“Look at the Blight”: the Daily Eyesores of Main Street St. Louis

Ever since Clark Griswold told his kids to “look at the blight” when driving through Saint Louis, this City and this metropolitan area have become overly accustomed to doing just what he did: look at the blight, and then pass right by it. And when you drive by it every day, you only occasionally recognize it.

My daily commute has me driving back and forth each day between Downtown and Clayton on our region's Main Street, I-64/40, and every day I see buildings left in decline. Day in, day out I pass these buildings, along with a few hundred thousand others. It’s become mostly a passive thing for us, barely recognizing we’re going by empty or extremely underutilized buildings that give off the air of urban decline.