Jeff-Vander-Lou once was a national model for community-led redevelopment. Now it's home to more than 2,000 vacant properties.Â
Jeff-Vander-Lou once was a national model for community-led redevelopment. Now it's home to more than 2,000 vacant properties.Â
"Black St. Louisans are disproportionately harmed by lead poisoning, asthma, mold, and high energy costs."
The next event will be held Oct. 26 in the Walnut Park East neighborhood.
Hillsdale Demolition is one of about 30 local companies helping the city of St. Louis accomplish its goal of demolishing vacant buildings. Since the beginning of 2018, Hillsdale was awarded more than an estimated $825,000 by the city for demolition of vacant property, according to city data.
"It won't stop all the crime, but the crime rate will go down. You've got to start somewhere," said one neighborhood resident.Â
The new St. Louis Blight Authority represents a major philanthropic commitment to one of Mayor Lyda Krewson’s top initiatives.Â
Demolition of abandoned, broken buildings is on the rise. The number of properties held by the city’s land bank is down. Contractors are, for the most part, following a new, safer demolition protocol.
Since hiring a lawyer focused on vacant property issues last year, Legal Services of Eastern Missouri has filed over 10 lawsuits against absentee landlords.Â
The city wants your help identifying problems. But sometimes that isn’t enough. As people are poised to swarm the 109 city parks this spring and summer, spot checks by the Post-Dispatch found broken fixtures, trash and other issues that point to neglect. Forest Park, the crown jewel of the parks system, has a $115 million endowment to keep it up to snuff. In the north and south, grittier realities are at play.Â
It's designed to help buyers and sellers in areas where low appraisals deter conventional mortgage lending.
But the controversial developer, who still controls hundreds of properties near the new NGA campus, says he deserves credit for ‘remarkable results.’
The city has had at least 16,000 uninhabitable homes for many years. Mayor Catherine Pugh wants to shrink that number to 15,000.
More than 500 buildings, all requiring substantial repairs, are being offered in the pilot program.
Goals include doing a better job of communicating internally, handling complaints more efficiently and providing residents with more detailed updates.
More than 2,600 St. Louis children have measurable levels of lead in their blood, which can lead to brain damage.
The death is at least the third of a homeless person in the same neighborhood in the past two weeks.
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Harlan J. Wilson, D.D.S, P.C.
They attract problems, and keep first responders busy.
‘We don’t have to have complex interventions to have a really big impact on crime.’
The event, Beyond Mapping Decline, at the Missouri History Museum continues Sunday with activities such as a solution hackathon, nuisance abatement workshop and spoken word performances.
12/03/18 - Photographer Robert Cohen and reporter Jesse Bogan discuss their reporting on the people who inhabit St. Louis’ many crumbling, abandoned buildings.Â
Living in the city's broken buildings, a homeless population the region hasn't reached.
Starting with a north St. Louis warehouse, the city is seeing if contracted salvage work might make more sense than demolition for certain vacant buildings.
Threat to auction off properties spurs needed fixes — or new owners.
City also opening the two drop-off sites on Sundays.
St. Clair County was also on the top 10 list compiled by a California real estate data firm.Â
In this episode of Inside the Post-Dispatch, state government reporter Kurt Erickson breaks down some of the top issues on the ballot in November, as well as last week’s debate between U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill and Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley, who are locked in one of the most wat…
The bungalow on Louisiana Avenue stood for 93 years, but couldn't escape the 'march of time' in a city that's seen better days.
Bricks from a demolished south St. Louis bungalow were transported 700 miles to southern Louisiana, where they were used to build a pool house near Houma.
ST. LOUIS • As Jason Sweeten used a shovel to scoop up trash in an alley, gospel music played from an iPhone tucked in his pocket.
Gina and Travis Sheridan are building a shipping container house out of nine stacked steel shipping containers.Â
'It is never ever going to get better until you start. Someone has to start doing something.'
The lack of private lending north of Delmar Boulevard is a major obstacle to the city's vacancy-fighting efforts.Â
Reducing its inventory is going to take changes in state law, additional staff.Â
Reporters Janelle O'Dea, Celeste Bott and Jacob Barker discuss their reporting on St. Louis's 25,000-plus vacant properties and Mayor Lyda Krewson's efforts to make the issue a top priority on City Hall's agenda.
Jennifer Walter, 49, lives next door to two vacant homes in Walnut Park East, across the street from Walbridge Elementary School. Video by Robert Cohen
Some neighborhoods may be beyond saving; others need help now. Â
