The MOST DEPRESSED CITY In The United States: East St. Louis
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- Опубликовано: 14 дек 2023
- East St. Louis in its heyday was an industrial powerhouse, just like Gary Indiana was, just like Detroit Michigan was; Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Erie Pennsylvania, Cleveland Ohio. Just like all of those places, East St. Louis became a rustbelt city. The city first saw economic decline in the 1950's, and ever since then it's been in a long, economic downward spiral. Despite popular belief, the facts show that crime has actually gone down quite a bit in this town. Hopefully that can be the momentum that East St. Louis needs to have a better future.
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I think if the migrants saw these videos, they might change their mind before coming here.
I used to work with an amazing engineer from ESL. He told me once when he joined the Marines the recruiter advised him he would probably end up in the middle east.. Then he saw my friend was from East St. Louis and said "Nevermind, it'll be much better than you are used to..." Great episode 👏
I believe it.🤣
Savagery.
Yep.. Born and raised there... My daughter asked me to tell her bedtime stories of my childhood... After about three nights of telling stories... They start to get too scary for her... Her eyes would light up from the stories but honestly I ran out of stories that could mention to her.
We know that Manscen sent me to East STL instead of Basra on third Chem
I lived in Missouri just south of St. Louis. In the late '70s my wife and three young children accidentally went down an off-ramp and ended up in East St. Louis - she needed gas for the car. The gas station attendant splashed in a couple gallons and told her to get right out of there now for her safety and showed her the way back on the freeway - he didn't even charge her for the gas...
Kind of like National Lampoon's "Vacation" with Chevy Chase.
Back when I was a teen (early 90's) my dad got lost after taking the wrong exit in Knoxville TN. With an overheating van, a couple gunshots nearby, and a cop that took us to the interstate and stopped and told my dad he had to go back to the gas station we were just at because it got robbed, I know the feeling kind of. I've heard that about ESL and looking out for the unsuspecting motorists.
East st Louis is basically a dumping ground for murdered victims
Same experience, I went with an ex and we kinda had different plans on what was going on. So I left and went to clean my car off at a car wash it was a convertible so I had the top down. As I got out to vacuum a guy pulled up said “you need to let that top up and get out of here. You must not be from here! Gone now before you get hurt! “ this was around 2003.
It's like Scott Adams of "Dilbert" said. Go with your first instinct and leave. It's not necessary to always be inclusive. @@Justeve-sy1vc
Looks like you shot your vid early in the morning before the zombies come out to play. Smart man!
The light in that part of the country is beautiful. Its a damn shame that we let cities rot and send billions to other countries.
💯‼️‼️
So sad! It seems like crime has plunged because there are no people left. Wow.
Kind of does seem that way
That happened in Detroit until the new generation came of age then it went back up again
“Seems like?”
really?? Detroit loses more people every single year.
Why?
“Came back???”
You’re Kidding right?
Espace From New York, a post apocalyptic film from 1981, was mostly filmed in East St. Louis. That tells you everything you need to know about how depressed this city is.
Interesting.
I’ll have to look it up.
📻🙂
My wife is from there. Went to East Saint Louis Lincoln High School.. We went back when we were at a wedding in St.Louis and we went back to where she grew up. Not a single house left . She gets very emotional about what has happened to her hometown
A difficult-to-solve problem for a rust belt city like ESL is that it is now much too large for its existing population of 17,000+ to support. Too many miles of streets, too many vacant buildings to use, too much infrastructure in general. Detroit suffered/suffers from a similar problem.
Why does everyone involve Detroit were separate from y’all lil us of A stop bringing Detroit in topics our city’s nothing like this shix hole
Man, southern Illinois can't catch a break. They get their life taxed out of them to feed Chicago while hosting the best of Missouri.
Chicago should be its own tax entity, like NYC
Haha , by FAR NE Illinois funds downstate, not even close. The wealth and tax base is Chicagoland, which props up the rest of the state, paying more than equal share on state taxes. Most taxes are local by local schools, towns, etc
@@mic1240 haha not quite so simple. My family is from southern Illinois and they have very little representation and do not benefit from the progress in the northern part of the state all while paying ridiculously high STATE taxes.
