Is This City Dangerous, Or Is It Just.. Sad? (Or Both?) East St. Louis, Illinois 4K.

what is up YouTube if you enjoy my videos make sure you drop a like subscribe and hit that notification bell so you can get notified when I post new videos in this video I'm going to be in East st. Louis Illinois [Music] East Saint Louis used to be a bustling manufacturing center that attracted immigrants because it had an abundance of jobs available over time the economy has crashed as manufacturing jobs have left not only East st. Louis but many cities in the Midwest today East st. Louis has been rated as one of the most dangerous cities in the country year after year outlined I have the city limits of East st. Louis and highlighted is the route that I generally take through the city for this video now it's time to go check it out [Music] if you're unfamiliar with my videos I do speed up my videos in order to show more in a less amount of time you can always keep up with the real time that it takes me to drive in the lower left corner of the screen this video in particular is sped up ever so slightly at 125 percent in 1950 East st. Louis hit a peak population of 80 2366 making it the fourth largest city in Illinois and the largest suburb of st. Louis st. Louis in 1950 also had its population peak at 856 thousand and in 1950 st. Louis was the eighth largest city in the country if you want to know more about st. Louis however make sure to check out my st. Louis videos today East st. Louis has only 26,000 people which is less than a third of its peak population [Music] this is State Street one of the main thoroughfares in East st. Louis I think that it's safe to assume that there are once traffic lights at all of these intersections instead of stop signs you can see old left over traffic lights at some of the intersections as well and in the future I wouldn't be surprised if State Street turns into one through lane in each direction with a center turn lane and bike lanes on both sides as it appears to not have the amount of vehicle traffic that at once had [Music] I mentioned earlier how East st. Louis have lost more than two-thirds of its peak population there are still 26,000 people that live here but population losses always make for difficult challenges for cities to try and overcome the larger the population loss the larger the challenges city residents account for a tax base and as East st. Louis continues to lose people the city can only provide so many services more people mean more services at a higher quality while less people mean less services at a lower quality once again the economic decline with manufacturing and industrial jobs leaving town fueled the downward spiral in population loss that the city experienced [Music] East Saint Louis is a product of the Industrial Revolution capitalists such as Andrew Carnegie and JP Morgan brought industry to the town through railroads and factories being along the Mississippi River and being directly across from st. Louis also helped as st. Louis at one point was the fourth biggest city in the United States some of the biggest industries in town included meatpacking stockyards coal and steel there were as many as 50 some factories in town at one point as that attracted many European immigrants and African Americans from the south factories in town employed african-americans as early as around 1917 as we all know African Americans were not treated very well by whites during those times and racial tensions grew in 1917 riots broke out as that was a common occurrence throughout industrial towns in that era White's wanted higher wages and as a response the companies recruited African American workers as there were many that were trying to escape the south as a response to that white men then grouped up and started to attack black men in downtown blacks in response to that fought back only to be met with the whites destroying the black neighborhoods by lighting buildings on fire and shooting any black people that they saw trying to escape anywhere from 200 to 300 buildings were destroyed during the 1917 riots which was on July 1st of that year after that there weren't many riots that occurred in the city even in the 1960s which is when most of the country's industrial cities saw their racial riots despite the violence that occurred in the city in 1917 the city still grew in population but the growth rate dropped significantly as before it was seeing population growth at a rate of 96% in compared to a growth rate of 14% or lower from 1920 to 1950 [Music] in 1959 East st. Louis was named as an all-america City by the National Civic League as the town was honored for its civic excellence and cooperative spirit among the residents businesses and nonprofits in town however from 1960 to 1970 East st. Louis lost 70% of its business as factories began shutting down operations in town leaving many people unemployed and looking for work residents began to move elsewhere for jobs and every census count from 1970 to 2010 showed a population loss of 14% or higher for East st. Louis from 2010 to now there has been an estimated population loss of one thousand people which is negative three point six percent and that's the lowest rate of decline that the city has seen since 1970 hopefully that's a sign of change that's about to happen in the city but if that is the unfortunate reality is that there's still a lot of work that needs to be done to attract new residents and businesses [Music] East Saint Louis has several patches of woods that surround the man-made ditches and other waterways that were constructed for flood control as the city is located right along the Mississippi River over time these patches of woods that are spotted through the city have become popular spots for murderers from the st. Louis area to dump dead bodies in East st. Louis alone the chances of being murdered are 19 times higher than