Good news is voter turnout in STL City (35.1%) was well over the August 2022 primary (24.2%). 61,000 votes were cast compared to 46,000. 😊 But the bad news is there were significantly fewer registered voters. 176,000 in 2026 v. 190,000 in 2022, likely due at least in part to population loss. ☹️ 1/

FInal unofficial results... St. Louis City is smitten with Gina Mitten as she trounced her opponent in the State Senate race. Bell narrowly beat Bush for US Congress.

Here's an interesting 2025 piece on the devastating impact of Mill Creek Valley urban renewal with a focus on public schools. The aftershocks of forced mass relocation lives with us today. www.primecenter.org/prime-blog/u...

Urban Renewal’s Educational Legacy: Black Displacement and School Segregation from Mill Creek to Pruitt-Igoe — PRiME Center | St. Louis University

This research was presented at the Mapping Spaces, Embodying Territories 2025 Conference at Saint Louis University on April 4, 2025.

primecenter.org

Around the same time as Lafayette Square hoped to increase population to justify a neighborhood school, residents in public housing-intensive DeSoto-Carr were advocating for home ownership opportunites in the Urban renewal area but were worried about overburdened existing neighborhood schools. 1/

STLrainbow@stlrainbow.bsky.social · 5d ago

The excerpt is from the 1971 Lafayette Square Restoration Plan. There was no school in the n'hood and its children were assigned to one of 5 schools nearby (Clinton, Attucks, Hogden, Sigel and McKinley). The plan encouraged building a new elementary, or at least K-3, for the neighborhood. 1/

Passed by this 5 yr. old home on sale by SLU medical campus and I said to myself "hey, that was a Habitat build!" so I was curious about the listing... listed in May for $450,000 before it was confirmed that price and income restrictions remained. Now at $280,000. www.zillow.com/homedetails/...

Speaking of schools, it's really a shame what's happened to the Ittner-designed Carr School (1908). Closed in 1983 and owned by the Carr Square Tenant Corporation since 2000. The Corp. also manages Carr Square Village, the city's oldest public housing. (1942) www.firstalert4.com/2026/07/30/n...

Neighbors demand demolition of abandoned St. Louis school after overnight stabbings

For years, neighbors near the old Carr School have watched the condemned building sit empty, draw crime and generate headlines.

firstalert4.com

The excerpt is from the 1971 Lafayette Square Restoration Plan. There was no school in the n'hood and its children were assigned to one of 5 schools nearby (Clinton, Attucks, Hogden, Sigel and McKinley). The plan encouraged building a new elementary, or at least K-3, for the neighborhood. 1/

STLrainbow@stlrainbow.bsky.social · 5d ago

"The future status of elementary schools in the area is uncertain and presently difficult for school officials to assess. Economic conditions, the age of existing physical plants, and instability of the area's population are but a few of the many factors which will influence the school situation."

Foundation-work Friday! Re-working a 1900 foundation for a new home. A completely new home will go on the adjacent lot, which had been a side yard for the now demolished oldie. In TGS. We’ll see how they turn out!

"The future status of elementary schools in the area is uncertain and presently difficult for school officials to assess. Economic conditions, the age of existing physical plants, and instability of the area's population are but a few of the many factors which will influence the school situation."

Here's another Soulard baller that may be in peril, although it has recently received rehab permits. City has it as a 1860 build. (The adjacent lot has been condemned as a builder has been dumping debris from a townhome project in the n'hood. I believe they also intend to build on this lot.)

While Soulard is losing what I assume is an antebellum residence (post below), there's also a board up of a circa 1848 brick baller that hopefully gets back in action soon. Soulard's Becker House has a fascinating history.

STLrainbow@stlrainbow.bsky.social · 2w ago

uugh.... there's a rare demo in progress in Soulard. Top row: earlier pics from this year after it barfed up some bricks during Mardis Gras. Bottom row: current state. The oldie shows up in the Compton & Dry Pictorial St. Louis, so it dates to at least 1875.

This date, 1944: Billy Eckstine Orchestra, featuring Charlie Parker, Sarah Vaughn, and Dizzy Gillespie, opens at Club Riviera on Delmar Blvd. in St. Louis. There to listen, and finally to sit in: a young East St. Louis trumpeter, Miles Davis. Photo below shows the site today.

uugh.... there's a rare demo in progress in Soulard. Top row: earlier pics from this year after it barfed up some bricks during Mardis Gras. Bottom row: current state. The oldie shows up in the Compton & Dry Pictorial St. Louis, so it dates to at least 1875.

