There are beautiful, healthy blocks of the Greater Ville, as well. Just one block over from the 4300 block of Labadie, where the abandonment and vacant lots of yesterday were shown, are these totally different, middle class homes, most of which are occupied and well-maintained.
They are the bastions of the African American middle class since the 1960s, and many people, including me, are worried that they are not going to be able to pass this real estate equity along to their children due to the inability to secure home repair loans due to their zip code.
The four-family above was probably abandoned because the owner could not make it work financially anymore, not out of callousness.
But just look at the rhythm of the street wall; each house serves as a note in a symphony of brick even though each one is slightly different in ornamentation.
I think the mature trees add so much!
upon looking more closely, I see they are not well though
You bring up an interesting facet of the urban environment that is rarely talked about. I live in Tower Grove East, and we have a ton of aging, unhealthy trees even in this gentrifying neighborhood. It seems like around the 1970s, there was a drop-off in the maintenance of our tree stock, and those trees are now reaching the end of their lives throughout the city.