East St. Louis
Crime-ridden and still mostly broke, East St. Louis today is a half-abandoned slum of 40,000 residents, perhaps the nation's poorest city.
posted by Paul at 3:37 PM
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Crime-ridden and still mostly broke, East St. Louis today is a half-abandoned slum of 40,000 residents, perhaps the nation's poorest city.
59 Comments:
Looking at these pictures is crazy...it seems like only yesterday I was riding around these streets; looking for a way out.
WHAT U NEED TO BE SHOWIN IS NORTH ST.LOUIS PICS. BUT IF U DO THAT U JUS MIGHT SCARE SOMEBODY
EAST ST.LOUIS DOESNT LOOK AS BAD AS THE NORTHSIDE
I lived in Granite City which is the town across from East St Louis. I use to catch the metro train there and on the way to the train station you could see the prostitutes on the side of the road... oh and lets not forget about the infamous day when all the police officers in East St. Louis called off cause they wanted a pay raise!!!
i agree, the north side is pretty messed up, there are some good pictures you could capture over there
I live in wichita ks. alot of ppl are suprised by the problems we have here. not many ppl have seen the bad parts here but we are having alot of ppl move here from different parts of the country. ALOT from cali. my exbf was from cali. his momma moved him here cause he was in trouble alot and went to jail for awhile. but now hes just findin trouble here. hes been transferring drugs and shit. hes done alot of stupid things but i pray he'll come outta it someday.
poor people that is a jacked up sad ghetto
Fuck you! Insane, I say. Yes there is some poverty everywhere. I was born in E. ST. and moved back. This isnt what my hood looks like "Faggot" Yes I said "Faggot" Have you ever been to E. St. Louis, IL. Come on & let us know you comming so we can show your ASS a good time....Peace, Love and Happeness!
Inner Saint Louis is has a large crime rate. Missouri isn't the problem to Saint Louis ghettos. It's all Illinois because of East Saint Louis. I would prefer living in Saint Louis, not East Saint Louis.
Fuck you! Insane, I say. Yes there is some poverty everywhere. I was born in E. ST. and moved back. This isnt what my hood looks like "Faggot" Yes I said "Faggot" Have you ever been to E. St. Louis, IL. Come on & let us know you comming so we can show your ASS a good time....Peace, Love and Happeness!
Well Whoever the Jackass who posted this (above comment I guess he is a chicken). Is about as jacked up as these pictures and is a bastard.
The place is a damn mess and I do not give a damn who does not like it. It is a GHETTO MESS!!!! NOW GET MAD BITCH!!
I love the boogie, A lot of talent there. If you know anything about Sheba's and State Street, Washington Park, Edgemont, The South End, Centreville, 25th St. The town is not bad at all and I will move back there anytime. If you want trouble, trust me you can find it, and if you want peace its there too. Property there is so cheap, but the damn Taxes there are so high that our people are driven out, because they want the blacks out. If you travel from north to south, and east to west you got to go through E.St. Louis. We even got the Mississippi River. Our town is very valuable to all Big Companies, but they want the blacks out so they can take it back. So in their eye's lets not invest in the city, raise the tax and we will get it back. You should know if you can make it there you can make it anywhere, and if you fail, go back to E. St. and dust your knees off and try it again, because you are always welcome back home. So my black people hang in there. Jackie tried to bring her money back, but she needs help. Once I make it I'll be back too. Stay strong E. St.and don't down it until you give it a try.(Robert Green E.ST.L 4LIFE)
i agree with robert. i'm a proud resident of the lou. been here all 21 years of my life and can't see myself leaving. its the best of both worlds. we got the city, but we got beautiful rural areas just a few miles away filled with beautiful midwestern nature and landscapes. you got 120 degree summers, -10 degree winters, got crazy baseball pride.. we've even got love for the rams year after year in spite of their ability to play football, that's just how we are. talk all the shit you want, i like it that way, we aint no yuppie city we do what we can to keep tourists outta here.
