最新杏吧原创

ST. LOUIS聽 鈥⒙燱hen Shadiah Thomas steps out the front door of her duplex in the 3900 block of Labadie Avenue, she sees crumbling homes all around her.

To her right are five vacant buildings, including one frequented by drug users and two gutted by fire. To her left, next to an empty lot, is a two-family brick building that鈥檚 been empty for at least three years. Across the street, facing her, are more vacants.

鈥淚t鈥檚 depressing here,鈥� she says.

Thomas and her family have lived in the Greater Ville neighborhood of north 最新杏吧原创 since 2015, surrounded by long-abandoned houses that serve as magnets for crime and drug use. Those broken buildings 鈥� most owned by the city 鈥� represent just a fraction of a problem that鈥檚 plagued 最新杏吧原创 for decades but has gotten much worse in recent years.

RELATED: How many vacant properties does 最新杏吧原创 actually have?

As is the case in most older, industrial cities in the United States, the number of abandoned properties has festered for decades, a symptom of dramatic postwar population loss, suburbanization, flat regional population growth, older housing stock and a history of racial bias.

In a city of just over 300,000 people now 鈥� a big drop from its postwar high of 856,000 鈥� there are about 25,000 abandoned properties, according to a city estimate. More than 7,000 of those are vacant buildings, including about 4,000 that have been condemned.

The rest are empty lots.

Those numbers are higher than they were just a couple decades ago despite the slowing pace of the city鈥檚 population decline. The median vacancy rate in 最新杏吧原创 rose from 14.7 percent in 1990 to 18.5 percent in 2010, according to in Rust Belt cities by Alan Mallach, an urban scholar and senior fellow at the .

With a heavy concentration on the city鈥檚 predominantly African-American North Side, at least 19 percent of all of 最新杏吧原创鈥� properties are vacant, according to a mayoral report, a little less than half of which are owned by the Land Reutilization Authority, or LRA, the city鈥檚 land bank.

Almost every city administration since the Great Depression has vowed to do something about property abandonment and blight 鈥� and Mayor Lyda Krewson has been no exception. Elected mayor last year, Krewson pledged to tackle the vacancy issue in her inaugural speech and has rolled out a number of initiatives in recent months.

It鈥檚 not easy to tackle a problem that鈥檚 been a half-century in the making. Taking down just the existing crop of condemned buildings would cost roughly $40 million, officials say. There are scant resources to keep the number of condemned buildings from growing.

Thomas, 32, knows there will be no easy solutions to a challenge of that scale. But what she wants for her own block is really quite simple: She鈥檇 just like her five young children to be able to play outside safely.

鈥淚 just want it so where they can come outside and I don鈥檛 have to worry about the violence. Gunshots. Kicking syringes in the grass so they don鈥檛 see it. Grass growing as tall as us,鈥� Thomas said.

Two cities

City records show the number of vacant buildings in the Greater Ville, Thomas鈥� neighborhood, rose by 50 percent, to more than 550, in the past decade. Only the Wells-Goodfellow neighborhood has more.

They鈥檙e among 10 of the city鈥檚 79 neighborhoods that together account for more than half of the vacant buildings in the city. All 10 are north of Delmar Boulevard.

In his 15 years on the 最新杏吧原创 Board of Aldermen, Jeffrey Boyd has watched the vacancy problem balloon in the 22nd Ward, which includes parts of the Hamilton Heights, Wells-Goodfellow and West End neighborhoods. On his own street, half the buildings are vacant or abandoned, he said.

鈥淚t鈥檚 psychological trauma, OK?鈥� he said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e frustrated. We鈥檙e tired of looking at these buildings on our blocks.鈥�

Inside the vacants, Boyd says, you鈥檒l find drug use and prostitution. Squatters try to keep warm, and sometimes the buildings burn.

Boyd鈥檚 constituents are past the point of wanting to try to preserve some of the properties and beg officials to tear them down, he said.

His complaint underscores the desperation in some areas of the city where property values continue to slide and where the housing market has . Even for qualified buyers, comparable sales for an appraisal don鈥檛 exist, so banks don鈥檛 lend.

There are no signs of recovery in the city鈥檚 weakest neighborhoods, even while others rebound from the Great Recession.

The percentage of 最新杏吧原创鈥� low-vacancy areas 鈥� those below 5 percent 鈥� rose from 18 percent in 2010 to 28 percent in 2015, according to Mallach鈥檚 research. But areas with very high vacancy 鈥� between 15 percent and 25 percent vacant properties 鈥� stayed unchanged at 22.6 percent.

