CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The Harvard Graduate School of Design kicked off an event last night taking a deep look at the city of St. Louis with help from scholars and political figures from the city and around the country.
“Voices and Visions Of St. Louis: Past, Present, Future” is designed to help analyze the problems and challenges facing the city and how design, architecture and urban planning can alleviate some of those Nasheed feels are sometimes neglected by the city.
State Sen. Jamilah Nasheed, D-St. Louis, was asked by the chair of the Department of Urban Planning and Design of the school, Diane Davis, to kick off the three-day forum with a speech Wednesday night, introducing the area to those unfamiliar with it. The forum, framed on the racial tensions that became apparent during the Ferguson protests in 2014, should cover everything from post-Civil War politics and governance, racial segregation (institutional and otherwise), and how to create better equality through design.
For Nasheed, it was a chance for her to talk about her city.
“Basically, I had a 30 minute speech and I talked a lot about St. Louis and the disparity within St. Louis north of Delmar,” she said. “I talked about the vacant and abandoned building in North St. Louis and how that decay also decays the mindset of young kids that are walking past those buildings each and every day. I talked about the lack of concern that the city government have placed in that area in terms of development and design.”
Nasheed also spoke about broader problems that design may not necessarily be able to solve, but she was optimistic they could be solved.
“It was a great opportunity for me to try to shine the spotlight on what has been happening with St. Louis for over a decade, the broken justice system, failing school districts, lack of job opportunities, deep racial divides, crumbling infrastructure – all of those things I touched on here and how to make it better,” she said.
The senator did not just dwell on the problems in St. Louis however. She took time to brag on its positives, including the “beautiful” Gateway Arch and the St. Louis Cardinals.
“I bragged on St. Louis having the 11-time world champions,” she said.
