Reddit mentions of Mapping Decline: St. Louis and the Fate of the American City (Politics and Culture in Modern America)

Also covered extensively in a great book called Mapping Decline: St. Louis and the Fate of the American City

Mapping Decline: St. Louis and the Fate of the American City (Politics and Culture in Modern America) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0812220943/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_lfjWCbSFFHR72

There are plenty of resources: One that I consistently return to is Not In My Neighborhood. There are others that are more general and deal with the post war north as a whole. As a geographer, I am partial to this one, because of the maps and detailed analysis. Its called Mapping the Decline and it primarily focuses on St. Louis.

If you're interested in a more extensive body of research, Mapping Decline is fantastic.

that's somewhat hyperbole. St Louis has one of the highest rates of manufacturing job loss in the last 50 years and the highest drop in population.

Excellent sources on the topic:

http://www.businessinsider.com/american-cities-in-decline-2013-6
http://mappingdecline.lib.uiowa.edu/map/
http://www.amazon.com/Mapping-Decline-American-Politics-Culture/dp/0812220943#

Mapping Decline is good also and a much lighter read. (But still very informative)
Worldcat Link

Here's a really good book on the topic:

https://www.amazon.com/Mapping-Decline-American-Politics-Culture/dp/0812220943/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1522031569&sr=8-1&keywords=mapping+decline

These maps might best explain and his book will give you a detailed history of why. Arguably it's because white flight occurred in North City/North County. It was a way of enforcing restrictive housing covenants and deeds, and it was a way of 'protecting the character of the neighborhood from blight.'

Also these folks have a timeline which will give you the year of incorporation for every municipality. Most were created during the Great Depression and Post WWII white flight.

Federal and state policies influenced the sprawl outward and real estate companies used redlining to demarcate 'preferable' areas. Both factors heavily influenced the proliferation of incorporation in the St. Louis area.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0812220943/ref=mp_s_a_14?qid=1301814841&sr=8-14

This is a good read about Saint Louis segregation. The author spoke here a month or so back. Growing up in Arkansas, I'm familiar with segregation, but I wasn't aware that cities were still choking off communities by not incorporating. More than a few in St. Louis were surrounded by industrial parks and until the residents just gave up. Even a local grocery seems out of reach for a lot of these areas.

North STL and East STL (yes, I know it's not technically the same city) are very similar to sections of Detroit. Both cities, Detroit and STL, had similar problems with white flight and both are at the top of the list for overall population loss (by percentage from peak). I think STL had a good head start on Detroit, though. Detroit has just recently started to spruce up downtown, whereas STL was working on that twenty years ago.

There is a book on Amazon does does a good job explaning why the region is so fractured.
Book name is Mapping Decline: St. Louis and the Fate of the American City
http://www.amazon.com/Mapping-Decline-American-Politics-Culture/dp/0812220943
I would recommend to read it.