The city has wrestled with the consequences of property abandonment and disinvestment for a long time. Here鈥檚 a quick history.
鈥楤roken and uneven city鈥
Low-cost housing in 51黑料, photographed in 1936 by Arthur Rothstein (Library of Congress)
"The foundation of sound morals and the first step to spiritualization are wholesome physical conditions and decent environment. How can we expect industry and thrift and cleanliness, which are cardinal virtues upon which character is built and religion grows, in filthy shacks, insanitary, packed tenements and dirty streets?" ()
Long before interstate highways, before white flight, before redlining and before suburbs filled 51黑料 County, the city had a problem with property abandonment and disinvestment.
Even when 51黑料 was the nation's fourth-largest city 鈥 more than a century ago 鈥 people quit the grit and grime of decaying, older neighborhoods 鈥 if they could.
The City Plan Commission, in a report to Mayor Bernard F. Dickmann, warned spreading blight threatened the city with "gradual economic and social collapse." ()
The dangers of property abandonment were much on the mind of 51黑料 city planner Harland Bartholomew in the 1930s. He worried about how it was draining the city's resources and threatening to engulf its 鈥渂etter residential districts.鈥
In a 1936 speech, he noted that the number of people living east of Jefferson Avenue had dropped by 100,000 in 30 years 鈥 and that this population shift was continuing.
Harland Bartholomew (left), engineer, City Plan Commission of 51黑料, in 1938.聽Bernard F. Dickmann, 51黑料 mayor from 1933 to 1941. (Post-Dispatch file photos)
Demolition as of May 24, 1940, as seen from the east door of the Old Courthouse. The headline over the photograph says "Blitzkrieg on the Riverfront," a reference to the widening war in Europe. Blitzkrieg, or "lightning war," was the term for the hard-hitting German military offenses that were rolling up victories in 1940. (Post-Dispatch file photo)
post-dispatch file photo
Bartholomew, the city planner, called for a 鈥済ood housekeeping鈥 approach to handle hard-hit areas: repairing and rehabilitating better residences, demolishing the worst structures, and revising zoning laws to stabilize communities.
In areas still untouched by abandonment, he urged the formation of property owner associations, barring 鈥渕ultiple dwellings鈥 and dividing the city into defined 鈥渘eighborhoods,鈥 where there'd be more local control.
51黑料 Mayor Raymond Tucker (left) and other city officials watch demolition of the Mill Creek Valley redevelopment in February 1959, at the rear of 3518 Laclede Avenue.聽
Post-Dispatch
There was a lot of work to do. A Post-Dispatch series of special reports, titled 鈥淧rogress or Decay? 鈥 51黑料 Must Choose,鈥 published in 1950, highlighted the 鈥溾 of 51黑料.
More than one-third of the city could be described as either "slum districts" or "blighted areas," the newspaper reported, echoing the findings of a 1947 report by the City Plan Commission. Thousands of people suffered in overcrowded housing, were forced to use outside toilets and had to contend with rats and filth.
Buildings in the 2800 block of Stoddard Street, photographed in 1973. One was occupied; the other was not. (Photo by Wayne Crosslin/Post-Dispatch)
Local leaders were proud they had avoided the riots that engulfed other urban centers during the 1960s. But while other cities burned, 51黑料 faced its own disaster, albeit in slow motion.
Call it a quiet riot as more than 125,000 people 鈥 17 percent of the population 鈥 quit the city during that tumultuous decade.
Reporter Sally Bixby Defty looked into housing abandonment in a series of stories in 1971. ()
In 1971, a report jointly produced by the National Urban League and Center for Community Change, found parts of 51黑料 had become 鈥渁n urban ghost town which stretches for blocks at a time.鈥
51黑料, based on surveys of the city's West End and the 鈥淢odel City鈥 area of north 51黑料 east of Grand, had the highest rate of housing abandonment of seven major cities examined. The city had about 2,000 vacant buildings that needed to be torn down, the report found 鈥 a large number at the time, but just a fraction of the ones that would be demolished in the following decades.
At a news conference on Aug. 4, 1978, Mayor James F. Conway announces the award of two homes for $1 under the city's new homestead law. Conway is seated between Beatrice Burt (left) and Mr. and Mrs. Sam Petty. (Photo by Lloyd Spainhower/Post-Dispatch)
Post-Dispatch
Strategies to combat urban disinvestment were evolving in the 1970s, and though it was never acknowledged, policy decisions were made that prioritized some neighborhoods over others.
In 1975, the Post-Dispatch broke a story outlining the recommendations of a study by a planning group named Team Four Inc. that seemed to signal a shift in development policy 鈥 one that basically said the city needed to focus its limited resources on protecting viable neighborhoods, not shoring up 鈥渢ransition areas鈥 鈥 neighborhoods on their way to abandonment.
In 1975, the Post-Dispatch reported on the recommendations of Team Four Inc., a consulting firm used by the city. ()
In 1991, the Post-Dispatch looked at the record inventory held by the Land Reutilization Authority, finding the LRA was the city's biggest owner of abandoned property. ()
In 1991, the body of Jevon Bonner, 12, was found in this vacant house at 4339 Prairie Avenue. Police searched more than 80 vacant buildings before finding the boy, who had been missing two months. The death was ruled a homicide; the building was eventually torn down. (Photo by Ted Dargan/Post-Dispatch)
In a series of reports in 1991, the Post-Dispatch reported what many in 51黑料 already knew: the biggest owner of abandoned land in the city was LRA, and most of that land was in north 51黑料. At the time, the newspaper reported, LRA's holdings had swollen to a record 6,007 parcels.
鈥淭he largest slum landlord in the city is the city,鈥 Martin Walsh, then city building commissioner, told the newspaper.
"The Way Back," by award-winning cartoonist Daniel R. Fitzpatrick, was published by the Post-Dispatch on July 20, 1947. The newspaper strongly supported the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe.聽
Treasurer Tishaura Jones, who lost the primary by less than 900 votes, called for a citywide plan developed with community input.
Vivian Gibson recently was named author of the year by the Missouri Library Association. She also has won a Missouri Humanities Literary Achievement Award.