damn near everyone here will show you theyre from here, almost all of us true residents got some sort of STL/arch tats.
also, east stl aint shit, and anyone talkin up south side is soft. come visit the north side and youll understand why we dont take kindly to outsiders. i love this city and i dont expect anyone from the outside to understand it, youve got to be raised here to know why its the best city in the US. also much love to our sister city KC, MO
I think some people are confused.. East St. Louis is not a part of St. Louis. Its across the river and is a part of Illinois so it is really its own little town. But anyway.. My family accidentally drove there in the middle of the night after missing a turn to go to St. Louis and it does not look pretty..we didn't stop at any stop signs just turned around and got out.
As a child, I lived in E.St.Louis. I was six when we moved there and 10 when we left. That was in 1957. We moved from a little town in SE Ill. We first lived on State street across from a bakery. I went to Monroe Elem. school, then we moved more towards town to the Gomper apts.(don't recall how to spell it)Then we kids went to Longfellow school and some of us went to the high school there to Rock, Jr. High and East side high. we then moved to a couple other places on 7th and 11th ave. before we left. Downtown was nice and most of E.St. Louis was, but it got trashed as many other places have. It brings me to the the old cliche, there goes the neighborhood. If you keep doing what you've always done, you will keep getting what you've always gotten. You should want to do better. Cleaning can be contagious. Clean up the place and quit whining, poor pitiful me. Nobody can make you, you, but you. Get up and do something, don't wait on everybody else to do it for you. Harlem used to be a very beautiful place, so was Prichard, Ala. where I also lived. Then the trash moved in and now downtown is boarded up and is the slums. Wonder why? Get that lazy azz up and do something.
I was raised in East st.louis and I love it. For all the people who reside in St.louis you all need to wake up, your city has the most killings between the two cities. Alot of st.louis looks just as bad if not worser than the east side. Not everything or everyone over here is ghetto or poor. I mean loook at what images are being put up, you dont see the good parts, no people rather dwell on the negative things. And they wonder why so much crime is going on. Dont get me wrong I dont condone any violence at all. I am very educated and I take pride in my city. Before you judge us come take a trip around every part and you will see just like any city we have the good and the bad....But some people are just too ignorant to comprehend that......East Boogie all day hate it or love lit...
It's Nate, and the guy who called me a faggot and a bastard is probably a gangsta. I've been to alot of ghettos. I grew up in the most ghetto part of Cleveland Ohio. I have also taken alot of road trips, and I usually get lost in the ghettos(bad luck i guess). I never got lost in E. Saint Louis but I drove thru it and it is an absolute shithole! Most buildings I saw on the side of the freeway were abandoned. And ur callin me insane. Who would want to live in a half abandoned city filled with crooks, thugs, muderers, rapists, gangsters, u name them. If u think im insane think again. Go smoke some more meth in the abandoned wreck they call East St Louis.
Dang , Illinois is jacked up East St. Louis is the poorest city in America , Chicago has the poorest school system , and Auora has the worst ghetto!
I lived off 71st St back in the 60's. Went to Morrison Grade School, then thanks to Judge Brown, a filthy pit called Clark Junior High School. I will never forget my first day at Clark. When school let out, the school buses were waiting in the front drive. A group of adult black males carrying bats and bricks attacked kids coming out of school, smashing bus windows, school windows and beating anyone they could reach. Nearly every window in the buses was broken out and there were kids on the ground bleeding, some with broken arms from trying to fend off attackers. Two weeks after that it happened again and police were permanently assigned to the school. Clark was 85% black and they certainly took advantage of the situation. We moved an hour away from E. Saint Louis a year later. The really sad part of it is I remember some good years in ESL. After the blacks flooded ESL from Alabama, the city slowly began going to hell. Thanks to the Officer family and others, ESL simply became another black crime farm. All the decent people moved away.
there is a ghetto everywhere if u dont know this then ur a rich person w/your head stuck up ur ass.
