What Happened to East St. Louis? 

As a teenager in the 1970s, I remember "East St. Louis" as a euphemism for "Mismanaged, run down, crime ridden hell hole."

You're not ready for the REAL answer to that question...

My grandparents grew up in East St Louis. The way they talk about it being seems almost unimaginable now.

My grandmother and uncles still reside in East. St. Louis. Her house is one of the few good ones standing on her street. A lot of prostitutes and drug dealers roll through there often. I believe it can be rebuilt with the right politicians in charge and community leaders. They need to stop putting criminals in charge of the funding though. They steal a lot from the city.

"What happened to East St. Louis?" Well, should we start with demographics?

This is very interesting to me personally. I visited St. Louis as a tourist in the late 1980’s. When I asked what was across the river, absolutely everyone said “You DON’T want to go there!” I appreciate the background. Great videos.

I've lived in the St. Louis area most of my life. East St. Louis was at one time the Model City of America. One of the issues that caused the downfall of ESTL was the same thing that eventually happened to Cahokia. As people moved out and property values decreased, out of towners bought the homes to rent. Mostly slum lords, renting out to Section 8. To a point that 99% of the homes in these towns were owned by non-residents that didn't care for the area and were looking to make a buck at the expense of the reputation of the towns. Now, am I saying there is anything wrong with Section 8 housing, no. But you will find that some people using it, don't care what they do to the homes and more from home to home destroying them as they move along. At some point it becomes not worth it to repair the homes for the Landlords. Especially when the property values are so low. Repair cost more than the home is worth.

This city was in such drastic shape in 1979 that John Carpenter was able to shoot the Post-economic-collapse scenes of the “Prison community New York City” in ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK with almost NO SET DRESSING NEEDED!

I am from East Saint Louis. I will always cherish my hometown and know the good that comes from there ( especially in its people ). I am not here to debate or argue about what has caused (or is causing ) the plight of my hometown, but I will always have hope that one day, the city will make it out if this dark narrative and have a better story.

I remember an old joke on "The Simpsons" when the local members of MENSA ended up taking over Springfield and tried to implement improvements in the town to help it, then reported on their results: "And thanks to our improvements, we are now ranked 999th out of the top 1000 places to live in the USA! Take that, East St. Louis!"

You've never been there? All you have to do is drive through it (quickly in an armored vehicle). The racial makeup of the city is 97.74% Black or African-American, 1.23% White. Any other questions?

I live in St. Louis, we have similar problems with the north side of the city. It's called "white flight". Black people moved in, white people moved out; industry and commercial business move out, poverty goes up, crime goes up, blight goes up, etc. It started with suburbanization back in the 50's and 60's. It seems to have hit the east side especially hard. My grandmother grew up in ESTL in the 30's and 40's, and it used to be a nice working class city.

I grew up there. It was such a nice little city and safe. Now no one wants to even go there. I have no home town to go back to or a high school reunion. It makes me so sad

Man I'm from here we call it east boog. Crazy how buddy skipped up the politicians embezzling millions and pocketing it and caught after spending it. Imagine some person not from here giving the outside view of it. Yes it's bad and crime ridden I left it too. But alot of things go unnoticed. I still love the city they've got some of the best soul food around. There are some good people who live there still to this day.

My mother, who is 93, grew up there. She said there was a gangster that ran the place and during that time, it was a safe place to live. When he died, it deteriorated and became a dangerous place to live.

This barely scratches the surface of ESTL history. I'm more nervous working in St louis City than I ever will be in East St Louis.

In a nutshell, the whites moved away.

Another sad story in Illinois is Cairo.

What happened ? The original owners and families that had pride in this area are long gone . Cities are being bought up by investment companies that only care about rent and never put money back into the buildings to keep them looking good . When neighborhoods fall apart they turn into hoods . Unfortunately this is happening just about everywhere .

"ROLL EM UP!" - Clark Griswold

I go roller skating at Skate City in EStl. Wonderful place. Lots of wonderful people call EStl home.

Not a single mention of how drastically the racial demographics of the city changed in its history.

I used to deliver pizza and guard a truck stop in East St. Louis.