the national average when you calculate the violent crime rate for every US city of over 10,000 residents in 2017 East st. Louis was named as the most violent city in the u.s. with a violent crime rate of two thousand seven hundred and fifty-two for every 100,000 residents in 2011 the violent crime rate was as high as 6,000 for every 100,000 residents but after checking multiple websites and sources the violent crime rate in East st. Louis in 2018 dropped to 1190 for every 100,000 residents which is significantly lower than prior years and we'll have to wait and see if this trend is able to continue but it looks to be on the right track in becoming a safer community the biggest challenge for the city will be to try and shed its reputation for violent crime as for decades that's what the city has been known for [Music] pre-pandemic unemployment numbers in East st. Louis were some of the highest in the nation over the last decade as they hovered around 8% of the 26,000 people that reside here only 11% of adults 25 and older hold a bachelor's degree or higher the median household income is $23,000 per year and the poverty rate is 38 percent the median value of owner-occupied housing units is $52,000 [Music] to give you some insights on when I make my videos I set points on Google Maps to drive to sometimes I follow the Google directions and other times I ignore and drive to something if I see anything interesting Google Maps told me to turn right on this street which doesn't go through it looks like at one time this was a through Street that headed into nearby Washington Park but at some point over time Washington Park put a blockade along this street and vegetation and nature eventually took over needless to say after Google told me to turn right onto the street I then turned off the navigation [Music] this area of East st. Louis isn't completely abandoned obviously as you can see that there are homes that are still occupied but a vast majority of the homes have been torn down and the ones that have been demoed are now vacant lots we are currently in the northeast section of the city which is bordered by Fairmount City to the north and Washington Park to the east [Music] [Music] back onto the subject of crime in East st. Louis there were 453 murders within the city limits from 2000 to 2018 for a city with less than 40 thousand residents that's substantially high that's another reason why the population loss has continued through the years after the jobs have left that's also one of the several reasons why there has been zero economic growth in the city only 25 percent of the murder cases have been solved in East st. Louis during that time span due to an understaffed police force this once again goes back to how a lower population results in a lower tax base which lowers the quality of services that the city is able to provide [Music] [Music] [Music] another reason that East st. Louis has barely seen any economic growth if any at all is that it is located in the state of Illinois Illinois has the second highest amount of property taxes out of all the states ranking only behind New Jersey it also consistently ranks as one of the top five worst states to do business in as a result of being overtaxed Illinois has lost more people than any other state since the year 2010 those tax rates make it difficult for struggling cities throughout Illinois to try and turn things around for the better with that said East st. Louis is located in a region known as Metro East which is the Illinois side of the st. Louis metro area Metro East had a population of 700,000 in 2010 but today it's estimated to be down to six hundred and eighty-two thousand [Music] [Music] up ahead it looks like the railroad crossing signals are broken [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] at this point I hop onto the freeway to head towards Downtown East st. Louis on the other side of the roundabout it looks like there are some nicely built newer homes and that's good to see [Music] Missouri Avenue appears to serve as the Main Street for East st. Louis downtown is mostly abandoned as the only businesses that remain open are a couple of banks and nightclubs [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Broadway is another main thoroughfare for East st. Louis after we get past the blocks that make up the downtown area for the most part there's nothing but abandoned buildings and vacant lots on both sides of the street [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] East Saint Louis isn't without its list of successful people Miles Davis grew up here and is one of the most successful jazz musicians Ike Turner's from here as well and is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame other successful musicians include Tina Turner Steamboat Willie and Russell Gunn in sports Super Bowl champion linebacker Brian Cox is also from here [Music] [Music] [Music] well that's about it for this video if you enjoyed make sure to drop a like comment and subscribe as that helps this video out with the YouTube algorithm make sure that you also hit that notification bell so that you can be notified every time that I upload a new video of an area near you we'll see you next time peace [Music]

Channel: Chris Harden

Views: 26,437

Rating: 4.7922077 out of 5

Keywords: East St. Louis, East Saint Louis, St. Louis, Illinois, Missouri, Metro East, Illinois Polotics, Ghetto, St. Louis Ghetto, North St. Louis, St. Louis Cardinals, St. Louis Blues, NBA, NHL, NFL, MLB, Chicago Bulls, Chicago White Sox, Chicago Cubs, Chicago Blackhawks, Chicago Bears, St. Louis Rams, LA Rams, Donald Trump, Barack Obama, Economy, US Economy, Worst Cities in the USA, United States of America, Midwest, Mississippi River, St. Louis Arch, Driving, Bad Drivers, Dash Cam, Cars

Id: ZhWbJHFUmj8

Length: 27min 19sec (1639 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 08 2020