My name is Matthew Cruise, I am an author and publisher living in Bakersfield, CA. I left Centerville in 1954 to join the Army. I returned during the Vietnam war and was stationed at Granit City and later at the Records Center in St Louis; I wrote about my childhood in my book "Blood Bath In Jasper County, Misissippi", we have a unique herritage as a people who in spite of the enriounment that we lived in, many have becom productive citizens. I am writing a novel entitled, "Redistribution of Wealth In America, with East St Louis in mind. We can change things, not only in East St. Louis, but all over the world. My wife and I formed a foundation to help women in Kenya, and by the grace of God, has had an impact on women there. You may view my websit at: Pull Up From Poverty.com
MY HOOD!!!
I love the boogie, A lot of talent there. If you know anything about Sheba's and State Street, Washington Park, Edgemont, The South End, Centreville, 25th St. The town is not bad at all and I will move back there anytime. If you want trouble, trust me you can find it, and if you want peace its there too. Property there is so cheap, but the damn Taxes there are so high that our people are driven out, because they want the blacks out. If you travel from north to south, and east to west you got to go through E.St. Louis. We even got the Mississippi River. Our town is very valuable to all Big Companies, but they want the blacks out so they can take it back. So in their eye's lets not invest in the city, raise the tax and we will get it back. You should know if you can make it there you can make it anywhere, and if you fail, go back to E. St. and dust your knees off and try it again, because you are always welcome back home. So my black people hang in there. Jackie tried to bring her money back, but she needs help. Once I make it I'll be back too. Stay strong E. St.and don't down it until you give it a try.(Robert Green E.ST.L 4LIFE)
To Robert Green;
Do black people get taxed at a rate higher than other races?
What's up E. St. Louis! This Sherman Damper AKA Tootie Reppin' dat 22nd. I love my city, I'm living in Texas and i like it here but I love my home. Poverty is everywhere but it definitely not just in da Lou. If I could I'd move my Fam there even my kids. If anybody reading this remember me I went to Park,Clark and Eastside, hit me up I miss my homies but always have the love for Da Boogie. Hit me up at sdamper5@yahoo.com
That was too real, I'm from the boogie, I love it, I bn gone twenty years, but the things I learned there made me who I am today, a strong proud black educated man. If anyone wanna research, in prohibition times, hell even wild west times, east. St Louis, was prominent in gambling, alcohol, music, trade, supplies, resort, etc..... The Miss river was always known for money, Im like Robert, they trying to take a city from us, E. Boogie clubs bn all nite since the great depression. Liquor stores on every corner. Bull. East st. Stand up!
Well here now and I can say we are in a bad situation but theres always faith and preservation we as a race have 2 stop killing each other real talk its outrageous and I'm used 2 it feels as though I wasn't even raised here but the younger genaration (18 to 22) have really been getting busy but it starts from parenting I believe
wtf how yall gonna sit up here and talk about were people live and matter of fact i was born and raised in east st louis matter of fact i live here right know and most of my family live here . so y yall sitting here talking about my community you need to do some research first
1.) look at our football team
2.)East. St.Louis Railers
3.)jackie joyner kersee was born here
4.)dawn harper was born here
5.)Alvin Parks one of our greatest mayors
there so much more than that.East St.louis does a lot for there community. they give food and clothes to there people. they also have a lot of activities for the kids to stay out of trouble.To end this FACT East St.Louis different types of sports is the greates such as basketball,track and field,and football.We might have the highest crime rate but thats doesnt mean the whole town of East St.Louis is bad people.You all love to judge a town that is really nice people if you get to know them. but keep on talking about East St.Louis we dont care i just here to tell you something
LOVE YOU EAST ST.LOUIS!!!!!!11
My cousin was an educator in East St. Louis. He had a huge heart. He would take in transients for a week or two. In 1997, he took in a black man; after two weeks he had to ask him to leave. The next day, this man went to my cousin's office and stabbed him in the back, numerous times. Wayne died at the scene. The perp is in prison. But I visited this site because I'm trying to understand why, where the rage came from, and why he had to take it out on my cousin, and why he had to do the ultimate -- i.e., take another person's life. My cousin was trying to help him. I don't understand. (I live in Portland, OR.)