I grew up in E St Louis in the 40's, 50's & 60's. I left in early 1964 for the USMC & Vietnam and never really returned except for short visits. I now live about 35 miles away in High Ridge MO. I guess I didn't realize just how bad it was. I thought that I had a pretty dang good childhood. The blight didnt really start until the late 60's. My house at 508 N 43rd St still stands although it has iron bars over the doors and windows now. It stands just a few blocks from E St Louis Senior High School.

Interesting. Never been to the "East St. Boogie" however, traveled pass there while back in college playing baseball. From pictures & videos, it looks and even sounds similar to Gary, Indiana. I've seen Gary personally when dating an ex-lady friend. Riding thru Gary is very surreal, and then to learn of the actual history, Gary and East St have very similar patterns

You didn't bother to mention it's demographics problem which is probably it's biggest problem.

I think we all know what happened to east st louis

I moved to St Louis on March 2021 and lived there for a year. I didn't go to East St Louis, I really enjoy my time living there. The state parks, museum, zoo, and many events are free. I enjoyed the architecture of the city. St Louis has many potentials if things are managed correctly. I encourage everyone to visit St Louis and expert part of America's city and culture. I wish St Louis a prosperous future.

My parents moved to E. St. Louis in 1954 from SE Missouri, and I was 10 years old at that time. It was a beautiful exciting city then and somewhere in the '50's the city was even named an All American City. We lived at 2616 Bond Ave but now that place is just empty lots. Then things had turned so bad in just 4 years we were forced to moved to Southern Il in Sept 1958. I have many fond memories of E St Louis but if I were to tell you the main reason the city went downhill then, and is still going downhill, I would be accused of being racist.

I used to work at lot close by, and I have worked with people that actively found bullet casings on the lot, and have seen/heard stray fire in their vacinity. I, myself, have heard gunfire close enough to make me hit the deck.

Unlike St. Louis, MO, whose major industries were founded and run by people who lived in St. Louis, and had a long-term financial interest in what happened to the companies that they lived near, the major industries in East St. Louis, IL were founded and run by people who lived in the eastern United States, men like Andrew Carnegie and J.P. Morgan. Once they got what they wanted, and the businesses no longer made them money, they pulled out and this was part of the decline. The men in New England didn't care what happened in Western Illinois. They already had their money. The businesses that once thrived there left behind loads of environmental waste that make it too expensive to attract new businesses that don't want to spend money to clean up all the stuff that has leaked into the ground and been left behind in the old factories and plants. It's cheaper to build on clean ground or move into a clean building. Sure, it's always easy to blame race for our cities problems, but that's what uninformed people do, find a scapegoat and blame all the problems on them instead of learning that the problem has many more layers to it and has decades of built-up issues besides just racial and social issues.

I had to go to East St. Louis for work about 20 years ago. I will never go back there again. What a dump!

As part of it's storied history the area was dealt a major social and economic blow during the racially motivated labor riot of 1917 leaving an estimated 6,000 homeless with entire sections of the city burned down.

I went to Lincoln in Jefferson City in the late '60's. Went home with kids from St. Louis during breaks. The St. Louis clubs closed at 2:00am. Everyone would then cross the bridge to ESTL cuz the clubs stayed open til 4...maybe daybreak, don't remember. There was also a record shop that only sold '45's singles for $1. For $6 you could get a record and a nickel bag. Good times back then.

All of IL is in such massive debt that I really don't know how they can possibly come out of it.

Yea I would say a big thing too is that the st louis population has always consistently moved to the west which means all the entertainment and stores moved that way too which hurt east st louis even more

I used to work construction in East St. Louis. People would just walk up and steal things from your job site without any fear. I work IT now and still have to go to ESTL a few times a month to the courthouse. Sad place.

My dad was from and grew up in ESTL. I remember growing up when he was in the Navy and someone would ask him where he was from, he always specifically said “St. Louis” because he said the first time he said “East St. Louis” people tried to start fights with him on the ship cause they assumed the worst of people from ESTL

The problem with STL and ESTL is a result of the people have become institutionalized. STL hasn’t had a republican mayor since 1948. It is a democrat run and controlled cabal that has an interest in running it down. There have been a few conservative young, highly intelligent republicans who are black who ran for office and they couldn’t break that barrier. If Tim Scott, a black conservative senator from South Carolina came to STL, they wouldn’t give him the time of day. The only way to change any of this is a cultural revolution….not a mere shift, a revolution.

