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Posted: 1/29/2011 7:15:50 AM EDT

[#1]

Last there in about 1973. You didn't get off the main road then - and I could imagine that things have not improved.

Posted: 1/29/2011 7:19:12 AM EDT

[#2]

Quoted:

I gotta call bullshit on worse than Detroit.

I live in Detroit. I've been to East St. Louis. ESL is worse overall. Detroit actually has some areas that are fairly nice.

Posted: 1/29/2011 7:37:25 AM EDT

[#3]

I was actually born there but then lived in a nearby town. It's pretty much what everyone says it is. We never went anywhere near there without a trunk full of baseball bats when we were kids - that was when we thought we were immortal. White guys were not welcome. High school sports events held there were always very tense and we always left ASAP. Even then we had rocks thrown at the bus - big rocks. Stuff was always getting stolen, people getting beat up or worse.

I still go through there a couple of times a year (Metrolink) to visit family. It is a shit hole and war zone, been that way since the 60s. I would not willingly drive through ESL in a car unless it was an absolute emergency. Even daylight travel is not safe for a gringo. The times I have done it, I rolled every red light & stop sign in town in order to keep moving.

And if you think ESL is bad, try Brooklyn, IL. It's pretty bad when Wiki has a picture of the strip bars ("adult entertainment strip") as the headline picture for the town. At one time, I think Brooklyn made the cover of Time magazine due to murders and corruption. Both towns are a complete total loss

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooklyn,_Illinois

Posted: 1/29/2011 7:43:19 AM EDT

[#4]

Quoted:
East St. Louis is an outstanding example of a city that is improving itself despite the economy.

Lots of thriving business, prosperous and happy residents, and pleasant police officers.

Easy access off I-64, and a river frontage begging more harbor activity.

E. St. Louis would probably love to annex Brooklyn to absorb some of its fine businesses that promote the arts, especially dancing.

Just read your post. In my current situation, I don't laugh much but I sure did today. Thank You.

Posted: 1/29/2011 7:48:37 AM EDT

[#5]

Quoted:
Escape From New York was supposedly filmed in E. St. Louis.

I believe your are correct. I think part of it was filmed in ESL and other parts were in run down parts of St. Louis itself. I met one of the actors during filming in St. Louis. It was the guy who shot Snake (Kurt Russel) in the leg with an arrow. I don't think they had to do much with the sets used for filming, they just left it as it was.

Posted: 1/29/2011 7:55:22 AM EDT

[#6]

Yes it is an A class shit hole.

Posted: 1/29/2011 8:10:52 AM EDT

[#7]

I used to remodel KFC restaurants and had the pleasure of working on the east side a couple of times. We always had to watch out for each other as we moved tools and materials in and out. We always worked at night so they could be open for business during the day. Late one night working by myself a very large black guy wanted me to open the door for him so he could use the bathroom. I told him no way. He then started beating on the door and window screaming at me to let him in. I called my boss the next morning and quit. Fuck that shit hole they call East STL.

Posted: 1/29/2011 8:22:11 AM EDT

[#8]

Quoted:

Quoted:

I gotta call bullshit on worse than Detroit.

I live in Detroit. I've been to East St. Louis. ESL is worse overall. Detroit actually has some areas that are fairly nice.

And here are some figures to back back up Beretta92F:

(From Wikipedia)

East St. Louis has one of the highest crime rates in the United States. According to FBI's data of 2007, its murder rate hit 101.9 per population of 100,000, surpassing that of cities such as Gary, Indiana (48.3 per pop. 100,000), New Orleans, Louisiana (37.6), Baltimore, Maryland (43.3), and Detroit, Michigan (47.3), as well as that of its neighbor St. Louis (37.2). FBI data shows East St. Louis' rate of rape exceeded 250 per population of 100,000.

Posted: 1/29/2011 8:25:07 AM EDT

[#9]

I was looking at East St. Louis on Google Maps and there are areas where you can't use street-level viewing, because the folks from Google aren't stupid enough to drive through there with their cameras.

Posted: 1/29/2011 8:40:26 AM EDT

[#10]

Lot of vacant lots. Won't be long until you can put it under the plow and raise corn.

Posted: 1/29/2011 8:42:49 AM EDT

[#11]

Spent a week up in that area for work, place is spooky.

