Funny, I was just about to post about this myself. This forum's been quiet on the issue lately.
As Doug mentioned, nearly a dozen properties in JeffVanderLou and nearby were set on fire this weekend, almost certainly arson.
I've got addresses for six of them so far. 2 are Blairmont-owned. A third is on a block thick with Blairmont properties. Makes you wonder, makes you wonder.
See <A HREF="http://builtstlouis.blogspot.com">the Built St. Louis blog</a> for the list (which will be updated as soon as the other addresses come to light), and many, many other Blairmont properties.
Map of fire/demo locations. Shows only a fraction of the demos, we are still working on getting them all mapped. Click on the individual marker or view sidebar to see sale price from Geo St Louis. This should show people that this was NOT a worthless neighborhood before McKee started buying. Is now, though.
To answer "what the h* does he have in mind"?... bulldoze the neighborhood without having to pay compensation that would be required with a straightforward eminent domain action. Collect the big fat tax credit. Then sit on the cleared land until such time as he decides to build something. Or not. He'll make a ton of money off the credit either way.
Sallie Hemingway will be the administrator for the state of Missouri responsible for the Tax Credits that McKee will get on this property. She states that the the developer would actually need to be "appointed or selected by the city by the municipal government as a 'redeveloper' ." Whatever 'redeveloper' means.
Also "They have to redevelop the property...this is not solely a land assemblage tax credit and then once they land is purchased they are done....they are tied to redeveloping the property as well."
As we have all seen with ballpark village, sometimes those incentives don't get the desired results. I guess we will have to see how this plays out.
Ultimately, it seems that the power to create an amazing redevelopment, a vinyl crap town, a status quo slum, or something different all together will be in the hands of the city and the local wards. If they don't give the proper designation to McKee, there will be no tax credits.
If they stick to their guns, this could end up being a net plus for the community - although what happened to some of those homes and families is absolutely criminal.
^ I will puke if they clear all those brick homes and build suburban styled vinyl homes. I would have lost all respect for the city of St. Louis's government if this happens. I want at least New Town urbanism in the land that McKee owns, but I think thats wishful thinking.
This project always sounded like mass gentrification, the city is making a comeback. They just have to remove the poor first, which is a sad, cold reality. It happens in most major urban areas all the time.
What do you think will be saved? I'm thinking the historical homes that he doesn't let dilapidate into the ground. So he can sell them for mucho dinero.
Hey, goat... when you talk about the sad reality of having to remove "the poor", how do you define poor?
A group where a very significant percentage own their homes outright and don't have a mortgage? A traditional family of four where Mom and Dad own a trucking company? An older couple with grown kids, where the husband is a retired aerospace mechanic with a full pension? A social worker and church administrator whose college-attending sons are living in the upstairs apartment in a home their parents own outright? A head librarian at St Louis Public Library system who could retire but would rather work and has a side business as a storyteller? A social worker who runs a battered women's shelter? A licensed general contractor and stay-at-home mom with 3 kids? A single woman in her mid-30's who is a senior analyst at a large brokerage firm ? By the way, that last one was me.
I'd like to hear what you do in your life that makes you able write about us northsiders with such casual detachment as "the poor" who need to be cleared so you can imagine their homes being resold for a profit as a "Master Planned Community".
So, what's YOUR net worth? Wanna compare 1040's? I'll show you mine if you show me yours! How much equity do you think you have in your home today? How about we talk about how much profit someone else could make if they blockbusted the sh*t out of your neighborhood for 5 years and then took your home from you.
Spending a good amount of my childhood in the Ville (my house was on Marcus). Not trying to offend anyone, but I think I reserve the right to call many Northside residents "poor". I'm the son of a carpenter and a RN that worked for years so we could eventually move to St. Louis County with 1st class schools and although we grew from a young working class black family to a solidly middle class black homeowners, we were still poor in relation to Multi-Millionaire developers from St. Charles like Paul McKee. The point I'm trying to make is that Big Fish eat Little Fish and in this particular situation a homeowner in North St. Louis is the Little Fish, Multi-Million Dollar developers are the Big Fish. Sorry if I offended you, but most people in North St. Louis are underprivileged, because if they weren't this wouldn't be happening. The rich take what they want (and now they want North St. Louis, with four dollar gas), which is a sad reality. Luckily ONSL is making affordable housing available for working class people, but I doubt there will be much affordable living in the Blairmont plans if any.