Big Boy coming at me with the smoke. (Video won’t load but I sure felt it as it passed right below.)

Veterans of the city's Mid-Century Modern preservation wars begun around 2008 should immediately now what was demolished to make this (sweet) view possible from the Lindell Terrace condo tower. 1/

Fill-In Friday: Brickwork Makes the Dream Work Edition! Three infill single-fams underway with brickwork in Benton Park. "Coming Soon" for $580,000. Also in Benton Park, a two-townhome project on a corner lot is wrapping up its brickwork.

Oh, no. It's Fall-In Friday. A renovation miscue led to the collapse and demo of this 1880s split-use baller in Lafayette Square. It's a real shame to lose such a beauty. (A good chance tho something will replace it soon in this high demand historic neighborhood.)

Good morning, St. Louis; it's Fill-In Friday! Permits for 4 more townhomes issued in the tornado zone. The units fronting Delmar were completed ahead of the housing crash and the rear lots are finally getting tackled. (The 4 under construction in the satellite view are now occupied. ~8 more to go.)

May 2025 and post-tornado October 2025 Google streetviews of a group of 1904 beauties just north of Delmar. A reno permit has been issued this month for the home with the board ups. It's neighbor at the end has been demolished and a demo permit has been issued for the other end home. 1/

Vacant People’s Hospital at 2221 Locust looks like could use some board up work. I wish Citizens Service Bureau was on here… it was so easy to report stuff over on the site that sadly is now just explosive diarrhea.

I took an unplanned long walk yesterday (Mill Creek Valley related) in the hot sun without any water and my brockabrella. Got dehydrated and sunburned. Fortunately I wasn’t hit by any fly balls!

One of the largest and most regrettable urban renewal projects anywhere. It left an enormous empty space in the center of St. Louis where there had been an enormous, architecturally varied, and culturally vibrant neighborhood. The city has not recovered.

STLrainbow@stlrainbow.bsky.social · 4w ago

Ok, it's the last day for the Mill Creek: Black Metropolis exhibit at Missouri History Museum. No World Cup matches today so come over and learn about one of the city's most calamitous "own goals" via "urban renewal."

Such a phenomenal exhibit! I hope they pull some of that into the permanent collection, because STL needs to be aware of that story to not repeat it.

The line to see Mill Creek: Black Metropolis at Missouri History Museum, last day! I’m in an even longer line downstairs for sold-out play “Mourning Mill Creek.” #MHSRocks

Ok, it's the last day for the Mill Creek: Black Metropolis exhibit at Missouri History Museum. No World Cup matches today so come over and learn about one of the city's most calamitous "own goals" via "urban renewal."

Forest Park Fill-In Friday. Infill single-fams just hitting the market: lefty is listing in the $500Ks and the two righties in the $600s. An occupied c. 1890 two-fam had been on the lefty lot until a big fire/demo a few years ago. The other site had been a vacant lot for at least a couple decades.

I wish we had an effective steward for holding/stabilizing our city's heritage properties. We've had so many re-purposing success stories but have also lost too many, even recently like Mullanphy Emigrant Home and others under threat like Quinn Chapel AME & Euclid School. Hopefully these 2 make it.

St. Louis Public Radio@stlpublicradio.bsky.social · 4w ago

Two churches that served for over a century as sites for community and worship in north St. Louis will soon be no more.

Hey, St. Louis, it's the closing days of the Mill Creek: Black Metropolis exhibit at @mohistorymuseum.bsky.social. Ends this Sunday, July 12th! mohistory.org/exhibits/mil...

Sad af to see Anheuser-Busch subjecting Clydesdales to this steaming pile of shit. (1:38 mark.)

Zeteo@zeteo.com · last mo.

We went to Donald Trump’s Great American State Fair for the U.S.’s 250th anniversary. But the 16-day celebration is proving to be less than successful. Watch @premthakker.bsky.social explore the disastrous fair. Subscribe to zeteo.com for more!

Owner of an Airbnb in TGE didn't pay the water bill.... oopsies. At least it's properly classified as a short term rental and is generating a good chunk of commercial property tax. www.firstalert4.com/2026/07/03/y...

‘You can’t brush your teeth. You can’t use the bathroom. You can’t cook’: Delinquent water bill gets Airbnb water shut off

A south St. Louis Airbnb listing has been suspended after a family visiting for a funeral found the property’s water had been shut off for a delinquent bill during their stay.

firstalert4.com