Recently tabbed by USA TODAY as the poorest city in America, Centreville, Illinois is on the road back.  The depressed city has seen population fall for several decades to under 5,000 today.  50 percent of the remaining residents live below the poverty line.  Average per capita family income is $16-17,000 a year.  A massive construction project soon will triple the population of Centreville.  Work has started on a plan to build 10 new houses every week for the next 5 years.  Over 2,500 new homes will add over 10,000 new residents to the impoverished city.  The houses will be built for under $100,000 each and prospective home buyers may be able to purchase a new home with no money down.      

Wonder why Centerville was chosen when plenty of sites with better access to amenities and transit access exist for similar prices. IE any neighborhood between Natural Bridge and Page.

GoHarvOrGoHome wrote: Wonder why Centerville was chosen when plenty of sites with better access to amenities and transit access exist for similar prices. IE any neighborhood between Natural Bridge and Page.

Long time lurker, first time poster here. Looks like Centreville wasn't chosen as much as they actively sought out investment in their town from a firm in Atlanta.
https://www.ksdk.com/article/news/local ... -590893210

BelleVegas16 wrote:

GoHarvOrGoHome wrote: Wonder why Centerville was chosen when plenty of sites with better access to amenities and transit access exist for similar prices. IE any neighborhood between Natural Bridge and Page.

Long time lurker, first time poster here. Looks like Centreville wasn't chosen as much as they actively sought out investment in their town from a firm in Atlanta.
https://www.ksdk.com/article/news/local ... -590893210

This will be the biggest urban renewal program in history for the Eastside.  Nearly 350 million will be invested.  If we could get that kind of investment in the Northside redevelopment area it would be game changer for sure.  I see the metro as a whole and feel as if this project will have a major impact overall.  It could be said that the Centreville area is the most devastated residential area in the entire metro. 

^Ha! I was just gonna say the same thing. I bet a big chunk of Centreville's revenue comes from the nudie bars and other adult oriented businesses. 

What strange borders this town has

The strange borders on the east side are a legacy of corporate rule on that side of the river. Alorton of course is short Aluminum Ore Town, and many companies set up on the boundaries of East St. Louis to evade paying property taxes to the schools. I'm not sure if Centreville had a specific corporate patron but it appears to have primarily served as a residential area for factory workers and those that provided services to them to live and commute to the towns were the actual factories were located.

So I was poking around on the city's website to see if they had a history of the city. So it turns out they do have a town history page, but it's a straight copy/paste of the Wikipedia page for.. the state of Vermont?

Also, the homepage says "Welcome to The City of Centreville, A City of Prosperity" which seems more than a tad ironic.

-RBB

^Whoops! Did you bring that to . . . someone's attention?

Stltodat - A plea for help: Centreville’s sewage and drainage problems pose health, safety risks

https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/ill ... ea2ee.html