What’s stopping us from rebuilding the city?

St. Louis was a glorious place. There are historical accounts of worldly, affluent people visiting and exclaiming it to be like no other city they’ve seen before. At one time, not too long ago, it was the fourth most populous city in the country, with highest per capita wealth in the world.

Not too long ago, St. Louis was intact, with housing and accommodations for a million people in a relatively small geographic area — it doesn’t even make the the list of 150 U.S. cities by size.

One crazy thing about all that building stock is that it was constructed from local, earthen materials — brick, stone, wood — with hand tools and draft animals. And it was built fast. Just look at maps from the beginning-, mid-, and late-1800’s. From the early 1800’s to the early 1900’s most of St. Louis was constructed.

More of the city has collapsed since the 50’s than remain standing, and huge swaths of St. Louis, particularly north of Delmar, are in an active state of decay. Walls falling, nature taking over, draining city resources, and imposing a sense of hopelessness on residents.

It’s not a secret that tearing down is more difficult than rebuilding. But, if the city was built once with technology far superior, what is stopping it from being built again?