I was able to make a quick pass through Carrollton during a return trip to the St. Louis area. Just as I expected, what is left of Carrollton has been quietly decaying. The streets, whether blocked off or open to the public, are becoming rough, cracked, and succumbing to mother nature and father time.
Not much action is happening with Lambert International Airport and the City of St. Louis officials. Not long ago, city officials and developers like Paul McKee set their eyes on an attempt to persuade the state legislation to build the infrastructure on a $360 million Asian Cargo Hub. To hear them speak of it, it sounded like a glorious job creation machine with the potential for long-term growth. With the cargo hold, St. Louis would again become an important airline hub, and a major commodities transport center. We would once again be the 8th largest city in the nation, as we were during the beginning of barge and steamboat transport. We would again be in the top 5 busiest airports in the nation.
The problem was, it was our dreams alone. Our cities dreams were not in the minds of those we needed to make this happen. Asian shipping companies already have steady and lucrative contracts with cities such as Dallas, Chicago, and Denver. Overseas shipping continues to be the most cost-effective method to transport goods across the globe as fuel costs continue a steady upward climb. Only St. Louis is interested in making St. Louis the center of transportation once again.
We were excited when we learned that one flight would begin a contracted once-a-week, twice during the holiday season cargo schedule. This was the ‘proof’ that a cargo hub in St. Louis was in demand, and we had the capacity to provide the space, runway, and infrastructure. Two flights came in, and then the cancellations. We went through the holiday season without another cargo delivery, and in return no Missouri goods left for Asia as promised. The one contract our legislators and lobbyists provided with us as proof of the necessity of the project had embarrassingly fallen flat in a time that was supposedly in demand.
We have reached a time in which St. Louis needs to face who we are. We are a small city that continues to get smaller. We should preserve and protect those resources that we do have, not make large gambles on the bigger dreams. St. Louis may never again be the 8th largest city in the United States and its time we accept this fact. Therefore, we should embrace the quaintness of asking one another, “So what high school did you go to?” No, if a major cargo hub would materialize and our town would somehow exponentially grow again, it will not change our local identity. We will still eat toasted ravioli and hate the Cubs. Right now, we need to embrace another aspect of our identity, the skeptical side of being Missourians. We are the Show-Me-State because we believe results only when they are in front of our eyes. We cannot afford to let people tell us, “If we build it, they will come.” Lambert’s own Field of Dreams has resulted in 2,000 buildings destroyed for nothing beyond a massive $1 billion plus debt in which the great-grandchildren of the City of St. Louis will be paying for. The fact that the City of St. Louis owns acres of decaying streets in what should be prime land in the heart of St. Louis County stands as a reminder that we must be cautious, skeptical Missourians when our elected officials want to gamble with our land and economy.
J. Desy Schoenewies
56 Houses Left 
Metropolitan Metamorhosis. Published by the St. Louis Planning Commission -1955. Page 57. “Airports”.
Passenger traffic increased from 1946 ( 111, 827 flights ) to
1, 183,426 in 1954. An increase of 868 %.
And, the major airport plan of 1943 designated that the Illinois portion of the Metropolitan area should be the freight terminal.
In 1955, years before any house were built ….it said that the volume of air traffic at Lambert Field was becoming so great that adjacent ground should be taken by the airport FOR FUTURE EXPANSION OF THE AIRPORT..and to
PROVIDE PROTECTION OF RUNWAY APPROACHES.
Why is eveyone on here in such major denial that the subdivision was built in an place that made it vulnerable to it’s demise?
Tom,
It so happened that I was working today on the research for Carrollton when I came across your question. I think that the question, “Does Bridgeton’s proximity to the airport make it vulnerable for takeover,” is valid. I have not before fully considered all of the factors of this, so I decided to do some reflection. I am glad to have the opportunity to think about this issue and to write an article on it. I already told you in a previous post that it is of no concern to me why Carrollton was built. I still don’t really care how or why it came to existence. I am only concerned with the aspects of its recent demise.
The article currently on front page answers your question regarding whether or not Bridgeton should have been vulnerable to a Lambert buyout. A short summary: no.
It should have been inconceivable, even under the most favorable conditions, that Bridgeton would have succumbed to Lambert’s land grab. Even with those most favorable conditions: Lambert-St. Louis owned by the entire region and not just the City of St. Louis, a major population boom, and Lambert busting at the seams with aviation activity, it would have been best to move Lambert out of the metro area and into an area where it could expand at will, selling off valuable St. Louis County property at a profit to developers. After all, if St. Louis did have all the proper conditions for necessary expansion, what would stop it from needing to expand again in another decade?
