The Northside TIF and Paul McKee’s damage to North St. Louis is not some abstract academic discussion about what role government should play in financing and aiding private developers. It impacts real people, when houses that are left to rot… Continue Reading
Update: The minivan was replaced by an abandoned trailer filled with old tires in November of 2018. A year ago, these houses on Laflin Avenue in JeffVanderLou were in acceptable shape, even though they had been abandoned for a long… Continue Reading
Back, just when the demolition of the Clemens Mansion was just starting, I took these pictures. I am very sad to see it go, particularly because the owner, Paul McKee never put any real effort into saving it, and more… Continue Reading
As some of my readers know, I was gone from St. Louis for a good solid decade, from August 1996 to December 2006. Up in Kirksville for undergrad, I rarely knew what was happening back in St. Louis, back when… Continue Reading
10th and Bond Street is where it all began, 100 years and two weeks ago. I went back and snapped these photos on the exact anniversary of some of the worse racial violence in US history. The oldest areas of… Continue Reading
Update: Demolition of the Clemens Mansion was completed by the spring of 2018. For the old “it’s just a building” crowd, I offer the following exhibits. First is the “Sherman House,” which was gutted by fire, started by burning embers… Continue Reading
Update: Demolition was completed by the spring of 2018. Under no circumstance should you get close the Clemens Mansion; the walls are far too unstable. I captured these images with a zoom lens. But you don’t need to worry about… Continue Reading
Update: Demolition was completed by the spring of 2018. As I walked west on Cass Avenue, towards the smoldering ruins of the Clemens Mansion, the sound of water trickling as it ran out of pipes and gutters reached my ears.… Continue Reading
I find myself drawn back to these old wood frame shotgun houses in the Ville, dating back probably to as early as the 1870s, when this was a rural village named Elleardsville. The African-American middle class was shoved into these… Continue Reading
These Second Empire beauties continue to sit vacant, owned by slumlords “who are doing their best to fix them up–lay off.” Right. Now, the one on the end was struck by arson, and only saved by the bravery of firefighters.… Continue Reading