Vacant Properties Awareness

The image above is from a recent street slip edition of What's Up Magazine. What's Up Magazine is a project of Jay Swoboda that builds awareness and creates income opportunties for the homeless of St. Louis. The street slip edition above delves into the arena of vacant properties and describes the recent "Reclaiming Vacant Properties Conference" held in Cleveland, Ohio. For related info, please visit: community progress.net

There's no doubt that St. Louis has a vacant properties problem. It's not a new problem. It's been with us since at least the 1970s. Today, the population of St. Louis is roughly 41% of its 1950s peak of approximately 850,000. Back then the city was a network of neighborhoods from north to south, all served by street cars and lots of neighborhood retail.

When those 500,000 or so residents moved away, they left behind empty buildings and a growing base of decay. They took with them a lot of spending power. Some areas were hit much harder than others. Today, you can see those areas in abandoned buildings, poorly maintained buildings, and lots of vacant land. What to do now?

There are lots of ideas. What makes sense for St. Louis? This is an important issue for St. Louis to address, and if done right, could be a source of great economic and community development. Thanks to Jay and others for raising the profile of the issue.