Within a few minutes' car ride, you have suburbs that offer better schools and safer neighborhoods. St. Louis retains its bright spots, such as the Midtown neighborhood along the city's central corridor. It boasts hospital, university, and business expansions, a new private high school, and upcoming work on the city's mass-transit system. To the southeast, the city is putting in new mixed-income housing, and to the west, luxury condos. But in the middle, in census tract 1211, the local population fell precipitously from 3,458 to 1,392 during the 1990s - a whopping 60 percent loss.
Buildings lie vacant.
The lure of a house Even if the area's multifamily housing stock remains in good condition, it may not be the type to attract people, says Mike Flood, a neighborhood stabilization officer for the city. The population decline is forcing officials to consider streamlining city government, says Professor Cropf. I think there's a lot of opportunities for the current political leadership. The Christian Science Monitor. All rights reserved.