East St. Louis Rated ‘Number One City In America’ By Poverty Magazine
EAST ST. LOUIS, IL—The December issue of Poverty magazine, featuring its annual “Top American Cities” poll, hit newsstands Monday, and for the second year in a row, East St. Louis topped the list. “East St. Louis dominated our poll yet again in 2004, topping such categories as unemployment, hubcap availability, and liquor-stores-per-capita,” Poverty editor Felicia Banks said. “The city’s educational system also rated high, boasting a student-gun ratio of 1:1.” Rounding out the top five, in descending order, were Flint, MI; Newark, NJ; Compton, CA; and Gary, IN.
The above ‘humor’ is courtesy of the twisted writers at The Onion. I must admit, I got a good laugh at their jab at East St. Louis.
The only time I go to East St. Louis is for late night (well, technically early morning) visits the infamous bar Faces. Otherwise, why would I go there? What I’ve seen of East St. Louis during the daylight hours certainly tells me it was a great city at one time – good scale and great buildings.
An aunt of time, now in her early 80s, lived there just after WWII – certainly a big and exciting place for a young woman from rural western Oklahoma and raised during the depression. In the last 60 years or so since then East St. Louis has certainly hit rock bottom.
Built St. Louis has a great look at East St. Louis as well as other hard hit areas of the east site – click here to view.
What to do to reverse for fortunes of East St. Louis and surrounding areas is a major challenge. So far the best hope is the Casino Queen. But, the casino can only offer cash to keep city hall in the black (so to speak). Like North St. Louis, the best bet is MetroLink.
Some other urban humor from The Onion includes: “HUD Allocates $260 Million For Low-Outcome Housing” (Issue 3302, 21 January 1998) and “Urban Planner Stuck In Traffic Of Own Design” (Issue 4010, 10 March 2004).
– Steve
I have included some of my admittedly unconventional ideas about renewing East St. Louis in my essay, “Death and Life in East St. Louis,” available on my site: http://www.eco-absence.org/text/deathlife.htm
My ideas involve ecological renewal through a transitional agricultural phase. They are “out there” but are being implemented on a small scale in other depressed areas, such as south Chicago.
We at the St. Louis Building Arts Foundation have secured six acres of riverfront land — across from the Arch — in East St. Louis where we are going to build the National Architectural Arts Center in the next 15 years. That isn’t a huge project, but it should trigger a lot of interest in East St. Louis.
My mother was born and raised in East St. Louis and through her I developed a fascination for the city’s history as a kid. It deserves a better future than the one that it got — although it never really had a chance.
If you have some time, look at Andrew Thiesing’s _East St. Louis: Made in USA_. It’s the best history of the city so far, although it’s spotty.
Also look at the large collection of resources that the East Saint Louis Action Research Project has compiled: http://www.eslarp.uiuc.edu/
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