最新杏吧原创

A newcomer might mistake it for a park, but that green overgrowth covers what many point to as 鈥淓xhibit A鈥� in urban housing policy failure and the decline of 最新杏吧原创 in the latter half of the 20th century.

Since 1976, the vacant Pruitt-Igoe public housing site has served as a reminder of the abandonment many north 最新杏吧原创 neighborhoods experienced as residents and capital moved elsewhere, a conspicuous bit of foliage in a part of the city where often outnumber the houses kept standing by those who remained.

But for the first time in decades, a private investor owns the land.

After years of holding an option to purchase the 34-acre property for a little over $1 million, Paul McKee finally exercised it this month, acquiring the property from the city鈥檚 Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority. The man behind the plans to make it the 鈥渃rown jewel鈥� of his development northwest of downtown, an 鈥渦rban village鈥� with offices, a hotel, retail and a medical campus with a three-bed hospital.

Long a neglected patch of ground on the city鈥檚 struggling North Side, the Pruitt-Igoe site鈥檚 stock rose this year with the federal government鈥檚 decision to build the new western headquarters of the directly across Cass Avenue.

When the spy agency revealed it wanted to move from its longtime home on the south 最新杏吧原创 riverfront, Pruitt-Igoe was originally part of the land McKee and the city pieced together to offer as a new home for NGA. But the parcel was later dropped from plans as NGA settled on using 100 acres north of it, leaving it as prime real estate for future development, surrounding what is anticipated to be a massive federal campus.

McKee, in an interview, said development on the Pruitt-Igoe site will coincide with to the north and east of the $1.75 billion NGA campus, filling in empty lots and replacing dilapidated structures on the parcels of land he has slowly amassed over more than a decade.

Perhaps more importantly than serving as a commercial anchor for the redevelopment planned for the area, McKee said the Pruitt-Igoe site will again make use of what has become a symbol for the decline of the area and 最新杏吧原创 as a whole.

鈥淚t鈥檚 like a blinking light for everything that鈥檚 been wrong with 最新杏吧原创,鈥� McKee said of his new property. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a symbol of 鈥榯ear it down, let it sit and don鈥檛 worry about it.鈥欌��

Darryl Piggee, one of McKee鈥檚 lawyers and the former chief of staff for U.S. Rep. William Lacy Clay, said the promise of jobs and the redevelopment of the long-dormant site will send a message to the region.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 even know how to measure what this means,鈥� Piggee said. 鈥淚t could almost be a holiday 鈥� You can鈥檛 overestimate the effect it鈥檚 going to have on north 最新杏吧原创. It means that there鈥檚 hope, and there鈥檚 progress again for all of north 最新杏吧原创.鈥�

Tragic symbol

is well known throughout the country and the world. The complex of high-rise public housing towers built during the federal government鈥檚 postwar public housing initiatives were supposed to alleviate poverty by clearing slums and giving the poor working utilities and clean accommodations.

But the 33 11-story towers that opened in the 1950s were built for growth in a city that was destined to shrink. Residents headed to the area鈥檚 suburbs, and the city lost half its population over the coming decades. Whites left the housing project after it was ordered integrated. The city鈥檚 housing authority, dependent on tenant rents for revenue, couldn鈥檛 afford to maintain the buildings as vacancy rates rose.

And federal housing policies effectively split up families, keeping fathers out of the project because they were able-bodied men who supposedly could find a job and didn鈥檛 need government help.

By the 1960s, Pruitt-Igoe became a symbol of the urban blight it was supposed to solve, and, in many people鈥檚 minds, demonstrated it was a problem that couldn鈥檛 be fixed by misguided government programs.

For 最新杏吧原创, Pruitt-Igoe, which opened for all races but became almost exclusively a black housing project, was and still is a symbol of the region鈥檚 racial divide. In 1976, the last tower was razed, and the trees have been growing as the neighborhoods around them declined.

It鈥檚 a history and a lesson 最新杏吧原创 shouldn鈥檛 soon forget, said Michael Allen, a local preservationist who several years ago launched to solicit ideas for how to reuse the land.

