“The money that built the East St. Louis area was not local, but rather from prominent northern and eastern industrialists and financiers—Carnegie, Mellon, Gould, Morgan, Vanderbilt, Morris, Swift. East St. Louis gained national attention for its problems in the 1880s, and was known for similar problems in the 1980s.” These were the words from “East St. Louis Made in the USA: The Rise and Fall of an Industrial River Town,” a very interesting book I read over the holidays.
Maintain Local Control was the sixth key that I found in my book research. River towns like Cape Girardeau, MO and Quincy, IL, both Mississippi River towns within 100 miles of East St. Louis, showed the advantages of having local control. It can transform a community, for the better.
I’ve been to East St. Louis many times and have several friends who grew up in this industrial city. They all raved about life there. It was an All-American City in 1960, but never developed strong local control. Today, it is one of the most distressed small cities in the country. It never shook the legacy of not having local control.
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