Posted: 1/29/2011 8:47:15 AM EDT

[#12]

I got lost in East St Louis in 2001 once when I took a wrong turn off the interstate AT NIGHT when I was driving from AZ to IL to visit family. What a shithole. I didn't think I was going to make it out alive.

Posted: 1/29/2011 8:49:45 AM EDT

[#13]

Isn't there a P.T.'s Showclub there?

Posted: 1/29/2011 8:59:59 AM EDT

[#14]

Quoted:

Isn't there a P.T.'s Showclub there?

Last I heard there was one in Centerville, and one in Sauget.

Posted: 1/29/2011 9:42:03 AM EDT

[#15]

Quoted:
I am exactly 3 min, and less than 1 mile from there right now....

Rig the bridged and buy some mortars

Posted: 1/29/2011 9:56:25 AM EDT

[#16]

One of my old squad members was born and raised there. His after school activity he told me was getting drunk with his buddies and taking turns shooting a .22 at traffic on the interstate.

Posted: 1/29/2011 9:58:20 AM EDT

[#17]

I've driven through a few times. To show the kids what a real Ghetto looks like.

Posted: 1/29/2011 10:05:06 AM EDT

[#18]

Quoted:
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a288/callgood/esl.jpg?t=1296322660

Lot of vacant lots. Won't be long until you can put it under the plow and raise corn.

You'll turn tractor jack into tractor jacked if you do that.

Posted: 1/29/2011 7:25:36 PM EDT

[#19]

Quoted:
E. St. Louis was never as bad as Brooklyn, IL and the other smaller outlying towns. At least, it was that way when I lived in the general area, which has thankfully been more than 10 years ago.

Brooklyn, or as we refer to it as Love Joy, reminds me of the movie Porky's. When I was a cop, I had to go down there and pick up a prisoner. Couldn't find the P.D. and found an ambulance crew parked in front of one of the many strip joints. Went to ask for directions to find out they where getting strippers phone numbers. I finally found the P.D., which consists of a small room, no secure doors, etc. The prisoner was handcuffed to the wall sitting next to the dispatcher, when I got him into my squad car, and left the greater Brooklyn/East St. Louis area he actually thanked me. I asked him what he was talking about, he stated that he thought they where going to take him out back and kill him at one point.

Needless to say, the whole area needs to be carpet bombed by a squadron of B-52's.

If you talk to some of the older people in my area who actually lived in ESL as a kid, state that it used to be a very safe and great place to live. When they started bringing in labor forces from the south, it went to hell, real quick.

Posted: 1/29/2011 7:41:04 PM EDT

[#20]

Stay on the Interstate do not get off!!!! Would rather go to Detroit. You can CCW there.

Posted: 1/29/2011 8:33:12 PM EDT

[#21]

Quoted:
I did some work in a tank farm there once. First day on the job Police Officer came in and gave the whole crew a stern talking to, and then almost had a fit when we told him what motel we were staying at. NO stopping on the way through the hood, roll through stop signs. If we get stopped at a light and someone starts to approach the vehicle turn or as a last ditch blow the light. DO NOT open the motel door after dark or for anyone we didn't know. If we wake up at night and somebody is breaking in to our vehicles, just let it go, call the cops they would get around to do a report.

Several years ago one of our Commanders was in StL for a conference and stopped in ESL for a beer the afternoon they were coming home. Our community has similar demographics so he didn't think too much about it.

A PD Sgt pulled up, walked into the bar and (essentially) told him to finish his beer and GTFO. He told him he wasn't going to fill out another homicide report on a "dumb*ss white boy".

Posted: 1/29/2011 9:49:40 PM EDT

[#22]

So basically what you people are saying is that it's a nice place to visit but you wouldn't want to live there?

Posted: 1/30/2011 5:14:07 AM EDT

[#23]

shit hole! but some of the best strip clubs anywhere are in the general area

Posted: 1/30/2011 5:23:48 AM EDT

[#24]

AeroE, you got a sunroof on one of your vehicles? We could drive around EStL and take turns playing turret gunner. Sad thing is we'd probably have to meet up with BeltfedMG's and use his hardware if we wanted to make it out alive.

Posted: 1/30/2011 5:29:58 AM EDT

[#25]

Quoted:
'bout once every other week...

Quite possibly the most depressing thing I have ever seen is Stop signs bolted to non-working traffic light poles.

Very true about stop signs nailed onto all of the traffic lights. Every 3rd house is boarded up. Piles of garbage along the sidewalks. Its like Somalia.