East St. Louis is a dump. No one wants to invest anything into this town because of the people who live there. Most of the comments on this board prove my point.
Born and raised in East St. Louis 1971. Hawthorne elementary, Lansdowne Junior High then moved to St. Louis. I am very successful today and I say this only because of what I learned from the situation and what I observed as a kid living there. One of the greatest things I get to say when people ask me "where are you from?" is East St. Louis and the look of surprise is what I get every time. No shame ever of this city...my city. 2913 Caseyville forever :). I love all of us who has or still live in this city.
ROBERT PITTS
Whats up tootie this borat i was in texas to but moved back tell that nigga mike i said whats up
Whats up tootie this borat i was in texas to but moved back tell that nigga mike i said whats up
I love my city grew up there but moved away but always go back to visit
East St Louis all day I mess wit West St louis 2 but yea e side not a frendly place don't move there lookin 4 new frens an stay away from large crowds trust me I done seen somebody get shot in the head from across the street just for walkin to the store but yea e side native Deuce9 an bond
Love my city as well,east Saint Louis till the day i die shalonda green Griffin homes
E st Louis could be a decent place to live if the people came together it's got people that care and people that just don't give a damn and that's anywhere you go now a days. My daughter got murdered there and it was because of a heartless punk ass faggot. I hope the lil punk bitch have fun getn fucked in prison. He made the choice to do what was done but it is a shame we have no problem hurting one another tryn to earn a title of being hard. Take all that built up anger and clean up the city it will be worth it I have seen beautiful neighborhoods there they have beautiful built homes but who would notice from seeing all the eyesores and crime rate its terrible. Get your shit together and stop arguing online all the tough people are in jail or hell it's time for a change people. God is coming back soon let's all be ready. Christi
East St. Louis is a Third World shithole.
I'm originally from the south side of Chicago (a tough area itself) and I've spent many summers with family in E. St. Louis as a child. Yes it has blight (but what city doesn't) Yes it has crime like any other city. Hell, I live in Jackson, MS now and sometimes it's like the wild west down here!
But as a child I never had any problems in ESL and even as an adult I have no problem with anyone when I come through. If you mind your business and stay cool you'll have no problem. Does anybody know if Pirtles up on 24 th. & Ridge is still open. I remember buying Sundance corn chips and Vess pops from there.
ESL is alright though! For real!!!
I have never lived there, but I have always loved East St. Louis and was very drawn to it! I ca n honestly say I have never been threatened, nor treated poorly while there! We are talking 25 years I've been going there. I find it to be sad, sad, sad as there are a lot of great people still there. My adopted grandmother grew uo there in the 20's and 30's. I still see the beauty and the pride in East St. Louis! Greed, corrupt law, and non caring chemical companies have destroyed East St. Louis! I for one would love to see it revived and I'd love to live there! And BTW..I am white...Not that it matters, but I love East St. Louis and a lot of it's people.
I Lived there 19 yrs. I have been all over East St. Louis, I went to school at rock junior high. The teachers there was great. If anybody there was looking for an education it was there. I played sports and had the best coaches there ever was. I am white, I had the best colored friends. I graduated in 1980 from east side senior high. There were good times and bad time, like life. I learnt that it doesn't matter what color skin you have there are good in every race and bad ppl in ever race. I would like to know what my classmates have done but as far as I know we haven't had a reunion.
Yea let anonymous know your coming... Right lol
Hometown of: Miles Davis, Ambassador Donald F. McHenry, World Renowned Dancer Katherine Dunham, Poet Laureate Dr. Eugene Redmond, Olympic Gold Medalist Jackie Joiner Kersee, and the list is endless as folks from East St. Louis have become world class citizens that are educators, artists, theologians, politicians, athletes, and distinguished women and men who are second to none. :) Please go and tell that.
