56 Houses Left

“Our house didn’t have asbestos.”

“The asbestos is only in the floor tile, used for insulation from the radiant heat.”

“They only put those asbestos stickers on those houses to keep people out.”

“Those early asbestos testing crews are a joke.  They’re just getting paid to raid the houses.”

I heard it all, but it all sounded so reassuring… that there was little to no asbestos blowing around in Carrollton and I was fairly safe wandering around the homes of Carrollton taking pictures.

Then, work completely stopped in Carrollton from March 08 until late November 08.   When work began, they started a labor-intensive stripping down of the homes along Pont Ave. to the wood 2×4 studs.   This was done painstakingly slow, home by home, one at a time.   Only 6 houses were cleared down to the studs in this fashion eating much of the time in the last three weeks.  Houses were sealed in plastic and taped off in every possible air duct to the outside world.  Workers wore an incredible amount of protective gear.   The amount of plastic used made these homes appear scarier than the house at the end of E.T.

New asbestos abatement

The problem is, I went through every one of those houses without my own spacewoman suit, without any plastic coating and masks, taking my photos as they were.   I didn’t linger long inside any one place, but why didn’t Lambert do this kind of clean asbestos removal before if the problem is so bad?   None of the other houses had this kind of intense asbestos removal, but now that Lambert lost a lawsuit, they are suddenly concerned for the environment and people around the buildings?

So the two big questions now are:

• Why were the houses left completely unlocked, open and vacant for years with so many people hanging out, playing around when there is a potential for danger?
• So what is going to happen to all those demolition workers, the vandals, the curious onlookers like me who were near those houses in disrepair with no protection?

I stood outside my own home’s demolition and breathed in the dust of my bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, and more.   Later, I photographed and filmed a number of demolitions in the neighborhood.  Is it going to kill me?   What about the workers?   What about my friends of Jones’ Demolition?   Those poor guys didn’t have much protection and they took down probably over a third of Carrollton.  Those gentlemen told me that Carrollton is where they spent the better part of their days for the past 15 years.  When they were taking down the houses, they were told to use water to keep the dust down.  I’m not exactly sure if they were told exactly what was in that dust that was needed to be watered down.  They didn’t wear respirators when I saw them working.   What will happen to them?   Why now is asbestos only now a major problem when EVERY home in Carrollton was built by Fischer and Frichtel at the same time with the same materials, and nothing was done to contain it for FIFTEEN YEARS? (more…)

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In a town where there is nothing around but empty streets and empty shops, those left will empty out… only empty people will fill back in.

I was in the 7th grade when Northwest Plaza, directly across the street from our school on St. Charles Rock Road, reopened as a stylish, modern indoor shopping center.  When our family finally got a chance to go inside the fresh new mall, all I can remember from my 12 year old perspective is how crazy crowded it was.  We waited hours for our turn to play mini-golf in the Tilt.  I remember thinking how terrible the colors were, but I was no fan of pink and purple back then.   Everyone else seemed to like it, including my sister who couldn’t get enough of the place.

By the time I was in high school, my friends and I drove miles away to the Galleria to avoid the place.  Our families forbade us to enter that mall, and it was one rule we all loyally obeyed.

Shortly after Northwest Plaza opened, fights broke out and people were hurt.   Some were even killed.  Many St. Louisians swear it was a race issue, but those of us who lived close enough knew all races were involved in the scuffles and warfare in some fashion.   The decline of Northwest had more to do with demographics and bad management than race.   The middle class suburbs surrounding the mall was disappearing and deteriorating while the management did nothing to keep attractions while uncontrolled large groups kept coming to the mall.   In 20 years, the only updating done was the addition of gaudy, badly designed, sculpture-like eyesores which were supposed to be mall signs off Lindbergh and the Rock Road in 1996.   Even those were tossed out around 2002.   Nothing, not even a fresh coat of paint was added to the inside.   They never even bothered to change the very dated early 90s colors.   Stores continually shuttered, despite allowing anchor stores remain rent-free.  Now, two anchors are gone and the rest are threatening to leave.

Probably the most major contributing factor of the decline of NWP:  Just to the northwest of Northwest Plaza, the mall’s largest customer base of over 5,000 middle-class suburban residents during this exact time period were in ythe process of being forced out of their homes due to Lambert’s short-sighted runway expansion plan.   Well over half of Carrollton’s residents were gone by 1998, so it makes perfect sense that 10 years later, the area mall is in serious enough trouble to finally catch some media attention.  Problem is, the mall was in serious trouble back in 1998.  Denial is a big problem in general in the Lou…  just ask what our friends over at Lambert told us after TWA folded.   You guys still need a great giant runway with some houses in the way despite no hub?  No problem!

