Hyde Park was never in the footprint of the Northside TIF, but I can’t help think that it was affected by the disruption that was occurring in the neighborhoods to the south. This neighborhood is really suffering from the effects of abandonment, and the City’s reliance on McKee’s plans diverted attention from residents’ real needs…
Twenty-Three Years of Paul McKee: St. Augustine’s
Next, on my tour of the area damaged by Paul McKee’s Northside TIF, I headed towards what was left of St. Augustine. Illegal dumping is very common in the blocks where houses once stood but were demolished after brick theft destroyed homes. This private club is still going, I think. The tower of St. Augustine’s…
Twenty-Three Years of Paul McKee: St. Louis Avenue in JeffVanderLou
Turning right from Garrison Avenue onto St. Louis Avenue, we pass by the abandoned Grace Lutheran, and then past the Lindell Park subdivision, which has avoided much of the Northside TIF purchases. But east of here, there are vacant lots of many former McKee buildings, some of which were demolished now close to twenty years…
Twenty-Three Years of Paul McKee: JeffVanderLou
Over the next six days, starting today, we’ll look at areas in the footprint of the Northside TIF, and see the effects McKee’s purchases and land banking have stalled redevelopment and also accelerated decline, as properties he’s purchased have gone vacant and been demolished. We’ll start in JeffVanderLou, driving up Webster in the two photos…
6,500th Post: Twenty-Three Years of Paul McKee
Wow, I suppose 6,500 posts have a way of sneaking up on you! I also suppose since Paul McKee and his failed Northside TIF is in the news, it would be germane to talk about it and how I’ve been investigating and shedding light on his dealings for eighteen years now. Some of the first…
From the Vault: The Roof of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, October 2006
It’s hard to believe that just under twenty years ago I was allowed to run around on the roof of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, and take these photographs. Above is looking west down Constitution Avenue NW and the National Archives and Federal Triangle. Above, this is looking east at the U.S….
From the Vault: Philadelphia, March 2006
I was digging around in the vaults when I came across some twenty year old photographs of Philadelphia. They’re so old that they pre-exist my move back to St. Louis from the East Coast and the founding of St. Louis Patina. This is about five cameras back and lots of growth in my picture-taking abilities….
Old North, January 2026
As Charles Dickens said in one of my favorite books, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” Let’s get the worst of times out of the way first up in Old North. This act of deprivation committed against what was and could be a beautiful building on Hebert Street (I…
Minerva Avenue Between Hamilton Avenue and Goodfellow Boulevard, Revisited Yet Again
After checking out the West End, I realized I was close to that block of Minerva Avenue I liked so much, so I thought it was time to see how it was doing. The answer: not good. Compared to the first time I saw the block, which is now eleven(!) years ago in January of…
Oakherst and Oakley Places, West End
I thought I would take some more photographs of the Oakherst Concrete Block National Historic District while I was up in the West End. Platted in 1906 as the Woodland Park Addition, as we’ve seen before back in October of 2017, concrete blocks were manufactured on site for what was considered a new exciting building…