I have a suspicion a substantial percentage of my audience has played Sim City sometime in their lives. And of course, all Sim City players know the in-game power plants blow up at fifty years, which is actually how long power plants last in real life. Well, if you would believe it, fifty years is about how long houses and apartments last until they need major renovations. If you look at many neighborhoods in the region, particularly in the City of St. Louis, you’ll see they often went into decline around the fifty year mark.

Which brings me to Northern Village/Lucas Hunt Village in North County. It’s been in the news lately, due to slumlords not wanting to invest in what are now very old apartments originally built as Army housing. Erected in the 1930s, they are way past their fifty year mark. As the years go by, we will continue to see a crisis as those huge apartment complexes in St. Louis County all reach that inflection point: will they be renovated at huge expense or will they end up like Northern Village?