Many still believe St. Ann, Bridgeton’s neighbor to the east and the home for NWP, is still very much a safe, mild suburban homestead as it was just maybe a dozen or so years ago.  I really do wish that were true, but I have seen enough otherwise.   Since the late 1960s, my grandparents lived within walking distance from the mall.  A few months before my grandmother’s death in 1996, she was robbed at gunpoint at a store in St. Ann.   After stealing from her and the store, the robber shoved her frail body into the ground, causing great injury.  All this during broad daylight in the middle of the week.   I still have the watch she wore that day, with deep gouges in the face from where her body was thrown into the concrete ground.  My grandfather had taken up a job at the Wal-Mart between their house and the mall to keep himself busy after her death.   While at the Wal-mart, he helped to stop a $2000 crack deal.   He had many, many other issues with drug-related incidents near his home in his last days.  Do I trust the city of St. Ann?  No.   Do I trust that they should rebuild the mall, with Wal-Mart attached?  No.  Sorry St. Ann, you have far worse problems to take care of than to give a $96 million TIF project to rebuild Northwest Plaza.   The good people who just want to shop are gone.   What is left has become a wasteland.  You can thank Lambert in part for your troubles.

Munincipalities whose neighbors are in trouble over shaky deals or bad planning, WILL come back and affect them in some shape or form.    I hope that this is a lesson in community leadership and neighborhood cooperation.   It is important to pay attention to what happens behind the fence in your backyard.  You never know when something might come out and bite you.   St. Ann too has been rerouted, inconvienced, and now has no major destination within for its people.  That once quaint little municipality now has streets filled with Payday loan stores, trashy lingere, porn, pawn shops, rental shops and gun stores.  I would hate, absolutely hate to see Bridgeton turn into the new Jennings with its own Northland Shopping Center problems.  I will soon probably not drive through as much.  I already avoid my hometown at night.

One last little thing…  a few months ago,  I decided to poke around and photograph the area around the Lemp brewery, with all its grand desolation and decay.   It was shortly after the In-Bev buyout, and a friend made a comment about how, perhaps in 20 years, we’d be poking around an abandoned Anheiseur-Busch factory in this same way.   It seemed like such a far cry I laughed him off… how could AB, the staple of STL close down?

After today’s layoff of 1,000 of the 6,000 the St. Louis A-B workers, I see it very possible.  My heart goes out to you folks for such a terrible loss of your livelihood and the city’s livelihood.  Right before the holidays is such a callous move… I wish  I could slap the faces of every AB sell-out stockholder who is responsible for the possible economic collapse of St. Louis.  We’re on our way of becoming the next Detroit.   Bridgeton is just a microcosm of what is happening.  BTW St. Louisians… Why the **** are we not rioting in the streets over this yet?!?  Are we that broken already that we can’t get our **** together and start knocking down the A-B boardroom doors demanding answers?   Or, did we already send the Clydesdales off to the glue factory?

This collapse is going to be extremely detrimental to STL.  Don’t believe me, then Google how many organizations rely on A-B donations and grants to survive.  Belgium doesn’t give a rats ass what happens in our corner of the world, and they proved it today.

Start drinking Schlafly.

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In the past month, I have seen more gates go up and my hopes grow ever more sour regarding the remaining homes being demolished in the proper manner in a timely fashion.

Lambert, thank you for finally starting work again, even if it has been 8 months and dragged out for too many years.

This weekend, the evidence is ripe that demolition work is going to begin again.  The familiar orange sewer cap stickers were placed on a few homes with front yards freshly dug up.   The word “clear” has been freshly spray painted on the driveways from the various residential utility companies in the area.  A fire hydrant use permit for my friends at Jones Excavating and Demolition Co. is wrapped around a hydrant on Pont.  The asbestos removal trucks have removed all unwanted debris and thoroughly cleared out any asbestos containing insulation and tiling out of a couple of the houses on Pont.

I walked around Carrollton for hours this past fine weekend, and I am glad that, finally, in the beauty of the fall colors, its starting to look like maybe there will be an end for the homes in the near future.   It was a bittersweet weekend, and I have to admit how much I wish all of this was a non-issue and Carrollton was just a normal suburban neighborhood with magestic large red, orange and yellow trees.   Empty of its residents, nature can and already has in many aspects settle in and reclaim.   If you were to drive through Carrollton now and take in the perfection of the colors from this season from the tall and magnificant trees left by the residents, you too would want to see this place converted into a park for the enjoyment of all.

I will write more later about my weekend observations, but the important thing for you to do is to a) go vote tomorrow, b) go and take a drive through Carrollton during the peak color time, and c) demand that beautiful places be returned to the people and to nature.

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Today I was looking at the St. Louis Beacon website, which had an interesting article about the past and future of Lambert, including finances and future planning.

From the article, I found some eye-opening statements from Lambert’s current director, Richard Hrabko.

This is a statement from the article quoting Mr. Hrabko, enthusiastically discussing the possibility of a St. Louis-China air shipping hub.