Posted: 1/30/2011 5:38:52 AM EDT

[#26]

Quoted:
I spent about 10 years of my life growing up in St. Clair County. Been there? Lol, shit I had a great experience there on my 17th birthday. Memories.

Being there during the day wasn't too bad, but you just had to make sure you got out before the sun went down. It's the surrounding ghetto's that are worse. Brooklyn, Washington Park, Cahokia, Sauget and some of EStL flowed over into the west side of Belleville.

The shitty thing is you have to go through EStL to get to the river boats and the strip clubs.

Remember Brooklyn? Damn, ESL had suburbs. Bet its all burned by now.

Posted: 1/30/2011 5:45:03 AM EDT

[#27]

Quoted:
AeroE, you got a sunroof on one of your vehicles? We could drive around EStL and take turns playing turret gunner. Sad thing is we'd probably have to meet up with BeltfedMG's and use his hardware if we wanted to make it out alive.

Pickups work better, but ESL ain't worth the effort.

The Kenyan should have spent some of that "stimulus" money in ESL and north St. Louis, pushing down burned out, abandoned, and falling down buildings. Clear the way for new development at best, eliminate hiding places and clear the skyline at worst.

Quoted:
East St. Louis is an outstanding example of a city that is improving itself despite the economy.

Lots of thriving business, prosperous and happy residents, and pleasant police officers.

Easy access off I-64, and a river frontage begging more harbor activity.

would you live there?

Probably not, but he'd be glad to travel there to tell another joke.

Well, no, I avoid the place. I don't even like driving past past on the interstate. The danger over there is not to be dismissed out of hand.

Back when I was bullet proof, we went to a couple of clubs just off the interstate - Pops and another place whose name I don't remember. Pops was flat out dangerous inside and out, a real bad mix of bikers, hicks, and hood rats all looking for an excuse to show off the chip on their shoulders.

Posted: 1/30/2011 5:57:15 AM EDT

[#28]

Ghetto. I felt safer in Baghdad, as in Baghdad, we could be armed. No such luck in IL.

I was stationed at Scott AFB for 4 years. Local cops told us to ignore all traffic signs if we got caught in East STL. Just floor it and GTFO.

Posted: 1/30/2011 6:04:08 AM EDT

[#29]

Quoted:

Quoted:

Thanks very much to my brother in law's useless TomTom, I got turned around in East St. Louis last July. I believe we got off at 4th Street and turned around, as I remember we had to wait for the MetroLink train to pass just before we got back on the expressway.

Linda and I were passing through there one time, and due to construction I messed up and got lost. We ended up under the highway, near the river, and the road just ended where it was unused and overgrown with weeds. I found my way back to a highway entrance, but we were getting the stink-eye from some of the locals.

Like this ––––––––>

I know exactly where your talking about. Kinda by the Federal Courthouse...

Try repoing down there! Did it a few times, but my buddy was down there constantly! He was fired at numerous times.

Posted: 1/30/2011 6:05:41 AM EDT

[#30]

My wife and I stayed in STL for our honeymoon. Had a great time.

However, one night, around 10:30 or 11:00pm, we were out seeing the sights in downtown STL (which was very nice), and I tried to get closer to the riverfront. Well, I got closer all right. Some small bridge that took us to ESTL.

I was calm but nervous... I was wearing two guns. When I told the wife where we were going to be in a minute or so, she was halfway freaked out, fearful of getting carjacked - or worse.

We got over there and found it was more or less like an apocalyptic movie set. There were blocks of abandoned buildings with no power... no street lights, no nothing. No people either.

I'm pretty sure I saw that building, although that tree on the top floor was MUCH bigger... like ten or twenty years' of growth bigger.

I turned on the Garmin and while waiting for it to get warmed up, we had ourselves a little tour.

We saw a convenience store with no loiterers. The GPS took us past the police department, which was the other place besides the convenience store that was fairly well lit. Again, nobody around.

Passed maybe a half-dozen cars while there and got back on the interstate and got our asses back to civilization.

Posted: 1/30/2011 6:23:41 AM EDT

[#31]

ESL used to have a stock yard and we hauled hogs every 3-4 weeks to the market. Over the years we saw the area fall worse and worse. At the end, livestock trucks would get to the stockyards and you always looked to see if any had been shot. The locals would sit on porch and drop a cap at the trailer for fun. NO Shit.

