Here’s an interesting slide show of the Route 66 town of East St. Louis, Ill. It captures the city’s decay and glimpses of its long-ago glory fairly well.
Music is by Eddie Fisher & The Next 100 Years, from an album recorded in St. Louis in 1971 and produced by St. Louis music legend Oliver Sain.
I’m fascinated by urban decay, but I’ve never been so shocked as when my cousin and I drove through East St. Louis. Building after building boarded up and abandoned. It was interesting from an architectural and civic viewpoint, but very sad to think of the human factor. It was worse than Gary, Indiana…and that’s saying something. I’ve been reading that Detroit is almost in that bad of shape.
…
“Politicians are our friends,
and we elect them again and again.
That’s what I learned in school today,
That’s what I learned in school”.
— Pete Seeger
Beth,
Gary, IN and East St. Louis, Il have a common denominator – people whose ancestral origins are south of Algeria, or SOAs.