An alternative yet equally valid question: Why should anyone choose to sacrifice a relatively densely populated and economically thriving, developed area for a boxed-in airport in a poor location? You said that the 1955 projects showed extreme growth, so why was it not moved away from the an expanding metro area? Other cities have done this during the same time with considerable success. Answer: The City of St. Louis outright refused to discuss relocation possibilities every time other entities within the region brought it up. The City simply did not want to give up control over its largest asset. Had they actually heeded such 1955 projections and moved the airport in the 1960s or 1970s, we would have had the space to accommodate large volumes of international commodities and would actually have a card to play in the Asian cargo game. However, Lambert was only interested in passenger traffic, saw no potential in air cargo, and continued its refusal to consider relocation options. Surprisingly, in spite of those 1955 projections, Lambert (even prior to the new runway) in 1995 was adequately sized for our small city. Now its far too large for our now smaller city and ever shrinking aviation needs. We now have one one of the most backwards and bankrupt airports in existence.
Truthfully, I consider any projections of population and aviation growth from 1955 (made before computer-generated statistical analysis) to have no relevance on the 4 official expansions plans released to the general public in 1989. I’m certain that Lambert did in fact drastically increase air traffic from 1946 to 1955. What do the years between 46-55 have to do with the 89 expansion program? Absolutely nothing.
You made the assumption that Bridgeton was vulnerable to Lambert expansion based on proximity alone. You also made the assumption that expansion should have been foreseen back in 1955 before the houses were built. But was buyout of Carrollton really inevitable? I decided to look into other factors beyond mere physical presence and found that at the time, it should have not been endangered to any reasonable expansion project, despite what we know as the actual outcome. I explained why in the front page. Any further questions regarding the physical location of the community are moot and therefore of no further interest to this blog nor I.
“the major airport plan of 1943 designated that the Illinois portion of the Metropolitan area should be the freight terminal.” Huh? What does this even mean?
Now I want to address the nature of your posts.
This and previous posts from you continue to imply that the residents deserved what they got for simply living there. What you are doing is victim-blaming. Victim blame in ANY shape or form is unnecessary, inflammatory, and frankly insensitive. The residents did nothing to deserve what happened to them. What makes them a victim is how it happened, not why it did. None of them deserved the indignity displayed by Lambert throughout the buyout process. From the first announcement, residents watched their middle-class home values plummet by tens of thousands of dollars. They waited for years, some decades, to hear anything from Lambert concerning when their home would be taken. How can someone plan their future when their equity is tied up in eminent domain limbo? There are stories of people who moved away for work but was forced in rentals for years as they couldn’t sell their house in Bridgeton. Nobody got rich off the buyout. None of the residents made a profit from the buyout, despite the wait. Actual buyout payments worked out to be less than similar contemporary parcels of real estate. Most of the people I talked to actually lost money through the long wait or having to make necessary home improvements such as replacement furnace, roof repair, etc., which were not reimbursed by Lambert. They lived in fear of the vacant house next door and the crime it attracted. Arson and theft became regular occurrences. As Bridgeton was losing land, it was losing its tax base. Unaffected businesses surrounding the area, including all of Northwest Plaza, shuttered as Carrollton was being wiped from the map. Basic services like electricity, water, and gas were constantly disrupted. The area was the last to have electricity restored during periods of power outages. Waiting three days for electricity after an outage was expected after a storm. Mail, yard waste, and trash services became erratic. Residents worried about asbestos as it became public that asbestos was indeed in the houses and Lambert’s method of demolition could be actively contaminating the neighborhood. Not to mention the sheer heart break of watching the community people loved slowly disintegrate and dissolve, knowing all along that it would be for absolutely nothing. No job growth, no economic powerhouse, just a bad decision. Regardless of whether eminent domain is an inevitable fate of living by an airport, none of the residents deserved to be held hostage the way they were as long as they were.
Given the structure of your comments, I do not believe your true intentions here are for open dialog. I believe you have come here to make disrespectful and disparaging comments against Carrollton in general, and at the residents for their decision to ever have lived there. (For the record, I grew up there, so it was my mom’s decision not mine. However, if Carrollton still existed and I still lived in St. Louis, I would gladly live there.) Instead, you come here to make assumptions, using terms that are accusatory, inflammatory, and intended to emotionally load and skew your question and/or opinion. I am not going to allow for my blog to devolve into accusations, moot points, and victim blame. If you have anything of quality to add to the discussion, even if it is valid points of contradiction, so long that it does not disrespect the former residents I will gladly post it. However, I will no longer entertain your thinly-veiled attempts to shame people for living where they choose. I have no problem with deleting such trollish nonsense.
Try and to be a little nicer to the folks who lost their homes in this mess.
Or just go away.
Thanks.