Posted: 1/30/2011 6:37:03 AM EDT

[#32]

Actually I think there is money to be made in those area. The bricks and other parts

like wood floors and timbers in those old buildings are worth $$$$. It would be a

good way to employ people by dismantling those homes and buildings.

Posted: 1/30/2011 7:12:48 AM EDT

[#33]

I used to drive through every day to and from work for the last nine years.

I actually know a lot of routes through ESL neighborhoods especially if you get caught behind a train(often the trains stop on the street loading and unloading).

Occasionally if I'm driving to the Belleville gun show, I'll take my friends through for a little culture shock :)

I never ran into any trouble, and I have no trouble driving through today, but I'm probably pushing my luck.

Posted: 1/30/2011 7:19:12 AM EDT

[#34]

Live about 90 minutes away all my life. Been there a few times, no desire to go back.

I've never been to Detroit so I can't compare it but there are neighborhoods in east STL that I would never drive through. There are places I have driven through where I've taken my gun out of the holster and put it under my thigh though while telling the wife "Hey look at that cool old building" so she doesn't see it and freak.

And by gun I mean a Rings Blue Gun since we were in IL.

Posted: 1/30/2011 7:35:59 AM EDT

[#35]

I last saw the place around 2004 while touring what's left of Rt.66. I was concerned about breaking down. This is what NAFTA, high taxes and the war on poverty can create in any urban area.

Posted: 1/30/2011 7:38:05 AM EDT

[#36]

its Blacktopia and obama wants to use it as a model for the rest of the U.S

Posted: 1/30/2011 7:49:57 AM EDT

[#37]

Quoted:

Quoted:
Isn't there a P.T.'s Showclub there?

Last I heard there was one in Centerville, and one in Sauget.

I was in the one in Sauget Friday night....... It was awesome! but we don't have stuff like that in idaho.....

I met some very talented young ladies....

Posted: 1/30/2011 7:51:19 AM EDT

[#38]

Gary Indiana is a real winner. I used to drive a truck for a HVAC company and make deliveries on 6th and Broadway. There is/was a Popeyes fried chicken there that looked like a bank vault. No dining area, just a drive through with a teller window like the bank or some of your gas stations. The Cal Harbor CG station is an eye to behold as well.

Posted: 1/30/2011 8:38:00 AM EDT

[#39]

Once again I will say it again... Tell me of a place where the majority of the population is black ANYWHERE in the world and it is successful, thriving and not corrupt????

Blacks need to grow up like Bill Cosby said himself.....

they have the greatest capacity to be one of the most productive citizens in the world if they would grow some balls and work together instead of getting into this tribal bullshit and gangster, hip hop bullshit.

I sound racist....maybe ......stereotyping...yeah of course.......

I just want them as a while to succeed and become better human beings but I am not seeing that very much sadly...

Posted: 1/30/2011 8:49:39 AM EDT

[#40]

My favorite bar was there...the Belvedere Lounge...my hangout...

Posted: 1/30/2011 9:14:31 AM EDT

[#41]

Quoted:
Once again I will say it again... Tell me of a place where the majority of the population is black ANYWHERE in the world and it is successful, thriving and not corrupt????

Blacks need to grow up like Bill Cosby said himself.....

they have the greatest capacity to be one of the most productive citizens in the world if they would grow some balls and work together instead of getting into this tribal bullshit and gangster, hip hop bullshit.

I sound racist....maybe ......stereotyping...yeah of course.......

I just want them as a while to succeed and become better human beings but I am not seeing that very much sadly...

Has nothing to do with race-there are plenty of ghettos with other ethnic groups that are just as bad(white, hispanic, asian..you name it..). The root of the problem is what I call "ghetto Culture"...a society that has no family structure(resulting in badly adjusted people), gangs/tribalism, greed, lack of motivation to improve one's self(and those that do go on to better things are called a traitor of some sort) and other similar things.

This is brought on by the free government handouts AKA the "war on poverty" and the overall lack of self responsibility that entails.

ESTL is Detriot light would be a good way to put it...

Posted: 1/30/2011 10:44:53 AM EDT

[#42]

Quoted:

Actually I think there is money to be made in those area. The bricks and other parts
like wood floors and timbers in those old buildings are worth $$$$. It would be a
good way to employ people by dismantling those homes and buildings.

