This repository contains data releases from the Streets Not Thru Project. It currently contains point locations for all known current and historic street closures in .csv, .shp, .gpkg, and .geoJSON formats. You can preview these data both here and on our website.
If you have found a typo, omission, or have a suggestion, please check the contribution guidelines guidelines before opening an issue. Please note that contributions to this project are governed by a Contributor Code of Conduct and, for Saint Louis University community members, our various University policies.
If you are interested in using our data, please note that it is released without warranty under a permissive license that does, however, require attribution. Citation information including a digital object identifier for the data, can be found via Zenodo. Please also see our policy on support for additional details.
The City of St. Louis (which is an independent city separate from St. Louis County) has a tremendously fractured street grid, with a variety of physical structures used to create cul-de-sacs or otherwise block traffic from using streets. However, precisely how fractured the city's street grid is remains an open question - the City does not keep a list of closures. The Streets Not Thru Project began as an effort to document the number of street closures in the city. We have since expanded our efforts to include research studying the demographic patterns that gave rise to the barriers, their effectiveness as crime deterrents, and the consequences of closed streets.
Christopher Prener, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Saint Louis University. In addition to spearheading the Streets Not Thru project, he is currently working on a book manuscript entitled Medicine at the Margins. The book examines the effect of neighborhood context and conditions on emergency medical services work, particularly with patients who have mental illnesses or substance use disorders. Chris is also part of a research team examining the effects of literacy on mental health service use and recovery. More details about his research and teaching are available at his website and he can be contacted at chris.prener@slu.edu.
Joel Jennings, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Saint Louis University. Joel's research has largely focused on questions about immigration and the Latino community in non-traditional destinations with a particular focus on St. Louis. Joel completed his doctoral studies at the University of Cambridge. More details about his research and teaching are available at his website and he can be contacted at joel.jennings@slu.edu.
Founded in 1818, Saint Louis University is one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious Catholic institutions. Rooted in Jesuit values and its pioneering history as the first university west of the Mississippi River, SLU offers nearly 13,000 students a rigorous, transformative education of the whole person. At the core of the University’s diverse community of scholars is SLU’s service-focused mission, which challenges and prepares students to make the world a better, more just place.