If St. Louis is the "best" of MO, the rest of the state must be pretty depressing.
@@mic1240 Without Chicago, Illinois would be Iowa. but POORER.
I have been to Erie, PA and compared to East St. louis it is Beverly Hills.
Ever notice how all these cities that have a directional name of a larger city are not good? East St Louis, West Memphis, East Chicago
East Grand Rapids an exception. Used to be an East Detroit, now called Eastpointe.
As a Brit, I find it astonishing how vast the US is, enabling the existence of such expansive municipal areas that can be abandoned and undergo rapid decline. If I lived in the States, I would dedicate all my spare time to exploring these areas.
I agree, the U.S. is pretty vast and interesting isn't it? If I lived in the U.S. I think I would do the same... dedicate my spare time to exploring as much as possible... oh wait. :)
- Thanks for watching!
From your last East St. Louis video, it looks like many buildings have been torn down. I loved this video!😊❤
The first thing that stuck out to me was how there was a large open field where there used to be a large apartment community that I'm assuming was section 8 off of Broadway.
@@ChrisHarden
There was a time, and I remember, when there were houses, and businesses on every street - every neighborhood. Hardly an empty lot anywhere.
Traffic congestion, busses running throughout……
Just like St.L. City used to be.
Kind of hard to imagine.
Buy I well remember.
📻🙂
NOTE : dude took backstreets went around in a big circle around them same streets. 😂 East st , is the hood but dude was no where near populated area
I remember when E.St.L. Was a major city. Had a friend lived over there.
Houses and businesses on every street.
There was a time when the drinking age in Missouri went to 21, yet in Illinois, it was still 18. SO….
I was born in 1961, and was raised in University City.
The main problem with this city, E.St.L was created in corruption, and that never changed. All of the Tax base in the county, was all in the county, except for Liquor stores and strip clubs.
Very sad.
📻😢
Having lived in Belleville it doesn't look like you got very far from I-55. One ca see tge arch or the freeway in the distance on lost views. Try going into the city itself
The Spivey Building is a 12-story skyscraper located at 417 Missouri Avenue in East St. Louis, Illinois. Built in 1927 by newspaper owner Allen Spivey, the building is the only skyscraper ever constructed in East St. Louis. Architect Albert B. Frankel designed the building in the Commercial style. The building's design features terra cotta spandrels separating its windows vertically and brick pier dividing its window bays. The asymmetrical entrance is surrounded by decorative marble piers, and the first two stories are separated from the rest of the building by a cornice and sill. The top of the building features a two-story parapet with terra cotta surrounds at each window and seven capitals at its peak. During the height of East St. Louis' prosperity through the 1950s, the building housed the offices of professionals in many fields who were considered among the best in the city. However, the building became a victim of the city's steep economic decline and has been abandoned for several decades.[2] The building’s last tenant moved in 1980.
ESL has more stop signs than any other town I have driven through. They even put them in the middle of the block.
My co- workers from East St. Louis were the best. They bought food in almost every night. 618 for life
Some friends and I made the wrong turn once and wound up in East St. Louis in the 90s. It looked bad back then too. One that way back from St. Louis we saw what looked like an old building on fire.
The spray tan! Love it!
Great sunset pics through the arch from that lookout.
I've been to East St. Louis. Unfortunately, it is one of the most dangerous places in the country.
I never been there and never plan on ever going there. It's well known dumping ground for bodies
Chris Harden: Thanks for using stats and facts when making this video. I was born in East St Louis in the early 70s. My best memories are going downtown to Woolworths with my Aunt. We moved away in 1982 to Wisconsin then returned here to Belleville in 1986. I'm Afro American by the way. Most people don't realize that you can take ANY city in the USA, stop funding it and it will fall. The people of East St Louis get a bad rap, but think about it! What property do they own? The property is owned by scumbags who live in other states and not keeping the property up. Why are all these dangerous buildings still standing when laws should be made to demand the owners demolish them or maintain the upkeep on them. It all starts with the scandalous politicians in the city who spend the money on themselves and take bribes. There are so e nice looking houses in the Edgemont area, but that wasn't shown. Good job on the video. BTW if Businesses don't come back to Belleville it's gonna be the same!
