Maplewood is a “rebound community” according to Dr. Todd Swanstrom of UMSL, and he’s going to talk about that Nov. 14 from 7:30 to 9 a.m. at Maplewood City Hall. It’s part of the UMSL “What’s Brewing?” series.
Swanstrom and a Washington University professor did a study of older neighborhoods in the St. Louis region from 1970-2011, Swanstrom told 40 South News by email.
“We chose Maplewood for a case study because our data analysis showed it was a ‘rebound community’ — which went down in the 1970s and 1980s but has come up more recently. The question at the What’s Brewing event will be the story behind this revival—and what other communities can learn from this,” he said.
Swanstrom said many of the objective indicators (with the exception of per capita income) don’t look like they are improving for Maplewood.
“But it is worth noting that our index is relative other older neighborhoods—and Maplewood moved up in the rankings in the last 20 years. I think it is fair to say that for an older inner ring suburb, Maplewood is “holding its own.”
Prof. Swanstrom has a masters from Washington University in political science and a Ph.D. from Princeton University in politics.
I lived in Maplewood from 1965 to 1977, and had five children. There was talk of redevelopment and we sold our house and moved, because we thought the area we lived in was going to be redeveloped, but mainly because we just outgrew our house. In 2003, being a widow and all children gone from my home, I sold my 4 bedroom house in Fenton, and moved back into a small house in Maplewood. I remember the great feeling of “being home” when I moved in, and I still have that feeling now. Maplewood is definitely a great place to live.
I love Maplewood. There is a little bit of everything available and people are so nice.