Recently I was giving a tour of downtown to some visitors from out of town, and I was trying to weave a careful route that avoided as many bombed-out buildings as possible, but eventually we ended up going by the Railway Exchange and its parking garage.
It’s become something of an outdoor guerilla art project over the last couple of years. Maybe not as impressive as those condo towers in Los Angeles, but it’s somehow symbolic of St. Louis right now.
Time for some tough love: I have visited the following large and middle-sized cities since the pandemic, and all of them had thriving, or at least recovering, downtowns: Cincinnati, Columbus, Cleveland, Chicago, Bloomington, Peoria, Indianapolis, Springfield, St. Joseph, Louisville, Detroit, Toledo and even Youngstown.
I worked at City Hall from 2020 to 2023; I used to look out the window and watch dead bodies get carried away from the park across Market Street. Did you know the City of St. Louis allowed a gigantic open-air drug market to flourish literally two hundred feet from City Hall for years? Almost all of the women in my office were afraid to walk the streets by themselves outside the building in broad daylight. The news media is actually only reporting half of what goes down. Trust me, it’s even worse. Downtown St. Louis is a disaster. Stop making excuses.
Hi Chris,
The only way to bring the truth to light is to speak it out loud so that everyone can read it, hear it, and learn it. Thank you for all you do.
Why is the media ignoring half of these deaths? What is their motivation?
I think honestly there is just so many things going on that it’s hard to keep track. I personally know many members of the news media in St. Louis and they are very professional, but it’s just an avalanche sometimes.
Last year I was at City Hall to pay my vehicle tax and update some paperwork and was sitting on the Tucker-facing steps waiting for my appointment time and catching some sun. The former Chief of Police was 10 or 15 feet away talking with one of the aldermen when a crackhead derelict walking down Tucker noticed me and started badgering me for money. He was pointing at me and getting upset that I was ignoring him. He starting walking up the steps toward me and I decided to retreat into City Hall to get away. Neither Chief nor the Aldermen said or did anything.
I guess what I’m getting at is that the people in charge don’t care about normal tax-paying citizens. They just don’t care. The graft must be spectacular because I can’t think of another reason the current people in charge fight so hard to keep their jobs.
Your experience trying to get into City Hall is similar to many others.
I thought the same thing when visiting Cincinnati last year. The Wall Street Journal recently mentioned that downtown St. Louis is in a doom loop. Other than sporting events, I can’t find a good reason to visit. There just aren’t the shopping, restaurants, or riverfront entertainment attractions it once had. It’s depressing, like visiting a graveyard. Sure
there’s a few hit or miss attractions, but why take a risk when you’re safer traveling to a similar place in the opposite direction?
I mean, what were people expecting by chanting ‘defund the police’ years ago? Who’s better off now then 10 years ago – us or the criminals? Lets try defunding teachers next, and see what happens. Pathetic really.
That being said, Thank you for all you do in documenting St. Louis! Just think how much has changed since you first started.
I had many a harrowing experience negotiating that narrow ramp that seemed to spiral on forever. There obviously was a lack of space and they did what they could to design the structure. Now it’s just an even worst eyesore and a pathetic reminder of the death of retail downtown, as well as just about everything else. The city may be falling apart, but rest assured, they will ‘get the game in’ down the street at the ‘new’ ballpark who’s owners are ready to get some public handouts for upcoming ‘improvements’.