA
 Kyle Miller, and
 Andrew Smith Street Barriers as Public Policy in St. Louis, MO Saint Louis University
 Sociology & Anthropology
2. AGENDA CLOSING THE GATEWAY: STREET BARRIERS AS PUBLIC POLICY IN ST. LOUIS, MO 1. Background: What are St. Louis’s street barriers? 2. Data & Methods 3. Results: Where are barriers located? 4. Results: What is the relationship between barriers and crime? 5. Next Steps
3. A SEGMENTED STREET GRID
4. DEFENSIBLE SPACE
9. JUSTIFYING AND INSTALLING BARRIERS
10. Gibson Ave S Newstead Ave FOREST PARK SOUTHEAST Chouteau Ave Arco Ave
11. Gibson Ave S Newstead Ave FOREST PARK SOUTHEAST Chouteau Ave Arco Ave
12. Botanical Ave SHAW Shenandoah Ave Tower Grove Ave
13. Laclede Ave N Boyle Ave CENTRAL WEST END Forest Park Ave
14. CENTRAL WEST END West Pine Blvd N Sarah St
15. Enright Ave Delmar Blvd W Bell Pl N Newstead Ave VANDEVENTER “Schoemehl Pots”
17. DATA & METHODS Waldron Paper Barrier Location Data Locate Barriers Verify Barriers Mapping & Analysis Raw Crime Data Law Enforcement Cleaned Crime Data City Residents and Government Paper
18. CONCEPTUALIZING NEIGHBORHOOD 2011 Wards
 n=28 Neighborhoods
 n=88 1,000 m2 Grids
 n=215
19. BARRIER LOCATIONS City of 
 St. Louis Projection:
 NAD 1983 Missouri State Plane East
20. BARRIER LOCATIONS Current Barrier Density City of 
 St. Louis Projection:
 NAD 1983 Missouri State Plane East greater density n of barriers = 264 Data:
 Equal interval classes; k-density raster output of barrier point locations
21. BARRIER LOCATIONS Current Barrier Density greater density n of barriers = 264 Projection:
 NAD 1983 Missouri State Plane East Data:
 Equal interval classes; k-density raster output of barrier point locations Data:
 Jenks Natural Breaks classes n of barriers = 264 Barrier
 Count per
 Grid Square 0-1 2-4 5-8 9-14
23. BARRIER LOCATIONS Proportion of African Americans
 per Grid Square Projection:
 NAD 1983 Missouri State Plane East Data:
 Jenks Natural Breaks classes n of barriers = 264 2015 Data < .21 .21-.49 .49-.66 .66-.90 > .90 Data:
 Jenks Natural Breaks classes Barrier
 Count per
 Grid Square 0-1 2-4 5-8 9-14
24. rho = 0.234 (p < 0.001)
25. BARRIERS AND CRIME Violent Crimes per Grid Square Projection:
 NAD 1983 Missouri State Plane East Data:
 Jenks Natural Breaks classes n of barriers = 264 2016 Data for Murders, Rapes,
 Robberies, and Aggravated
 Assaults 0-14 15-38 39-65 66-113 114-186 Data:
 Jenks Natural Breaks classes n of violent crimes = 5,840 Barrier
 Count per
 Grid Square 0-1 2-4 5-8 9-14
26. rho = 0.441 (p < 0.001)
27. BARRIERS AND CRIME Property Crimes per Grid Square Projection:
 NAD 1983 Missouri State Plane East Data:
 Jenks Natural Breaks classes n of barriers = 264 2016 Data for Robberies,
 Larcenies, Motor Vehicle
 Larcenies, and Vandalism 0-51 52-132 133-223 224-361 362-819 Data:
 Jenks Natural Breaks classes n of property crimes = 23,158 Barrier
 Count per
 Grid Square 0-1 2-4 5-8 9-14
28. rho = 0.398 (p < 0.001)
29. RESULTS SUMMARY ▸ Systematic street closures are heavily concentrated in a number of neighborhoods across the City’s midsection. ▸ There is a weak, positive relationship between barrier density and race at the “neighborhood” level. ▸ There is a moderate, positive relationship between barrier density and crime at the “neighborhood” level — this undercuts the official narrative about the barriers. Current Barrier Density greater density n of barriers = 264 Data:
 Equal interval classes; k-density raster output of barrier point locations
30. NEXT STEPS ▸ Explore the relationship between barriers and crime in a multivariate manner - are there mediating factors that explain the bivariate relationship between barriers and crime? ▸ Explore the relationship between barriers at the block level - do blocks with closures on them have lower crime rates than similarly situated open blocks? Current Barrier Density greater density n of barriers = 264 Data:
 Equal interval classes; k-density raster output of barrier point locations
31. CLOSING THE GATEWAY UAA 2017 / MINNEAPOLIS, MN / APRIL 21, 2017 Christopher Prener, PhD 
 Joel Jennings, PhD
 Taylor Braswell, BA
 Kyle Miller, and
 Andrew Smith Street Barriers as Public Policy in St. Louis, MO Saint Louis University
 Sociology & Anthropology