Portions of some neighborhoods may have reached a point of no return; others have reached a critical juncture where if nothing is done now, they also will be difficult to save.

Mallach says that while blocks in the Ville and Jeff-Vander-Lou often have more empty lots and abandoned houses than occupied homes, other North Side neighborhoods, including Penrose and O鈥橣allon, have yet to descend into 鈥渉ypervacancy鈥� 鈥� when the number of vacant buildings and lots exceed 20 percent of an area鈥檚 total number of properties, creating a nearly impossible-to-reverse feedback loop.

鈥淚t鈥檚 really important to try to save those neighborhoods,鈥� Mallach said.

鈥淭hese are physically intact neighborhoods. Their social fabric is definitely being stretched, but I don鈥檛 think it鈥檚 gone. If you don鈥檛 find a way to stabilize those neighborhoods you could find yourself with a lot more vacant housing three, five, 10 years from now.鈥�

鈥楨veryone in the room鈥�

A growing sense of urgency appears to have gripped City Hall, where the Krewson administration is working closely with a coalition of nonprofit and community development groups on the vacancy problem.

Krewson鈥檚 office estimates vacant properties cost the city as much as $66 million last year. Vacant lots need mowing and tree removal. They foster illegal dumping and use up police time because of the crime they attract. Over the last two years, city firefighters have responded to more than 500 fires at vacant properties, Krewson鈥檚 office says.

The fiscal impact doesn鈥檛 even include the loss of tax revenue 鈥� and household wealth 鈥� that vacant buildings cause by hurting the values of nearby homes. According to one estimate in 2016, the city loses about $8 million a year in property tax revenue just because of the effect vacant buildings have on nearby properties.

鈥淚t鈥檚 never been tackled before in a significant way,鈥� Krewson told the Post-Dispatch. 鈥淲e鈥檙e doing our best to prioritize taking down the worst of the worst. 鈥� If we had unlimited funding, this would be a faster process.鈥�

Already, Krewson and the Board of Aldermen managed to find an extra $2 million for demolitions in the recently approved budget, tacking it on to the roughly $1.5 million that has been earmarked for tear-downs in recent years.

鈥淚t鈥檚 my commitment every year I鈥檓 here to send to the Board of Aldermen a budget that includes at least that much,鈥� Krewson said this month.

The Metropolitan 最新杏吧原创 Sewer District is supplementing that with a program to add green space to absorb rainfall as part of its effort to cut sewer overflows. Many recently demolished houses in Walnut Park East were taken down using MSD funds. The sewer district is expected to contribute an additional $2 million or so a year to demolish houses, mainly on the North Side, an effort expected to take down about 300 properties this year.

But even with MSD鈥檚 $13.5 million commitment to demolition, 最新杏吧原创鈥� resources pale in comparison to those of other cities facing the same challenge. for demolition under a program that did not include Missouri. Ohio has received tens of millions under the same program, and its attorney general set aside $75 million from a $93 million mortgage settlement in 2012. Two years ago, Maryland鈥檚 governor pledged $75 million over several years .

最新杏吧原创, by contrast, struggles to keep a fleet of garbage trucks rolling. Securing an extra $2 million for demolitions in a city budget that grows tighter each year was a lift.

With little help expected from the state or federal government anytime soon, 鈥渨e鈥檝e got to play the hand we were dealt here,鈥� Krewson said.

A big boost came just days ago in 最新杏吧原创 Circuit Court, where the city successfully fought for a small property tax increase meant to raise about $6 million a year to stabilize vacant properties for future rehabs. The measure, known as Proposition NS, received more than 58 percent of the vote in April 2017 鈥� a large number, but short of the 66 percent required under the city charter. The city argued this tax measure didn鈥檛 fall under the charter requirement 鈥� and on Thursday, a judge agreed. City leaders also hope to generate interest from philanthropic and business interests to address the issue.

As of June this year, the city has taken down 164 buildings 鈥� compared with 88 in the first half of last year. And while the city promises to pick up the pace, Krewson and her staff emphasize the city鈥檚 strategy is about more than demolitions.

The 最新杏吧原创 Development Corp., the city鈥檚 economic-development arm, this year contributed $100,000 to help Legal Services of Eastern Missouri hire lawyer Peter Hoffman, who plans to assist agencies and homeowners clear titles to prevent future vacancies.