Couple notable events, there were racial tensions in early 1900s with black migration from the south.. a lot more detail the documentation could go into. Also more recent decades, the city hall deed was awarded by a judge to someone when ESL wouldn’t pay a judgement esl lost. When driving thru esl watch out for missing manhole covers that were stolen and sold for scrap metal… speaking of which, prior to the great flood of 93, someone did the same with the flood gate.. and the flood gate was really needed in 1993.

Violence and crime is what moves good people out of good neighbor hood's. Its like the devil moving in someone's heart and life. Nothing but down fall

The whole East Side is for sale and if you all were smart you’d start buying. On the other hand everyone I meet from Saint Louis tells me how hard it is to own property in Saint Louis When I look at impoverished area’s I tend to see opportunities Example: Washington Park has 5000 people, 8 strip clubs 7 liquor stores and a churches chicken. No tire shop No laundrymat No barbershop etc.

look at the racial demographics in these towns and cities, it will speak volumes. Not saying one race is better or worse, but look at the population currently vs when the city was at it's best. That will tell you ALOT! Also look at what political party is and was is power.

Businesses don’t want to move to east St. Louis? I personally know millionaires complaining about the strong hold the government has on east St. Louis. They just wont build it back up while its 99.9% black owned and operated. It’s the politicians. It’s the best empty plot of land in the country commercially.

I visited the area and it gives the vibe that it reached its peak in the 1960s. Lots of people warned me not go to East St. Louis.

Such a crime free beautiful community.

East St. Louis is and has been so jacked up for so long, Carpenter used it, WITHOUT MODIFICATION, as a stand in for post apocalyptic New York, in "Escape from New York." Let that sink in. That was 1981.

I grew up in Belleville in the 70s and 80s - I could quickly and accurately sum up what happened but you all would not like it

Anybody that's ever been there knows exactly why it's in the shape it's in even if they don't want to say it

it seems like it used to be such a beautiful city.. As someone who lives 20ish miles from ESTL I wish something could be done to make it beautiful again..

My Hometown! Born & Raised!! 😏

It's been like this for DECADES. Escape From New York was shot there because of how it looked and that was in 1981.

East St Louis Illinois is a third world ghetto. With per capita violent crimes it is ranked as the sixth most dangerous city in the world. I cut all ties with East St Louis on December 24, 1979 when Hunter meatpacking closed.

SAME THING THAT HAPPENS TO ANY DEMOCRATIC CONTROLLED CITY...... MISERY AND DECAY..... GEE THANKS DEMOCRATS

I lived in Fairview Heights most my life right off the edge of East Saint. I can tell you the poverty and crime has been consistently creeping out of there and into neighboring towns as the years have passed. I'm glad I moved away from there and into MO. I used to work for Home City Ice delivering ice bags to all the gas stations and shops in ESTL, it was a terrible job and the people were terrible. Being white in ESTL instantly makes you an outcast and I had 2 situations of people trying to rob ice from our truck because they had no AC in the summer.

The area around the casino boat is a good place to take a photo of St Louis across the river, because there is nothing immediately around it (or at least there wasn't twenty years ago). But between there and I-70, don't stop, and keep your doors locked.

The Illinois state government will only concern itself with one city…Chicago. Thus, East St. Louis fate was cemented.

Democrats happened to East St Louis. It’s my hometown but a true embarrassment and a sad place to live.

It's the bad ones living there..I used to deliver to local stores and gas stations.. you'd walk thru the front door and be walled off from the store you had to point to what you wanted and the worker would slide it to you thru a drawer after you paid. Every owner had a gun right by their side... crime.. homes with steel bars around windows and their ac units..I delivered to multiple surrounding communities.. east st. Louis was the worse..

I live in St. Louis-as other commenters have stated it’s not the safest area. I’ve driven through East St. Louis and their Main Street is amazing with beautiful architecture. If things could get renovated in someway-could be a nice place to live once more. However, I’m sure the nearby strip clubs don’t help with the cause.