I've thought about that many times but if i wanted to get into this business there are actually many more buildings just like them on the MO side and we'd have the advantage of having an armed crew.

Posted: 1/30/2011 11:58:12 AM EDT

[#43]

Quoted:
I spent about 10 years of my life growing up in St. Clair County. Been there? Lol, shit I had a great experience there on my 17th birthday. Memories.

Being there during the day wasn't too bad, but you just had to make sure you got out before the sun went down. It's the surrounding ghetto's that are worse. Brooklyn, Washington Park, Cahokia, Sauget and some of EStL flowed over into the west side of Belleville.

The shitty thing is you have to go through EStL to get to the river boats and the strip clubs.

So, you're saying that the road to good inventions is paved with Hell?

Posted: 1/30/2011 12:06:08 PM EDT

[#44]

Quoted:
Gary Indiana is a real winner. I used to drive a truck for a HVAC company and make deliveries on 6th and Broadway. There is/was a Popeyes fried chicken there that looked like a bank vault. No dining area, just a drive through with a teller window like the bank or some of your gas stations. The Cal Harbor CG station is an eye to behold as well.

Is he any kin to Judy Chicago?

Posted: 1/30/2011 12:08:20 PM EDT

[#45]

CrimeEast Saint LouisNational average Detroit
Murder101.9 5.6 47.3
Rape251.3 32.2
Robbery1,347.0 195.4
Assault5,847.3 340.1
Burglary2,442.8 814.5
Automobile theft 2,067.5 526.5

per 100,000 people

Posted: 1/31/2011 4:05:24 AM EDT

[#46]

East St Louis is in my area. There's still bad parts but it's not quite the death-trap it used to be.

The area around the Casino Queen is okay––there's signs pointing the way to the casino from the highway, and there's always cop cars w/cops sitting around there too––the casino makes certain of that.

The area around the Federal District court building is okay too, I had to drop by there a year or so ago.

You don't see slums or crack houses along the highway anymore, or if you ride the Metrolink (light rail)–– they got rid of them when they put the Metrolink in. Part of the way is nice shiny new duplexes, that none of the previous inhabitants can possibly afford. The people who used to live there got pushed further off or into other adjoining towns.

You also don't get much gangsta-crap happening on the trains or around the Metrolink stations at all, because even though they do pass through some scary areas, they call out the stormtroopers at the first signs of any trouble. If just one person so much as argues with a Metrolink employee, it's nothing for eight or ten [armed] local police to quickly show up.

Posted: 1/31/2011 4:09:26 AM EDT

[#47]

I thought this was a Steely Dan thread.

Posted: 1/31/2011 4:51:45 AM EDT

[#48]

Quoted:

SNIP

This pic made me sad.

Posted: 1/31/2011 5:07:54 AM EDT

[#49]

I went to college with the son of the Medical Examiner for St. Clair County.

Talk about job security.

Posted: 1/31/2011 6:19:38 AM EDT

[#50]

Quoted:

Once again I will say it again... Tell me of a place where the majority of the population is black ANYWHERE in the world and it is successful, thriving and not corrupt????

Blacks need to grow up like Bill Cosby said himself.....

they have the greatest capacity to be one of the most productive citizens in the world if they would grow some balls and work together instead of getting into this tribal bullshit and gangster, hip hop bullshit.

I sound racist....maybe ......stereotyping...yeah of course.......

I just want them as a while to succeed and become better human beings but I am not seeing that very much sadly...

Generally speaking, and this is real general, the South, at least Florida is far more favorable when it comes to homogeneous culture mixing. When I visited NOLA, I had no issue walking around after dark and taking the trolleys everywhere. Yes, I was packing heavy but I never felt threatened even when I was a minority in a crowd. It was a little odd seeing an armed guard in the TCBY. Pretty much the same thing in this part of Florida. Other than the major metro areas like Miami, Tampa, Jacksonville which are nothing like ESL or Detroit, I wouldn't avoid them at all costs like I would the northern shit holes.

What I find really odd and I discovered this reading about Cairo IL which I've been through, it's like ESL lite, is that crimes against the African American community, lynchings, segregation, all the heinous things the south is generally blamed for occurred in these northern towns, in the Land of Lincoln

You can drive from Cairo IL into KY & it's night & day difference, from despair to prosperity. Pretty evident that the great liberal experiment is a failure.

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - East St. Louis (Page 2 of 3)

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