A big question... (St. Louis, Miami, Florida: houses, buying, tax)

[Haai]

I've been ruminating this question quite a bit since I visited Missouri:

Why is so much of St. Louis in ruins? How long has it been this way?

Also, have there been any efforts to restore the ruined parts of the city? Most of the destroyed buildings were red brick houses and warehouses, and it's as if a natural disaster had ravaged parts of the city.

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by Haai

I've been ruminating this question quite a bit since I visited Missouri:

Why is so much of St. Louis in ruins? How long has it been this way?

Also, have there been any efforts to restore the ruined parts of the city? Most of the destroyed buildings were red brick houses and warehouses, and it's as if a natural disaster had ravaged parts of the city.

We haven't been there, but will visit next week for the first time. I guess it is like every major city, there are parts of it that are run down. TAmpa may be different as most of Florida is, but go to DC< NYC< LA< San Franciso< Dallas, houston, Miami, I guess you get what I am saying....Blight affects most metropolitan areas sooner or later..

Nita

[grmngrl8203]

I don't know what happened to make it that way, just time I guess. But my boyfriend works for a restoration company and they correct the houses and make them historically correct and it costs a lot of money to fix, so the house sells for 500-600k and up. With the housing market the way it is, no one is buying the big old homes so they can't restore more than the ones they already have. The ones they have restored though are very beautiful and mainly red brick. So doesnt exactly answer your question but its some insight into why its not all getting fixed.

[aragx6]

During the early 1900s St. Louis was the 4th largest city in the U.S. It was its hey day. It was vibrant and important.

But then, the same thing that happened to most cities in the post WWII generation happened to St. Louis: The Suburbs.

White flight was particularly brutal to St. Louis.

And then, like most other so-called "rust belt" cities the industry started to leave, often for other countries where labor was cheap.

St. Louis has to reinvent itself, but few people were left to care.

The suburbs are huge in St. Louis (18th largest metro in the U.S.) and recently because of many reasons, the city has started to come alive again.

The generation who grew up in the suburbs is grown up and moving back inward, often sick of the urban sprawl and high gas prices associated with the suburbs their parents had seen as the "promised land"

[Azalea City Man]

Industrial city, and we are no longer an industrial nation.

[STLCardsBlues1989]

Parts of St. Louis are in ruins.
And yes, people are working on it.
Old North Saint Louis
What's New in Old North

EVERY major city has some blight.

St. Louis suffered from white flight, suburbs, loss of some industry, as other cities have. It's major industry, beer, is still headquartered here (for now).

[adima11]

As many of you stated, the growth of suburbs played a large role in St. Louis City's fall. But here is a more in depth look. When the city was prosperous, the surrounding county didn't seem so important. The city officials made the choice of excluding itself from St. Louis County, so that all of its precious tax dollars would be well spent in the city itself, and not used in the county. However, as aragx6 stated, suburbs happened, and all of the sudden St. Louis City was losing its tax payers to the county including most of its wealthier ones. Needless to say, it was not long after that the county began making substantially more in tax revenue than the city (Which explains why you won't find anything like the city in St. Louis County). The tax dollars the city generated at this point could not compare to what it once could greatly effecting the public services, creating somewhat of a city-wide circle of poverty. Today, work is being done to renovate areas all over, but there is just so much to do that some areas appear to be nothing more than remnants of the past.