I see where your coming from now Barbara. I re-read my post and the way I worded it sounds harsh, but I was actually being sarcastic. I love whats happening in ONSL and am a wholehearted supporter. I'm not some idiot out in the boonies making generalizations about North St. Louis. I know many upper-middle class even somewhat wealthy people that live all over the city, including the Northside. I was just making commmentary on Paul McKee's intentions.
OK, I can see your sarcasm if I reread with that in mind. Next time, try saying "us poor people who make less than 7 figures"
But, larger issue, this is EXACTLY the way McKee is framing the issue, that the people of the northside are worthless, too poor to be allowed to own land, can practically deserve to be blockbusted and burnt out of our homes, can't even be talked to because we are a violent gang of lowlifes and and don't need to be treated with dignity.
He's wrong. St Louis Place was one of the best neighborhoods on the northside before McKee arrived with his thugs and bad behavior.
Quick conclusion (try to resist posting a reply unless you've read the post ): Despite some concerns, the vision for North St. Louis as so far presented is ambitious, transformative and smart. We should offer our full support to the vision and commit to addressing detailed issues as part of the long, ongoing development process.
I agree, and I think if there's any public money used here it's rightly placed in rebuilding municipal infrastructure that's been left to rot for the last half century.
Also, I think it's extremely symbolic of progress in this city that McKee's plan tears out the existing 22nd street interchange. The interchange we see today is a reminder that the powers that be were so committed at one point to proposals to obliterate the north side with an interstate that they spent the money to stub in I-755 at 22nd.
It bothers me that some individuals talk about "organic" rehabilitation of neighborhoods when many of our currently successful areas were jumpstarted by one or two main individuals. Soulards momentum increased by all the buildings that Pete Rothschild purchased and turned into rental units. LaSalle Park was coordinated by Ralston Purina, Skinker-Debaliver by Leon Strauss. CWE south of Lindell by Wash U, the Loop by Joe Edwards, Lacledes Landing by the Landing Development Corp. and Susie Gundermuth in Tower Grove South More recently the Grove was languishing until the Gills came along. Not every developer had total control over all land in these neighborhoods and many had mixed results, however the enormous amount of work they contributed to a specific area was the key in getting the ball rolling to prevent years of lagging.
southcitygent wrote:It bothers me that some individuals talk about "organic" rehabilitation of neighborhoods when many of our currently successful areas were jumpstarted by one or two main individuals. Soulards momentum increased by all the buildings that Pete Rothschild purchased and turned into rental units. LaSalle Park was coordinated by Ralston Purina, Skinker-Debaliver by Leon Strauss. CWE south of Lindell by Wash U, the Loop by Joe Edwards, Lacledes Landing by the Landing Development Corp. and Susie Gundermuth in Tower Grove South More recently the Grove was languishing until the Gills came along. Not every developer had total control over all land in these neighborhoods and many had mixed results, however the enormous amount of work they contributed to a specific area was the key in getting the ball rolling to prevent years of lagging.
The other factor is that many (but not all) of those neighborhoods are anchored by a big commerical/institutional entity. For the Loop, it's Wash U. For the Central West End, it's BJC. Take AB out of Soulard and put it in ONSL and suddently ONSL is 20 years ahead of Soulard, instead of vice versa.
If you're into Jane Jacobs, Greenwich Village is Greenwich Village because of NYU.
Organic development works best when there's gobs of money next door.
