I recently went to St. Louis for the wedding of a young friend of mine. While there I went across the Mississippi to see the 1000 year old Cahokia capital which will be the next blog and drove around St. Louis extensively. Also took an helicopter ride.
St. Louis looks like Detroit. You can drive several miles in the inner ring of the city and see block after block with one abandoned house on the block and the rest of the land empty. Actually a half slice of the northern part of the city. Great for raising chickens or goats. You will occasionally come to a cluster of small buildings that are a liquor store, smoke shop, barber and mini grocery. A few blacks hanging around. Sometimes there is a black chain fried chicken outlet.
The only riots I can find were last year’s in Ferguson which is a suburb that is an extension of this inner ring of abandoned lives.
The only explanation is that the black population grew and drove out the whites who abandoned their homes. At some point there were no home buyers left that could afford to pay ‘anything’.
The sight is shocking and sickening. St. Louis is nearly all suburbs with thriving businesses ten to twenty miles out. The perimeter is thriving. The inner ring is a black nightmare.
I know many American cities, none that I frequently visit looks like St. Louis or Detroit. Which others are like this? Baltimore?