Last week, a reporter from the STL Post-Dispatch contacted me. He wanted to know my thoughts on the airport’s request for redevelopment proposals for the parts of Carrollton that doesn’t currently sit under a runway. Who am I to say what they do with the space? After all, I’m just someone who was fortunate enough to have grown up there. Maybe it’s because I still care about all of the ghosts that still lurk there?
As I told the reporters, anything that benefits this great city will be far better than what is there now.
I don’t live in St. Louis anymore, but I am one of St. Louis’ proudest (unofficial) ambassadors. I wear StL pride on my sleeves. I sing my city’s praises to anyone willing to listen while on my many adventures away from my homeland. I cheer on my Cardinals and Blues, and hate on the Cubs and Blackhawks any chance I can. When I am in St. Louis, I don’t drive through Carrollton anymore. At least not alone. The roads are riddled with cracks, potholes, and glass. A couple years ago, I was followed through Carrollton so close it frightened me. When I sped up, they stayed on my bumper until I turned onto Natural Bridge.
This past March, I brought along a few friends to visit Carrollton. A photography convention took place in St. Louis so some photography friends of mine were in town and excited to see this space for themselves. They were kind to take some fantastic pro photos of Carrollton as I finish up the book project. As outsiders, they were utterly stunned at how rapid a suburban space enveloped by infrastructure could become so naturalized in such a short span of time. They definitely underestimated Missouri’s climate.
Carrollton is not a great welcome to those flying into St. Louis. Too often I had been on a flight into St. Louis and the stranger next to me comments about ‘the creepy post-apocalyptic neighborhood’ outside their window on the descent into Lambert. When my friends flew in, they knew exactly what I had been talking about for years in the moments before landing.
Carrollton will never be residential again for a myriad of obvious reasons. It also will not become retail space. If the Mills Shopping Center couldn’t make it, then it makes no sense to add retail space a mile away. Parks and green space? Light industrial? I’m very curious and excited to know what the next chapter of Carrollton’s future will look like. Utilizing the space in a capacity that will ultimately benefit St. Louis will be far more dignified than leaving miles of abandoned streets fronted by busted gates and illegally dumped furniture to ruin.
J. Desy Schoenewies
56 Houses Left 