Good points. All of Metro East is pretty shot these days (outside of Edwardsville, Troy, St. Mary area.) Belleville might not be there yet but it seems like it's getting there and it wouldn't surprise me at all to see Belleville follow suit.
Well said. Gathering taxes based on property values is insane. It guarantees a downward spiral of already needing communities.
Wife and I spent a week in St. Louis back in the early 1970's after the 1968 riots. Even at the time we were there most of the streets signs still had not been replaced, only by looking at a street map were we able somewhat get around. City and areas around it were quite still a mess. In 2014 we took a trip to Branston and drove through St. Louis areas we had visited before, what a disaster. Hard to believe it had gone down to a disolite deserted community. SAD
The population of East St. Louis peaked to around 82,000 in 1950 to around 27,000 in 2010 which is now around 18,000.The Spivey building is now slated for demolition.
Thank you Chris!⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️👀 yessssssssssss
Great video
It's too bad so many "big" American cities are largely abandoned. Like St. Louis and, as per this video, the much smaller East St. Louis. You can see they were once living breathing centers of commerce and healthy neighborhoods. The car, de-industrialization, and racial tensions were the death knell. I hope they can recover someday.
Glad to see another Illinois video
Nice video. I've been to the track, but not the actual city. Pretty sad place
I have been up in the St. Louis gateway arch. The view is nice, but the windows are not very big to look out of.
I never lived in Illinois, and I did set foot in East St. Louis. I went to the park where you see a view of the Gateway Arch, but it wasn’t worth it. I was going to a truck stop in an eastern St. Louis suburb, and the GPS took me through the city at night the day before.
For this small city to be directly across the river from its parent city of St Louis, and it’s in shambles, says something about the city of St Louis and the region as a whole
There actually are quite a few really nice areas in Greater St. Louis though.
Wondered why I got no vids from you in a few weeks; somehow, I was unsubscribed 🤬. But now I have an excuse to binge watch 😊
Aww well thanks for coming back, Kathy!
What are the key differences between this upload and your earlier east St. Louis video?
9:09 Railroad crossings are designed to failsafe to a active status. In the event of a power outage or signal failure, they will light up and stay lit until the battery bank dies or a Signal maintainer can get out and fix the issue. It is always safer when finding a crossing that is malfunctioning to call the blue sign that is on all crossings to alert the railroad about the issue and to find another crossing to cross at.
not sure why the gates were not down in this case, usually they are held up by power and if that power fails, they failsafe to the lowered position
I appreciate your education of our great past. Time changes all.
Thanks for the vid. I find your well edited vids and commentary very informative.
Appreciate the kind words!
East St Louis has passed a bond issue in hopes of becoming a tourist spot. They are going to build a statue of Paul Bunyan with a croquet mallot.
Well done
I went to St Louis last year. Was carjacked and bashed on the second day there.
I was just living in ESTL there are still lots of people there it's actually a beautiful city where the people are
Can't wait for the Route 66 videos...I just drove the whole route from Chicago to Santa Monica in 2021
THE WHOLE OF AMERICA IS DEPRESSING AND COLLAPSING.
Some of it is. Not all of it
Ok, sunshine.
And what Is governor Pritzker doing about it?
Yo Briggs try either Bridgeport ct or even Hartford Connecticut 😮
The problem is if cities like St Louis can rise then the help we get from USA will stop because they will have to invest in manufacturing again for USA citizens 😩😩😩 because USA send big money overseas
Our families immigrated here for opportunities, it’s about time we move out for that exact reason.
At least the local high school has a superb football team. But there's a theme here, the beswt high school football teams in the state are always found in the dangerous neighborhoods.
I grew up on Joann St. near the prison, most of that neighborhood is gone now, but I loved growing up there.
Is it possible that because East St Loius is in Illinois, not Missouri, that there is a disparity?
Yeah much of Illinois has no growth in general.
Canton Illinois is another ghost town
The industry giants of East St. Louis did not reinvest in the city, maybe for several different reasons. And Scott (edited) Air Force Base once had one of the highest VD rates in the nation, thanks to East St. Louis.
True.
