Racial, socioeconomic problems at the forefront of St. Louis resident’s minds
Nowadays, it seems there are more problems in society than can be counted. Among racial, economic, social, financial and public health issues, the city of St. Louis is no stranger to dealing with these types of widespread problems.
However, when Saint Louis University students were asked about what the city’s most important problems are, many of them have similar responses.
Bridget James, 21
“I know many people were both excited and nervous about the building of the City Foundry. It seems to primarily serve the more affluent SLU population as opposed to the lower income residents in surrounding areas. I know some people were worried that this new influx of businesses would displace residents due to taxes going up. Bringing new businesses to underdeveloped areas can be a good thing as long as it doesn’t displace people living in these areas.”
Emily Slocum, 20
“Although it may seem easy enough, I don’t see there being a super easy solution. We as a society need to completely get rid of the stigma around homelessness and change our view of these people. They are not lazy or undeserving. They are people who are not in a fortunate situation who deserve to be helped. I think once we can change this toxic viewpoint we can then start to change their realities.”
Bryce Palmer, 21
“I have heard many stories from people I know and care about about how racism and microaggressions have affected them here at school and off-campus and I’ve also been present to witness several occurrences as well. These are some of the most kind, caring, intelligent and considerate people I’ve ever met in my life and to see the assumptions that are made about them is just depressing to me. It’s almost made worse by the fact that most of the time it hardly even affects them because they’ve grown so accustomed that they just let it roll off them without a second thought.”
Chloe Kepros, 21
“Something that we talked about in one of my urban planning courses was discussing ways that urban spaces can be modified to be more accepting for everyone and give them access to good things. That means making sure we are putting access to quality food in grocery stores in all areas or making sure that there’s affordable housing or making sure homeless populations have somewhere to go so that they don’t freeze when it gets really cold here or overheat when it gets too hot. Different things like that that can be built into the space physically, but also financially too.”
Holly Seitz Marchant, associate professor of dance
“My child goes to a predominantly Black school. To see children that are not learning ready, who don’t have enough food to eat to even have the ability to focus, we’re seeing a whole generation of children get left behind in their educational systems and then that has repercussions down the road for college and jobs and income. I also see that in the housing disparity and the way that St. Louis has redlined and made it prohibitive for people to live in certain neighborhoods and also have access to mortgages and lending that would help people get into homes.”
