Daily Dose of Blairmont 127

• 2221 Madison Street (MLK 3000 LLC, July 2007, $65,000)

May 2008

This largely vacant block still holds three 1970s HUD houses. Blairmont has the center one; the other two are in private hands.

Again, properly done, this could be a fine location for fair and equitable investment. Removing the three houses would leave an entire half block of open land for new development... but such schemes must be carried out openly and transparently, and without the fear-inducing pressure of blockbusting tactics, not to mention arson and other flagrantly destructive side effects. Owners and occupants must receive fair value for their homes, and in a just world they've be helped to relocate and possibly be given a first crack at buying into the new development.

But Paul McKee's world hasn't shown itself to very fair or just, at least not in north St. Louis.



November 2007, showing the house had been recently occupied before the Blairmont buyout.

Links:

• 2221 Madison at the city's Geo St Louis database
  
• Aerial view from Maps.Live.com
  
• More on Blairmont:
  Built St. Louis || Ecology of Absence || What Can I Do?