SLDC also hired a vacancy coordinator, Austin Albert. And Krewson鈥檚 administration found money to retain Patrick Brown, its resiliency coordinator, after the expiration of the grant that funded his position.

Albert and Brown are leading a committee called 鈥淰acancyStat鈥� that has begun hosting regular gatherings of representatives of key city divisions, the city counselor鈥檚 office and the Citizens鈥� Service Bureau.

鈥淵ou鈥檙e getting everyone in the room,鈥� Albert said. 鈥淐an we pool these resources in a way that鈥檚 more effective?鈥�

The city鈥檚 committee plans to begin meeting with a newly formed coalition of nonprofit, community development and university representatives known as the Vacancy Advisory Committee. Together, the two committees will fall under the umbrella of the Vacancy Collaborative.

The nonprofits, too, have brought on their own coordinator. Through a Missouri Foundation for Health grant and assistance from the Missouri Department of Conservation, Tara Aubuchon was hired this June by the Community Builders Network of Metro 最新杏吧原创, which assists neighborhood development groups and is run out of the University of Missouri-最新杏吧原创.

One of the key recommendations from on 最新杏吧原创鈥� vacancy problem was to form a collaborative, Aubuchon said.

鈥淢y sole focus is vacancy,鈥� she said.

Grass-roots neighborhood groups have been pushing for years to make vacancy a top priority. The 最新杏吧原创 Association of Community Organizations (SLACO) was one of the chief backers behind Proposition NS. They pushed the administration of former Mayor Francis Slay to elevate the issue, building some momentum before the Krewson administration鈥檚 initiatives.

鈥淭he whole complexion of the North Side can change within 10 years if we get starting now,鈥� said SLACO Executive Director Kevin McKinney. 鈥淲hat I don鈥檛 want to see is us continually giving people reports. 鈥楬ere鈥檚 another report, here鈥檚 another study.鈥欌��

Quality of life

After decades of neglect, it鈥檚 difficult to predict how the city鈥檚 efforts will turn out.

Throughout much of the Rust Belt, older cities responded to property abandonment by trying to attract new development 鈥� often with big subsidies 鈥� in the hope that people would move back. But they鈥檝e struggled to compete with the magnet cities along the East and West coasts and in the Sunbelt. That suggests that a strategy here that banks on growth 鈥� repopulating areas that have been hollowed out 鈥� may not succeed.

While some 最新杏吧原创 neighborhoods can be saved, others have deteriorated to the point where once-populated blocks have turned into 鈥渦rban prairies鈥� 鈥� areas more hospitable to wildlife and plants than people.

Christopher Prener, a professor of sociology at 最新杏吧原创 University, says cities like 最新杏吧原创 need to be 鈥渉onest with ourselves鈥� and focus on serving the people who remain.

鈥淲e may be able to stop the decline,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut we鈥檙e not going to be able to bring back everyone we lost.鈥�

Demolishing problem properties and maintaining vacant lots 鈥� perhaps adding attractive green space for the residents still living there 鈥� needs to be done, Mallach, the vacancy researcher, said.

鈥淭hat doesn鈥檛 mean the neighborhood is wonderful. It means it鈥檚 reasonably healthy, it鈥檚 reasonably safe and it鈥檚 reasonably clean. How you deal with vacant properties affects all three of those criteria,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hese aren鈥檛 steps that are necessarily going to lead to redevelopment. I don鈥檛 think people should have any illusions.

鈥淭hese are steps to make sure people who live in those neighborhoods can have a decent quality of life.鈥�

That鈥檇 be a start for Shadiah Thomas, who says living among so many vacant properties means never being able to relax 鈥� always worrying about shootings on the corner and sketchy people who move between her duplex and the nearby empty buildings.

鈥淓very night, you hear sirens. You can lay in your bed and see red and white lights. You hear the ambulances all day, every day,鈥� she said.

鈥淚t shouldn鈥檛 be like that.鈥�

鈥淭ipping Point鈥� is a series of special reports that examine critical challenges facing 最新杏吧原创 neighborhoods.

Coming Monday: Fixing the Land Reutilization Authority.

Previously, about illegal dumping:

鈥⒙�最新杏吧原创 residents, fed up with city's dumping problem, want action

鈥⒙�Caught on camera: Look who the city nailed when it went after illegal dumpers

Also in the series:

鈥⒙�LRA owns the 12,000 最新杏吧原创 properties no one wants. And it can't afford to maintain them.