And most of the big companies, the tax base was in the county so they never paid city taxes. And like you said, they did not reinvest in the area. They took the money, usually, home, in St.Louis County, and invested elsewhere.
Edwards AFB is in California. You must be thinking about Scott AFB.
Are you comparing the arch with the grand canyon?
I lived in St. Louis for 11 years I was finally able to escape that Prison in 2015. Felt is was the God Forsaken place. Haven't looked back since I left, don't even want to go back & visit Family.
So I'm very familiar with East St. Louis
West side St. Louis suburbs are really nice though. Some houses go for millions; most around $300k+. Little to no crime. I doubt you grew up on the west side
High property taxes make it hard for long term investors to consider speculating on the real estate.
Especially when Missouri is a stones throw away.
I did just read a story this week that they are building a new subdivision in E St Louis. Also the gated subdivision on other side of 64 that was built what 15 or so yrs ago still looks very nice.
I still live in metro east in Swansea.
Federal district Court building is still in E St Louis downtown.
Did Chris Say Chile Please😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
I was there for a year at Southwestern Correctional center they said it was safer in the prison then outside
Does this mean Springfield, Ohio is no longer most depressed? Victory!
Legal weed in Illinois is the reason I found myself in ESL. Google took us all thru ESL in search of a smoke shop.
Ya, the crime rate went down because there is no one left there to commit crimes!
Lifelong St Louis resident. And yeah, last time I was in ESL was about 15 years ago. Don't think it even really counts because I was over at Pop's.
At 7:20 the signage says "For Mature Adults" What is a mature adult in east St. Louis?
304’s, hookers, strippers, bath houses
I moved to Battle Creek Mich in 2000 a retired truck driver was 58 years old getting a decent teamster's pension but to supplement my income I started working part time for a lady that had a small trucking company one Saturday she called me and said she had a emergency shipment that needed to be picked up here in Battle Creek and delivered to Missouri I took the run picked up two skided containers of plastic pellets drove a heavy duty diesel van picked up load at 330 pm started out with a full thank of fuel drove many miles about 1100 pm started getting low on fuel started looking for truck stop to get diesel no luck was in East ST Louis getting real low pulled off freeway bad part of town lucky for me there was a police officer in a lot a stopped he said what are you doing here I told the situation and he said follow me to. a station that had diesel he followed me in I hugged him and said thank you and bought him a coffee and donut I had the same .
Wow! I need to watch all of your ESL videos! My parents grew up there, but my
Grandparents were out by the early 80s. Haven’t driven through for over 20 years. I wouldn’t do it again.
My parents were showing me the empty lots that once were their homes. There was just lots of trash because (I guess) no one can pay for trash service?
I saw quite a bit of illegal dumping all of the times I've been there. Check back on the pinned comment for this video tomorrow after 1 eastern I'll have more from this drive uploaded in a separate video that will be linked up top!
@@ChrisHardenthank you! I’m going to be honest, I’m way too scared to drive and look around. My parents would feel the same. My maternal grandmother talked about the race riots when she was a child. She said it was so bad, they took shelter in a church, as it was a “safe” place.
My father’s high school is now the prison.
Ever been to Alton, IL?
He did, and he has a video on it that's a few years old. It's in his Metro East playlist.
":3
Didn’t Clark Griswold take the East St. Louis exit?
Yo Briggs I still have some left over shoe 👞 polish for your head from last year 😮
i live in Alton and its going take some serious invertors to make these places great again.
I drove through there around 2001 before they built the casino and it didn't look that bad. But wow that city went down the drain in 20 years. Durag Suzyq Yaksap!
So sad. Just sad. I used to go over there all the time in1972 had lots of good memories
The Broadview $44m renovation is already plagued by graft.
"Crime Rates?"...Gotta have people there to have a crime rate. Nowdays the place looks like the old...... "Thundarr the Barbarian" Cartoon intro.
I didn't see any stores at all.
Very few of them left.
What a shame
The sad but undeniable truth about East St. Louis, IL (and many other small cities scattered everywhere that are just as failure-bound and decrepit), is that they are not needed any more for any form of manufacturing, transportation, shipping or any type of commerce other than to provide whoever still lives there with basic retail needs that residents depend on.
