East St. Louis Action Research Project
First of all, vacant lots with dilapidated housing are fundamental elements of an suitable site. Then vacant lots are chosen areas larger than 0.5 squre feet in order to have enough space to locate recycling center and community garden at the same time. For the reason of convenient transportation, community centers should be located near main truck route. It should be within 300 feet from truck route. Although community centers are hoped to scatter around neighborhoods, they should not interfere the atmosphere of schools, churches, and historic sites. Therefore, there is 100 feet buffer restriction from these places. Existing hazardous areas are excluded to prevent contamination. Flooding areas would cause to property and vegetation damage. Therefore, flooding areas are not suggested to use.
After integrating the above criteria, several suitable sited are chosen around the city. This result suggests possible sites for locating community centers.
Table 1. Criteria for Community Centers
DATA SOURCE CRITERIA LAND USE dilapidated housing VACANT AREAS larger than 0.5 ha STREET TYPES *distance from truck route: within 300m buffer FLOOD ZONE *no flooding area HAZARD-HWRIC *outside hazardous surface HASWASTESL *outside hazardous surface COMMUNITY MAGNETS *at least 100 m from schools, churches, historic sites.
East St. Louis Action Research Project
