Understanding the Legacy of the Team Four Plan on the Development of North St. Louis
The “Team Four Plan,” though never officially adopted and rejected by local politicians and residents as a continuation of racially discriminatory real estate practices, has cast a long shadow over North St. Louis for nearly 50 years. Its goals, though never codified, have tragically manifested in a variety of ways.
Driving through neighborhoods north of Delmar, one sees the all-too-common symptoms: crime, abandoned houses, crumbling streets, overgrown yards, and uncollected trash. While none of these characteristics are inherently tied to race, in St. Louis, with its deeply ingrained history of systemic racism, their prevalence is far from coincidental.
Racially discriminatory practices have occurred throughout the nation, but several similar cities—Kansas City, Nashville, Houston, and Denver—despite having fewer historical advantages than St. Louis, have managed to navigate, progress, and ultimately, succeed. St. Louis, in contrast, is shrinking. Young people, particularly graduates of our esteemed institutions of higher education, are leaving for opportunities in cities like Chicago and Atlanta. We are struggling to recruit innovators as well as the required incentives to entice Fortune 500 businesses, which are critical for high-paying jobs and economic development. This quiet crisis is causing us to fall behind recently near-bankrupt cities like Detroit, which were not even on the national radar a few years ago.
It’s tempting to simply blame historical injustices or governmental failures for St. Louis’s decline. Complex sociological issues are undoubtedly at play. However, the day-to-day realities for the people of this city, especially in the Black community, ultimately rest on the shoulders of today’s leadership. We have been underserved, overlooked, and, frankly, outright undermined for far too long. This isn’t just about abstract concepts; it’s about the tangible details of everyday challenges the people like myself who are out here trying to change things are facing everyday, and I have both the scars and receipts to prove it. It’s about the lack of investment in our neighborhoods, the shuttered businesses on our main streets, and the failing schools that are jeopardizing our children’s futures. It’s about the empty promises and broken systems that perpetuate the cycle of decline. We need leaders who don’t just talk the talk, but actively work to uplift our community, who understand our struggles, and who are willing to fight for us. We need leaders who are accountable, transparent, and genuinely invested in seeing us thrive. Until we have that kind of leadership, all the historical explanations in the world won’t change the fact that St. Louis is losing its luster, and our community is bearing the brunt of it.
Despite past successes, the last decade has seen a critical failure in effective Black leadership. We have recently held control of nearly every major political seat in St. Louis—Mayor, President of the Board of Aldermen, Chief of Police, Comptroller, Public School Superintendent, and numerous state-level officials—yet, what results do we have to show Black faces in high places? Peering through those broken windows, there’s a deeper wound: the sense of betrayal left in the wake of broken promises.
The “broken windows theory” suggests that visible signs of neighborhood decay invite further crime and neglect. The “Team Four Plan” aimed to address this by focusing on designated parts of the black community labeled as “depletion zones,” which were entire neighborhoods where the plan was to “restrict resources pending market improvement”– in other words expedite blight. While not explicitly race-based, it was obvious that it disproportionately impacted Black communities, often overlapping with historically underserved areas. Now with the dye already cast, it really wouldn’t take much more effort to exacerbate existing problems, and hasten the decline of these communities.
Though redlining is illegal, discriminatory practices persist through mechanisms like the U.S. Census and predatory lending, perpetuating systemic profiling and disinvestment. The absence of targeted investment in these communities has led some to believe that the destabilization of Black neighborhoods was inevitable, regardless of whether “Team Four” was formally implemented.
Regardless of the city’s development arm, land clearance initiatives, or the governmental branches that oversee these entities, as long as unqualified, ineffective, or corrupt leadership persists in key positions, our communities will remain without a chance, as they are not included in anyone’s real plan.
St. Louis stands at a crossroads. We can forge a new path or repeat past mistakes. The recent influx of funds from the St. Louis Rams settlement presents a crucial opportunity. Will it translate into a catalytic citywide development strategy, or will we squander it, risking further stagnation and foregoing this type of stabilizing investment for the foreseeable future? The potential missed opportunity to use those funds to grow this city is a tragic irony, highlighting how we lost the Rams NFL franchise in the first place—the team owner preferred paying a nearly one-billion-dollar fine rather than remaining in a city showing too few signs of market growth.
We need robust support for capable developers committed to investing where the city hasn’t. Even our grant-making process needs an overhaul. The limited funds we had to invest in our small business community should have been orchestrated with the same care and intention as the PR plans designed to explain away ineptitude. Grants must be catalytic for the entire city, not awarded as random acts of charity or a ploy to buy votes.
Principled and visionary leadership is key. The upcoming elections offer a chance to make our intentions known. We must declare our intention to hold accountable any elected official who believes we will continue accepting “politics as usual” while our communities decay and our children are left to fend for themselves because we are too unwilling to hold our leaders accountable. Let’s hope that the legacy of ongoing disinvestment in the black community will end with the current administration and not take another pandemic or the loss of our soccer team to fix. As voters, business owners, and concerned residents, we have the potential to change the course of our city, but only if we are open about the causes of its destruction and begin holding people accountable.
My team and I are doing everything we can, but enduring change requires a village. Kingsway is dedicated to creating sustainable, inclusive communities that elevate the quality of life for all residents through innovative development and equitable opportunities. By embracing vision, equity, and leadership, we can build a brighter future for generations to come.
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