WIU Partnership with East St. Louis, IL
http://www.connecttristates.com/news/story.aspx?id=1046479
Hometown of: Miles Davis, Ambassador Donald F. McHenry, World Renowned Dancer Katherine Dunham, Poet Laureate Dr. Eugene Redmond, Olympic Gold Medalist Jackie Joiner Kersee, and the list is endless as folks from East St. Louis have become world class citizens that are educators, artists, theologians, politicians, athletes, and distinguished women and men who are second to none. :) Please go and tell that.
WIU Partnership with East St. Louis, IL
http://www.connecttristates.com/news/story.aspx?id=1046479
Hometown of: Miles Davis, Ambassador Donald F. McHenry, World Renowned Dancer Katherine Dunham, Poet Laureate Dr. Eugene Redmond, Olympic Gold Medalist Jackie Joiner Kersee, and the list is endless as folks from East St. Louis have become world class citizens that are educators, artists, theologians, politicians, athletes, and distinguished women and men who are second to none. :) Please go and tell that.
WIU Partnership with East St. Louis, IL
http://www.connecttristates.com/news/story.aspx?id=1046479
My brother still lives in the area. Ramon Fultz graduated in 1980. Get in touch through the Whitepage listings. They had a cross country reunion at the Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows last year. He loves to hear from former classmates.
Just remember this, God has chosen the poor that are rich in faith and has made them heirs and joint heirs of the Kingdom of God. The first shall be the last and the last shall be the first. Blessed are the poor in Spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of God. Remember even Jesus was raised in the ghetto but look where he is now, sitting on the right hand of the Father, this is not your home we are only here temporarily. He has made us Kings and Priests and we will Reign with him forever Rev.5:10.
i'm from EAST ST> LOUIS, and i experienced all the pain, joy, education, rearing, that has propelled, me to be 57 years old, and suportive of my son and self, and still expanding in life, so yeah EAST boggie is a place that everyone can't make it, but if you do you prepared to make it anywhere.
My family from duece 9
Well, what do you expect? These cities and towns are plagued with non-working, welfare collecting leaches that have no pride. What is the unemployment rate? Education level?
Being un-educated and collecting welfare is acceptable in these towns. They all voted for Obama and thought that electing a black man would save them. Well, it does not "fill up your gas tank" or pay the mortgage. Wake up, black America. You saviors, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Obama are getting rich off of your ignorance.
Why are niggers so proud these shitholes?
I am from north st Louis but grew up in the west coast and went to college back east and have been to many places across America but east st louis isn't bad as folks make it out to be but it is raggedy corrupt and impoverished although it is in Illinois east st Louis still remains part of the greater st Louis metropolitan area and reflect the racial discrimination prevalent in the region as well as Chicago land politics that funnels large portion of state funds away from southern Illinois directing badly needed state aid to Chicago. East st Louis is more rural and country than urban and ghetto. It reminds me of places I've visited in Mississippi now north st louis has cleared up many of it's slum areas and lots of urban renewal has taken place but corruption plagues st Louis just like it does east st Louis and racism is alive in well but it's hidden one only notice it when they leave the region and return
Thanks plus I'm from there n 82nd street.
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Cause a lot homeless are addicts alcoholics, mentally ill, on the run from police warrants. Refer them to a shelter never your home. I let homeless friend on my couch once and saw how mentally unstable he was I had to run out of my own duplex.
Auora has the worst ghetto. Do you mean Aurora? Second largest city in Illinois.Vibrant and wealthy west side and far east side. Near East side is poor and 90% Mexican, American.
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Hell yeah this shit hood i love it im a white female always go back home with my fiancee hes from 44th st. I live coming here im from atlanta ga but always have a fun ass time coming here. Shit hang on the block and shit talk you gotta talk to get to know ppl i aint never scared going there shit i grew up in the Atlanta simpson rd godby rd so this right at home. Never look down on theses ppl from this hood they some of the realist ppl youll ever meet either they fuck with you or they dont its that simple. Never been disrespeced because of my skin color you just got to jump in the mix and have fun.
R.I.P. Mr. Parnell Williams
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