Update: Finally demolished after being hit repeatedly by brick thieves. The City of St. Louis cut ties with Paul McKee’s Northside in June of 2018. Sometimes I still can’t believe this amazing building and its identical twin are gone. I found this old video of my attempt to capture the beauty–and imminent danger of collapse–that…
Tag: Brick Thieves
Slay Letter to April Ford-Griffin Regarding McKee
Update: The mayor broke his word and resorted to eminent domain in order to clear the site for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. April Ford-Griffin was given a position in the mayor’s administration. Among the many matters discussed by speakers at the Saturday rally against Paul McKee was a letter that April Ford Griffin, alderwoman of…
Brick Theft or Just Neglect?
Perhaps it doesn’t matter if the outcome is the same.
The North Side Arsons: Two Months Later
Update: No one has ever been charged for these crimes. Here and there, while most have been demolished, some ruins still survive. See my update here from 2012, after there was another round of arson in 2010. Hebert Street is now mostly vacant lots. I realized that this week marks the two month anniversary of…
Wright Street Almost Gone
Update: The house was later completely demolished; I went back in 2013 to look at the vacant streetscape. See it a little while before here. This is what it looked like before being attacked by brick thieves. The City of St. Louis cut ties with Paul McKee’s Northside in June of 2018. The 1900 block…
Wright Street: Almost Completely Gone
The City of St. Louis cut ties with Paul McKee’s Northside in June of 2018. The house below was torn down shortly after I photographed it. I probably shouldn’t have gone back to the 1900 block of Wright, because what I saw there was even more depressing than when I visited two months ago. What…
St. Louis Place Blockbusting
Update: The buildings were demolished in 2008. No conspiracy after all, just shear incompetence. The City of St. Louis cut ties with Paul McKee’s Northside in June of 2018. The rest of Wright Street west of North Florissant Ave is similarly as devastated as Montgomery Street. What is more troubling is that the houses on…
I Would Have Lived There
Update: The building was demolished in 2008. The City of St. Louis cut ties with Paul McKee’s Northside in June of 2018. This stately apartment building is in the process of legal demolition, along with its largely destroyed neighbor to its right. Originally built as apartments, in my opinion, the building still maintains a certain…
More Ruins of an American City
Update: The building was demolished in 2008. The City of St. Louis cut ties with Paul McKee’s Northside in June of 2018. Two blocks north on Wright Street is the latest evidence of illegal brick theft; while it’s just one house, yet another note in the symphony of the St. Louis urban fabric is gone….
The Ruins of an American City
Update: The City of St. Louis cut ties with Paul McKee’s Northside in June of 2018. On Sunday I returned with reinforcements to the spot where I had been chased by brick thieves months before. No one was to be found, but that is not surprising, as there is nothing left to destroy on the…