鈥淧ruitt-Igoe definitely needs to be marked for the good of 最新杏吧原创,鈥� Allen said. 鈥淩ight now, with Ferguson, that history鈥檚 on our minds. But there always comes a time when we forget these things.鈥�

Bob Hansman, a professor at Washington University who is writing a book about Pruitt-Igoe, agrees that whatever McKee ends up building there should include some sort of marker or memorial. What if the development incorporated the remnants of Dickson Street, one of the old complex鈥檚 main roads, into its design? Or a streetlight from the original housing project that was left intact?

Memorials about painful things can be powerful reminders, Hansman said. No one wants to tear down the Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King was shot just because it鈥檚 painful.

鈥淧ruitt-Igoe had international significance,鈥� Hansman said. 鈥淚f it was framed properly, I mean physically and metaphorically, it would have a lot of meaning.鈥�

It still has a lot of meaning for Robert Green, 62, who moved into the complex with his family in 1964 and grew up there, leaving in 1974 when he was 20 years old.

鈥淲hen I was there, there was a lot of death, a lot of murders,鈥� Green said.

He still walks to the site from his nearby home, which will soon be right next to the new NGA campus. He still gets nervous when he walks through it, his old instincts kicking in, worried he might be the last person to be murdered at Pruitt-Igoe.

鈥淚t鈥檚 similar to an Indian burial ground,鈥� Green said. 鈥淪o many of my brothers and friends died on that ground ... I never wanted to see it redeveloped.鈥�

He always considered it 鈥渟acred ground鈥� that would make a good site for a park. But he knows that鈥檚 an unlikely use now that there鈥檚 a major 鈥渁nchor鈥� going in next to the site. Something creative, Green hopes, could be included.

Paul Fehler, a 最新杏吧原创 Democratic Party committeeman and the producer of ,鈥� a 2011 documentary about the housing project, hopes other residents like Green can be consulted about some sort of memorialization. It touched a lot of lives in 最新杏吧原创, for good or bad.

鈥淭he only consideration I have in evaluating the use of Pruitt-Igoe is that large numbers of residents, large numbers of former residents, be involved in that decision in more than just a tokenistic way,鈥� Fehler said. 鈥淎lmost everyone who lived (in that area) in that time had a cousin or an aunt or someone who lived there themselves. There鈥檚 a lot of emotional import invested on that land.鈥�

Changing attitudes

Many of McKee鈥檚 plans could be a long way off. He鈥檚 still waiting to finalize designs for the buildings, which, for security reasons, will depend on NGA鈥檚 final design.

The leftover debris from the housing towers and demolition debris dumped there will have to be cleared off, McKee said, and he plans to apply for Missouri Brownfield Tax credits to help finance the cleanup.

McKee鈥檚 plans for the land aren鈥檛 the first in recent years. Former Mayor Freeman Bosley famously wanted a golf course. Others pitched homes and a grocery store. A world trade center and 50-story tower was one of the more speculative plans, hatched by an engineering firm in the 1980s.

But McKee seems to have more momentum now that NGA is on its way, and he鈥檚 made clear he is serious by actually purchasing the Pruitt-Igoe land. For his housing development he has brought on Telesis Corp. and CRG Real Estate Solutions to build the homes, and he has financial backing from the AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust.

Earlier this year, Pruitt-Igoe received the necessary zoning for development. It also got a 鈥渘o further action鈥� determination from the Environmental Protection Agency, which means development on the site is all right as long as it鈥檚 not residential.

McKee says he hasn鈥檛 changed his pace 鈥� he鈥檚 been working for years on the Northside project. But he believes the region and its residents, and those in the Northside area, are more on board than they ever have been.

鈥淭he community is now seeing it differently,鈥� McKee said.

Moving forward on Pruitt-Igoe should signal activity in an area that has seen little development recently, and said Otis Williams, director of the 最新杏吧原创 Development Corp. He鈥檚 hopeful McKee can help.

鈥淲e think he has brought to the table some major partners,鈥� Williams said of McKee.

If development does indeed move forward in the area, Allen, the preservationist and 最新杏吧原创 historian, says Pruitt-Igoe won鈥檛 stop being symbolic.

鈥溩钚滦影稍粹�� attempts to reassert its greatness fell pretty mightily in the postwar era,鈥� Allen said. 鈥淭he reality is that we did lose that status. The towers fell, population fell and a lot of the city would fall empty as well ... The story of Pruitt-Igoe as a piece of land is not all that much different than a lot of other pieces of land in the city.鈥�

Because like a lot of abandoned properties in 最新杏吧原创 these days, there is again new interest.