CHAMPIONS OF REGIONALISM PEIRCE AND JOHNSON HAVE STUDIED METROPOLITAN AREAS ACROSS THE COUNTRY. THEY HOPE THIS REPORT GETS THE ST. LOUIS REGION TALKING ABOUT ITSELF Series: THE PEIRCE REPORT A CALL TO ACTION First of Eight in a Series

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The St. Louis area, like some 250 other places across the country, wasn't virgin territory for Neal Peirce when he began researching for this Peirce Report last fall with his trademark helicopter tour of the region.

Peirce devoted 21 pages to St. Louis and St. Louis County in his encyclopedic "The Great Plains States of America," published in 1973. Just as this 1997 report does, the book describes St. Louis' promise and problems. The chapter on Missouri includes sections titled "St. Louis: The Nightmare Now" and "The New Spirit of St. Louis."

"St. Louis today is in desperate straits," Peirce wrote in the book. "No simple formulas, however, are likely to save St. …