I remember going to a convention in St. Louis in 1996, part of the urban redevelopment council I participated in visited East St. Louis as a case study. Incredibly awful even then, home values were dropping and the city’s main source of revenue was property taxes. The homes were being taxed at 14% of their value, every one was leaving and the place was a dilapidated mess. Worse yet, policemen were fired for selling the spare tires from the trunks of their squad cars because the city didn’t honor a pay hike they’d been promised for years.
My last employer’s HQ is in St. Louis somewhere of Harry Truman Blvd. At different points I was supposed to go out there to advance in the so called job I had. That, like many other things, never happened.
Considering the caliber of crooks that run the place, maybe it was just as well I never went there. Those people will do anything to screw someone over a dollar.