“Just imagine a trail of 747s coming in and out of here, hauling freight from China,” he said. “We have the capacity to do it. No question. And we think we have much better capacity than any place else in the U.S., including Chicago, which is really the main competition.”

Also from the article,

He said Lambert also has “several thousand acres” on which to build distribution facilities and other supporting infrastructure for a cargo hub.

Could the ‘several thousand acres of land’ be the airport’s vacant land on the I-170 side of the airport, or could this statement be in reference to the former Carrrollton subdivision?  Where exactly do they expect to build this shipping hub?   How will daily air shipments of Chinese goods really benefit our local economy?

Another damning quote from the article.

Hrabko said of the new runway,”Obviously was something that we wouldn’t build today.”

This should have been obvious in 2001, when they barely started the project and the whole airline industry tanked.

The article also mentions that the airport, in general is financially stable, but does have long-term obligations to pay off the runway expansion and that they could be in better shape.

Obviously.  They can’t even tear down 26 houses.

Of course, the best thing to do with the empty space that was once my home is a temporary resting hold for cheap Chinese goods.  Crates of disposable plastic bouncy balls bound for Wal-Mart might one day be stacked where my bedroom once was.  What an odd and sad thought.

I want to start a petition to turn Carrollton into a state park much like the former Times Beach subdivision was turned into a state park.

Here’s a link to the full article on the St. Louis Beacon’s website. Thank you to the Beacon for your in-depth report.

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Nothing has happened in Carrollton since that fateful night where 4 houses caught fire.  7 houses in 48 hours burned suspiciously to the ground.   Since then, everything else has been relatively calm-  no vandalism, no arson, not even a thrown rock (not that there are any windows left to break).

So here is some info and other comments on the conditions of the last four houses that (probably) fell victim to arson.

12893 Bittick was a tan 1-story home on the corner of Bittick and Manteca.   Without good light and with much more photographic houses once nearby, I didn’t give this place too much attention.  Nevertheless, with time, some rather interesting things started to happen to this place which did start to spark my interest.   When I first discovered this house on Bittick, there was a white home adorned with red-orange trim next door.   Sometime in very early 2007, that home caught fire.  That was the first house that burned in Carrollton once I started photographing the area.

Back to 12893, another interesting feature is a wooden beam someone managed to shove through the front of the house at an odd angle.  The 6″x6″ beam was cleanly stuck right into the wall of the front of this home at a 45 degree angle as if it was a hot icepick stabbed through styrofoam.   One last little bit of interest from this home was the graffiti some vandals decided to scribble out on this place.  Inside, they wrote your typical middle school taunts, but on the outside wall they proclaimed large and loud in blue spray paint, “F*CK WORLD TRADE.”   I can’t help but be impressed that bored kids would take an interest in a divisive political issue.  Could it be that someone’s parent lost a job to a company that went overseas?  Could it be they want to boycott Chinese goods?  Whatever their position is on NAFTA (I am not taking this into a political discussion) and whether or not I agree with their message, we should get these kids off the street and into a spirited political science class NOW for here are some take-action kids with potential leadership qualities, albeit immature for now.

This house was burned completely to its foundation, leaving but a basement full of black ashes.

4247 Brampton was a white 1-story house with lots of brickwork and large green bushes in the front. The remains of a round, above-ground pool in the backyard stuck out of the ground like a strange white mini-Stonehenge.  This house was not much to speak of outside, especially being next door to a commanding two-story.  This little house was quaint, quiet, and almost completely camouflaged from the overgrowth of the bushes.   Inside, the place was relatively well kept.

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4050 Chartley has been the poster-child of what Carrollton has become, and since it too has been burned to the ground, has too suffered the arson fate that has claimed so many in recent days.

This iconic, lonely house stood at a rather prominent location on the corner lot of Chartley and Bondurant.   When I first photographed this place, the only indication that this otherwise cleanly kept home was abandoned was the few boarded up windows.  From the cottage-like shutters to the manicured bushes, this neat little house could have easily had its boards removed and a family move comfortably back in two years ago.  In fact, it had to have been abandoned longer than just two years, but with the loss of all other residents around, this home too became victim of intense vandalism in 2007, a fire which destroyed one corner of the home in the early spring of 2008, and the final, smoldering burn discovered on July 19, 2008.

Although once a fairly nice little place inside, it was the location of this house and the loss of all the other homes around it that attracted me to photograph it so much.   I do believe that this house was the first one I ‘seriously’ decided to photograph, exiting my car and looking for compositions for the first time.   It was in photographing this lonesome dwelling that I decided to take on this project for my thesis.

I was utterly enraged when I saw swastikas sprayed on the outside of 4050, and I proclaimed that I would not photograph such filth.  I still photographed the house and any other graffiti on it, but I tried to avoid angles in which one of the swastikas was painted correct (which was rare in the area for we must not be dealing with the brightest of vandals).  I didn’t post the photos as often, but I did continue to document the decline of this place.

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