Eero Saarinen’s glistening Gateway Arch towers over this Mississippi River port, marking it as both a hub in transcontinental journeys westward and a crossroads on the Midwest’s North-South axis since its foundation by the French (1764). These routes fostered a diverse city, with German immigrants alongside Southern African Americans and Midwestern farmers. In its heyday St. Louis became known as a center for finance, manufacturing, education (Washington University), arts (blues and jazz) and information (the Pulitzer family’s Post-Dispatch). Its sports teams have included the historic Cardinals (baseball), the Blues (hockey) and the Rams (football).

Yet, choked by burgeoning suburbs and deindustrialization, St. Louis’ population declined 50 percent between 1970 and 1990, reaching 339, 316 in 1998 Census Bureau estimates. The city and the more depressed and predominantly African American East St.

Louis, Illinois, have come to embody issues of dualization in post-industrial American urbanism.