Enough backlash, honestly where will it get you? We are talking about the future of St. Louis and not just the gloom and blight tactics of the past five years. South St. Louis is a testament to the fact that people want to live in the City of St. Louis. Buying land at the lowest price possible is a necessary move despite the anger you may have. The rehab movement in Old North both attracted attention by developers and caused McKee to need to slow down the rise in property values for him to amass enough property to work with. Land cost and assembly is a very high cost for developers and it is sad to say that this is what had to be done: buying property inexpensively and preventing the rehab movement from raising prices out of a developer's pocketbook and amassing enough land to make a deal. It is all about making a deal.
This whole hysteria of McKee being a rich, white, suburban developer may be true but his preying on black and low income people is hysteria and racist talk. He is a developer with the trust and acceptance of most major banks, they trust his judgment which is more than can be said for the rehab movement until it gains enough momentum decades later like Soulard or Benton Park today. North St. Louis needs a developer with deep pockets and the accessibility to cash flow like McKee. He is your salvation more so than the decades long process of the rehab movement. His investment of billions signals to state and federal governments that investing in North St. Louis will be worth the public funds. Where it takes a neighborhood organization to attract millions, it takes a developer like McKee to attract billions.
North St. Louis needs McKee if it wants to make a faster turnaround and signal to the feds to built North/South Metrolink, signal to the state that St. Louis needs more historic tax credit dollars, and signal to banks that development in North STL is no longer risky but worthwhile.
It takes a man like McKee, sorry but that is Finance 101 and as a Community and Regional Planner I was indoctrinated in all this grassroots and organic stuff when money flows through developers and a class on understanding the work of a developer opened my eyes to how developers can be used to rebuild our urban cities.
I concur with the statement earlier that not fighting McKee but working with him and implementing neighborhood standards is a must. As many historic buildings need to be saved in the same manner that Old North rehabbers have resurrected what banks said should have been destroyed. Hold him to the Old North standards and you will realize your dreams in a much shorter time frame and able to support transit, good schools, and see nice and good parks built.
Unfortunately it takes a man like McKee, so work with him to achieve your vision because he has the access to money from banks and signals to state and federal governments that neighborhood scale investment is no longer risky in North St. Louis. He is your gateway to money and huge reinvestment. Partnership and collaboration.
Now, I have not been a fan of how the acquired lands have been maintained, or more accurately not maintained. While there was a need for subtlety in acquiring land on a large scale without driving up demand-driven prices for the sake of opportunistic capitalization, the simple maintenance that even just lawn maintenance could have done much to help sustain the areas during this process, let alone simple building maintenance.
However, in contrast to other independent & organic efforts at redevelopment, McKee's proposals are superior in that they're fully comprehensive in being based on economic fundamentals. This is a proposal for billions upon billions of dollars in large-scale redevelopment in North City. This is the only way to realize a full rebirth of North City in our lifetimes. We can speak of the value of development one building at a time. I want to see block after block rebuilt simultaneously. Such momentum will realize the development reaching fruition.
Only macro economic redevelopment can work here.
Any complaints I make of the past may hinder this going forward.
With that, I voice my strong support in the redevelopment.
Past is prologue. Let's move on. Let's get this sucker built.
southcitygent wrote:It bothers me that some individuals talk about "organic" rehabilitation of neighborhoods when many of our currently successful areas were jumpstarted by one or two main individuals. Soulards momentum increased by all the buildings that Pete Rothschild purchased and turned into rental units. LaSalle Park was coordinated by Ralston Purina, Skinker-Debaliver by Leon Strauss. CWE south of Lindell by Wash U, the Loop by Joe Edwards, Lacledes Landing by the Landing Development Corp. and Susie Gundermuth in Tower Grove South More recently the Grove was languishing until the Gills came along. Not every developer had total control over all land in these neighborhoods and many had mixed results, however the enormous amount of work they contributed to a specific area was the key in getting the ball rolling to prevent years of lagging.
Excellent post. I'll add that I believe there will be ample opportunity for individuals and small developers to be part of the renewal of North St. Louis.
): Despite some concerns, the vision for North St. Louis as so far presented is ambitious, transformative and smart. We should offer our full support to the vision and commit to addressing detailed issues as part of the long, ongoing development process.