The 1985 NU communications grad sees more. East St. Louis is going to be better than it was, says Powell, the first female mayor in the city s 134-year history. Everyone now realizes that East St. Louis is a gold mine, and it s ready to take its rightful place as a tourist region. The area s image has been tarnished in the years since the railroad and manufacturing industries dried up. Boasting a population near 100,000 in 1960, the city has withered to 41,000 today, a victim of a dismal local economy and white flight to the suburbs.
Property taxes are the highest in the state because there is no industry.
Still, in a city plagued by 30 years of urban decay, there are considerable assets. With more than 1,600 acres of undeveloped riverfront property across from the Arch, East St. Louis is sitting on one of the most valuable pieces of property in the state of Illinois. Plans are under way to break ground on a PGA-level golf course on the site in 2002. Officials across the river in St. Louis are as eager as Powell is to see its completion. The proximity of the golf course will propel St. Louis into the top category for convention cities in the United States.