urbanSTL

preservation.research.office wrote: ↑

Aug 29, 2023

RockChalkSTL wrote: ↑

Aug 23, 2023

So frustrating and sad. 

East St. Louis has three MetroLink stations in its downtown area. The fact that we can't get any kind of momentum going around them is simply depressing. 

Banks continuing to redline.

Citation needed? This is a blatantly illegal practice and there are appropriate channels through which it can be denounced and punished if you have evidence that it is the case.
It sounds to me that with commercial real estate experiencing an overall decline, investing in downtowns that have been depressed for decades is an extremely risky proposition, not worth the unlikely upside.

My opinion, E. St. Louis lacks the ability to find leadership and has shown resistance in the past to outside help. A town of 25,000 can’t afford to hire or elect professionals capable of implementing a downtown revival of this size.

Taking a look at the East St. Louis website is a pretty great indicator. Meeting minutes are rarely updated and are bare minimum agendas when they are. No clear plans or initiatives. Unclear ownership.

Greater St. Louis should offer to pay for a plan, a developers panel, and five years of full-time staff for a “Downtown East” org.

Question - do Fair Housing Laws even apply to a project like this? Or is redlining, as a term, being used more generally in this situation?

I think that the original poster means is that financial institutions are reluctant to lend to developers in the area because the risk is too high. 
This precautionary behavior is perfectly fine and is actually encouraged by regulators. Deposit-taking lenders are supposed to be well-diversified and able to manage and contain their credit risk.
Redlining would imply that the reluctance to lend goes beyond an objective risk-return calculation and is also driven by discriminatory behavior.

Which is exactly why we need reparations. Capital will NEVER flow to black communities in this country unless it’s forced to do so.

I wish that the state of Illinois were focused on trying to repair and rebuild East St. Louis. 

I know there's financial risk, but I also think there's pretty good financial upside in revitalizing the area and better connecting it to downtown St. Louis, Missouri. 

I like the idea where Greater St. Louis gets involved and does some work to help over there. 

In it's current state, the metro east has lots of things going for it but is being held back by a hallowed out East St. Louis. Illinois should be pouring resources into kickstarting this regional core.

Imagine if East St. Louis didn't decline so precipitously. If it remained a desirable place to live, work, and play. This might have changed the fortunes of the entire metro east. Looking at the region from space, the urban sprawl is very lopsided towards Missouri, that's not something that needed to happen.

Rebuilding East St. Louis should be a state priority, because it could very well breathe life into the rest of the metro east. 

I have a hard time believing that East St. Louis is going to get much investment until downtown St. Louis is thriving a bit more. 

As much as I consider myself a proponent of downtown, I think we've simply got to see more from it before we can hope for downtown East St. Louis. 

Historic buildings with shadows on MetroLink stations would not be lost if it were any other way. 

That said, I really think we have lots of reasons for hope for the core of our region, and on both sides of the river. There are forces at play on both sides of the river -- for example, the success of Midtown and Downtown West in Missouri, and the speculative warehouse construction in Illinois -- that I think are going to result in a prosperous future. 

Wishing her the best of luck! If it can be saved from the threat of demolition, then it proves anything's possible.

That project will be a tough cookie considering the state of the building is far worse than the Grandview was. Good luck to them, will be transformative if they pull it off