Man estl not even that bad as folks make it seem. I am a 19 yr old college student who is from estl and currently living in estl. If you going spread some information about estl make sure you do some research next time and look up the estl massacre. Stop looking outside the city and chill with the people of estl

I blame our politicians. It was once great and now literally in ruins

My dad grew up in ESL but bought his first home with my mom in Olivette. Sad to see what happened to this once amazing city. I believe at one point is was named the All American City, beautiful homes, shopping, great placed to eat. I live just outside of St. Louis and it makes me so sad to hear the negative comments. I don't know if ESL can be saved, but St. Louis is an amazing city with museums, a world class zoo, fine dinging, grate Italian on the Hill. Like any big city you just have to know what areas to steer clear from (North side mostly)

This short vid missed the largest cause of ESL's demise. Many of large local factories outside ESL incorporated their properties into their own "towns". Once this happened, the businesses in those sham townships were protected from being incorporated or annexed into ESL's city limits. This meant ESL could not collect the taxes or impact fees needed for services like fire and police departments, health departments, trash collection, or school districts. Private business concerns benefitted from the presence of a workforce but avoided funding the services required to sustain that workforce. Some of the blame for this falls on local and state regulators that allowed the sham incorporations to happen in the first place. ESL is a textbook example of what happens when private business interests are allowed to operate with no obligation to sustain the conditions that allow them to thrive in the first place, and government won’t or can’t step in to correct the situation.

Even not considering the crime, what company in their right mind would want to build where they have to pay Illiniois tax rates when they could be right over the border with Missouri tax rates?

The only reason St. Louis itself hasn’t completely imploded similarly is because there are still jobs. The place is essentially a few major companies leaving before it all rolls downhill and slams into the ground. What’s weird is when the Cardinals were working on getting their new stadium deal, they threatened to build it in east St. Louis and I swear I cannot believe they even said it. TF I’m going to east St. Louis to watch a game. I wouldn’t have a car by the 7th inning stretch. It was the stupidest bluff ever.

There’s a reason the first blues song was called “saint louis blues” and Duke Ellingtons first song was called “east saint Louis toodle-Oo”💀

My father was stationed at Scott Air Force Base in the ‘60s. My mother would take us to the Sears (remember Sears?) in East St. Louis. We then moved overseas for three years. We came back in 1970. Everything had changed. The parking garage had chain link on all the openings. The people we met in the store were polite, but they recommended we not come back. That store closed soon afterwards.

My household was one of the few white (passing) families that still lived there ( N 16th street, near the Henrietta cross street) until about 84, my cousin lived near the old Ventures store, can't remember the name anymore. Drove through there not long ago going back to visit family in the area and didn't even recognize it, most the homes I knew, including my own, are gone, nothing in its spot, just empty land.

What your "sources" won't tell you is that the Eads Bridge connecting East St Louis to St Louis helped it thrive early on.

It’s a cesspool and I’ve been robbed multiple times growing up in granite city and driving through the trash

East St. Louis is NOT St. Louis. East St Louis is not safe so no one goes there. It’s pretty simple.

I remember going through there with my Dad on one of his business trips in the 60s. Big street fair going on. We didn’t get out of the car. For years I drove around it because I-70 was under construction and it would dump you off in the middle of the hood

ESTL is Chicago's little brother. Both are a blight.

It's the wiki reference for me, y'all. East St. Louis most definitely saw an uptick in crime and an unwillingness to populate the space, but we have to contextualize it with an entire race riot in the early 20th century (right before that mid-20th century downturn that was discussed in the video) and substantial redlining from downtown through to easternmost East St. Louis. Moreover, the historical context of that city's loss is reflected in the existence of the Delmar Divide in St. Louis and the increasing suburbanization of surrounding areas. Things like race riots and the departure of a white community alongside severe redlining can help gangs metastasize and, moreover, could speak to the criminalization of a community rather than a criminal action. (We have to ask what outside of gang-related crimes is being considered when we discuss crimes. Do we trust the wiki recollection?) That community, in earnest, lost its ability to sustain wealth and growth through disruption of its economic infrastructure as white people in Jim Crow-era to segregationist America flocked away from the city, taking wealth along with them. The sustained, systemic impact is the long-term disruption that you see in dilapidated buildings and crumbling infrastructure, which could always be returned to its higher status with the integration of resources from local and state governments, continued taxation, and a variety of other political actions. TLDR; no need to Debbie downer a town with a significant Black population. It's part of the narrative of areas like Washington D.C.'s Anacostia region "Chocolate City" to become seemingly uninhabitable and destitute when the projection is missing a key portion of the narrative. They tend to come back or thrive on their own away from bright, white lights.

Corrupt Politicians is what happened...

I live in st.louis, i can tell you exactly what happened. They let the wrong class of people in that area and they drove it to what it is today. It's spreading too.