Whatever was necessary in the past that the city provided in terms of manufacturing anything is now most likely being made halfway around the world. Whatever those jobs are that East St. Louis used to provide that encouraged people to live there will not be coming back. And as I already mentioned, there are many other small cities everywhere that are in the exact same predicament.
I think I might invest out there. Buy our dream house and open a bar.
I thought I was in 'the Pointes' ha
How is that man made arch better than the natural Grand Canyon
When did I say that the man made arch was better than the natural Grand Canyon?
I applied for a job with the railroad in East St. Louis. They wouldn’t hire me, but I would have moved to the area for the job. I’d have to commute from somewhere else in the city.😅
have you been to Gary Ind
Yes but not yet with a camera
I’m from Chicago and frequently drives through Gary Indiana and I have to say East St Louis is way more depressing but Gary it’s to far behind
I worked in East St Louis
Really enjoyed watching this vid. No pun intended but there are some green shoots of optimism, not the ones growing out of the buildings, for East St Louis. Despite the area being a wreck, it still has a metro system and from the clips, I saw quite a few bus stops so public transport is in place. The roads are by in large in not bad condition and the area sits right next to a major highway. It's up to the city leaders to decide how to move forward, do they do gentrification on a large scale and flood the place with expensive apartments or do they build a mix of affordable and higher-end housing coupled with light industries such as tech and retail? The area is an investor's dream, with good public transport and, road system and near downtown.
If only these investors would not tear all existing public transit infrastructure down and replace it with car-centric one cuz practically all Americans believe that "suburbia and cars are good, cities and higher density are bad"
Barack Obama ave.😂
i had to do some work in st louis so i drove from chicago down there. got to my hotel in a nice area thought ok this is a nice city. went to my spot of work the next day across the bridge into east st louis. yea it felt like night and day difference within 1 minute of driving. as someone who travelsfor work often. east st louis has been the worst area ive ever been in period. went to a gas station after work at night BAD MOVE maybe 30-40 folks strung out on drugs around the gas station. open air selling of drugs take your pick. and people smoking inside the gas station. a cop drove by nothing didnt even stop or look this way. left just getting some gas forget the merchandise i left it
They can use some Family Dollars and more Dollar trees and Dollar General stores
I'm halfway thru this video Chris. Try to finish tonight. I gotta say they should just level most of it and sell properties dirt cheap. There's no hope for this place if they don't make radical changes. That and i don't believe the drop in property crime numbers. Thieves can't steal stuff if there is nothing to steal or not reported. Murders could be down mostly because of better medical care or body never found.
It is an EXTREMELY dangerous city way more dangerous than any city in the US
Chris, I like your videos a lot and try not to miss a single one, but I'm definitely not convinced that ESL deserves a higher score on crime than Denver. Murder rates are much higher in the former and it's not even close.
I grew up in East St Louis Illinois in the 1950's. Today East St Louis Illinois is ranked as the sixth most dangerous city in the world.
9:40 Why? Answer:
Democrats and Locusts.
As exemplified by the gas station attendant who gave the lady and her kids a couple gallons of gas for free and told her to get out of town Fast in one of the comments, East St Louis Illinois is Extremely Dangerous.
@@LR-je7nnYou are absolutely correct
At first glance I thought this place was inhabited , then as the went further on I saw completely vacant. ,,,,,,,,,,,,, death in a small town
Surprised that renaming the 5 blocks of the exit ramp street to "Barack Obama Ave" didn't really revive the area.... :)
Why would it? How would renaming a street change an area?
@@GeeEm1313he's being sarcastic chief😂
East St.Louis Il was known as Illinois Town.
East St Louis hotels in modeling the apartment complex
Just a shame.
… Yup
Chester Pennsylvania
I don’t even see any houses
Reminds me of Camden,New Jersey it's just as bad
I need to go there
I live about an hour north of there in Lakewood near the Jersey Shore went to Camden with my parents a couple times as a kid to visit family . Although things aren't as bad as it used to be but it's still pretty sketchy .
The St. Louis skyline lol.
EAST CLEVELAND WOULD LIKE A WORD...