As I understand it St Louis itself is one of the most dangerous cities in America

Nice video. Sad but true. Illinois could be amazing from North to South with it's resources. The whole State is becoming E. St. Louis.

This place has been a dive just as long as I can remember. The most basic reason things got bad there and dived even harder is the same thing that happened to Gary, and Windsor. You had a suburb (and a "working class" one at that) on the wrong side of a state line. This means that when things start to go bad, the "wrong" side can't pull revenue from the "successful" side (they are easy to cut off) AND they aren't tied into their "own" state. ESL is FAR from any Illinois population center (the cross-river parts of Cincinnati for example can lean a bit on Louisville) that they are likely to have little political influence. River towns have been in decline for decades. Some are really bad (Cairo is in dire shape) others are at least treading water so to speak (Quincy is an hour or two up-river, and while it isn't thriving, it's reasonably safe). BTW, where exactly does "St Louis Metro" end? that's a LOT of people for not all that much city.

East St Louis isn't near as dangerous as it used to be. I walk there a lot and everyone's friendly, and I almost never hear of any news from there.

"the BLUE NOTE" featuring Leo's 5. loved that place

East St. Louis strikes me as the Camden of St. Louis. The difference is of course, St. Lois isn't Philadelphia, so the decline would be even worse.

What a crock ! We that live in Missouri know the reason why this once great city is now a slum

In 1960 it was a award winning community but under the control of mob boss Buster Workman. Since then it has declined to the point of being almost unlivable. Murders are common and the city looks like a war zone. I used to commute to St. Louis University from Lebanon Il and when the highway was diverted through E. St Louis for construction, I made sure my doors were locked and made "Hollywood Stops"' at intersections just so noone could hijack my car. The city needs tobe torn down and redeveloped. St. Louis is also becoming a hell hole of crime. I used to go there 10 or 12 times a year as a kid and lived there for eight years while in college and law school. Now I only go to the hospital for care and refuse to stay for anything else.

It is the saddest city I've ever seen.

Raising property taxes was like the nail in the coffin. Illinois has high property taxes , especially compared to Missouri. Between Chicago and East St. Louis, Illinois has pattern of once great cities that have turned for the worse.

Crime took over, business owners pulled out. They went to St. Charles, O'Fallon to start over. This happens when you don't have severe punishment for wrongful behavior.

You have to be blind or naive to not understand what the real problem is. Take one walk through the city and it’s obvious. Of course, it’s no surprise that it’s not addressed in this video.

I knew a guy who was taking his family on vacation in their brand new station wagon and they accidentally got lost in East St.louis. When he stopped to ask for directions they stole the hubcaps off his brand new car! They should make a movie with that scene in it.🤣😎

The state of illinois didn’t care. Bad state, bad city

East St. Louis, Gary, and Camden can be friends

Much decline... Between 2010 and 2020, the combined statistical area (CSA) grew 1.12% from 2.89M to 2.92M. East St. Louis is a sad, yet hopeful story. The rest of the Metro-East is growing, too.

STL area resident. A number of years ago I saw a sign outside one of the churches in Belleville, IL, a bit east of ESTL. It was advertising a "Clean Up ESTL Day" and recruiting volunteers. Commendable on the part of the church, trying to help a neighboring community. But I had a thought. Why can't ESTL citizens clean up their own community? I understand there is widespread poverty but it doesn't cost anything to pick up trash. Do ESTL residents have such little pride that they are unwilling to keep their city clean? Maybe I'm wrong but that was my first thought.

What happened? Blacks happened, that's what. Any other answer would dishonest.

👏🏻 great job. Sadly, East Stl will prob never recover.

If East Saint wasn't in Illinois it would probably still be a viable place to live. ESTL would probably mirror the Missouri side. I've been to East St Louis a bunch of times, it has so much potential

I understand St.Louis also has problems. As soon as you deindustrialize, there goes the economy and blight sets in.

Amusing in the video it said that St Louis was a functioning city. Barely. The St Louis and immediate Illinois metro area is basically Thunder Dome mixed with Escape From New York, ironically, was filmed in east st Louis. The grand experiment of the U S city is a failure. Modern transportation helped the populations move out of the inner cities,but politicians selling out our manufacturing to places like China and others was the biggest death nail to many cities.

Its in Illinois. Need you say more.