56 Houses Left, a Blog about a Neighborhood Destruction

Talkin' about depressing places to live, Neatorama reader Michael submitted his wife Desy's blog, 56 Houses Left, about what remains of Carrollton subdivision in Bridgeton, Missouri. The place where she and thousands of other people grew up.

The subdivision was bought out by Lambert Airport for a runway expansion. Nearly 1,900 homes were bought out and since then crushed by bulldozers and trucked away. As of October 9, 2007, only 56 houses remained:

This is where I grew up… and over the past decade, a little bit is erased away each day. It used to not have much significance in my life. After all, I knew this would come… ‘they’ have been talking about it ever since the early 90s. Even then, even when they took my friends’ houses, or the house where my cousins
lived, or my teacher’s house… I was still too young to grasp it… too young to sit up and pay attention…. to care. It wasn’t until I saw the wrecking crew blow through my old bedroom on October 24th, 2006 when finally it all came slamming into my face- this place, this land was all I ever really known. My house, my friends’ and my families’ homes, my sidewalks, pools, parks, churches, schools, businesses… everything… gone. Soon, I will never be able to come back to this place again. If I have kids, I will never be able to show them where I came from. They will never know the place where I once played… the place where I once dreamed of one day leaving… This place that now I come back to wonder what exactly happened… and why.
(Link to this Post)

Just a couple of week ago, Desy wrote something ironically poignant:

The article today’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch puts Lambert International, and with it the fate of Carrollton, into startling perspective.

It is true, and now there is even more evidence- the destruction of our homes was, officially, for no reason. According to the article, the airport has been classified as simply a ‘mid-sized’ airport since 2003. In 2003, the new runway was barely started and many houses on the south still remained. Aside from hardship cases, my mom’s side of Carrollton was not approached for buy-out in 2003. She was not approached until 2006. Nearly all of my friend’s houses were still standing in 2003. All of the destruction could have been stopped when the officials realized that Lambert will NEVER fill the numbers of flights they had in the 1990s. Even those flights were executed without the shiny new runway that now sits uselessly in Bridgeton.

Its a brutal shock to me that they could take everything away, without doing their homework, without doing the research or checking their facts, but take it all for landlust and false pretenses. All that had existed from my childhood has been bulldozed down to dirt and busted roads, all for absolutely nothing. (Link to this Post)

Link - Thanks Michael! (Photo: radio_inactive [Flickr])


wow.. harsh, chad man.

i would probably be pissed too. but yea, i agree to a point that that's just how it goes.. there's only so much that we can prevent because the 'big boys' are the ones with the money and in this country, money does all the talking.

very sad to see your childhood be taken away by a bulldozer, though.
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This is quite sad, but unfortunatly that's the way bureaucracy works. Once a system or plan is in place its damn near impossible to stop. Because to stop it would take initiative and someone saying they were wrong. By continuing to waste funds, time, and peoples homes they can ignore the fact much longer and when it does fall through they just write it off and nobody takes any blame.
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I understand that these were their homes growing up and its always sad to see your home being torn down. But these homes were very close to Lambert Airport. The noise had to be deafening. They were not only bought out for the expansion they were bought out due to noise levels.
And the new runway will be used. We may not get as much traffic as we used to, due to the fact that we lost our air line hubs, but what airport does these days.
Personally I wouldn't want to live or work that close to a major airport.
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All destroyed for nothing? This lady's whining makes it sound like living next to an airport was a great way to grow up, that she'd want her kids to experience. And she never mentions how much money the developers threw at them just for that house.
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Obviously, she's right -- once something is built, it should never be changed in any way to allow for something new. Because everyone has the right to insist that everything they've ever seen be exactly as it always was -- in case they forget what it looked like.

Please. You grew up there - so you have memories, right? What does it matter if it still looks like that? This isn't some UN world heritage site - it was a crappy suburban subdivision in Missouri. Get over yourself.
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Sounds like Desy is a little too self important imo.

Its gone and thats progress. Hurray! The plight of a single person or small group of people is insignificant, when thinking of the greater good. Maybe learn not to have a house next to an airport?

Maybe the airport will put it to use eventually. I'm sure whatever they use it for, will be better than a bunch of (likely) low income shanty houses.
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You have to see this movie, 'The Castle' ((http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118826/)) about an Australian family who LIKE living near the airport...

Merkins will probably need to look up the Mabo Declaration to fully understand a central plot point, but that's one the roles of cultural exchange, viz to educate.

And as for this case, s'funny how people's homes can be obliterated by the System Lords, yet when something threatens their 'homes/weekend castles/overpriced underused status symbols' (like a windfarm off the Hamptons) then all heck breaks loose...
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I commend Desy for telling the story of her home and Carrollton. I am a St. Louisan and I am quite familiar with this fight. This fight between the airport and a town called Bridgeton went on for over 10 years. It was quite a nasty fight. There were other plans that didn't affect as many homes, but the airport insisted on that plan. It pretty much destroyed the suburb of Bridgeton in the process (2,000 homes, schools, churchs, and businesses). Its really more about government's abuses of eminent domain rather than someone's whining as some of you have suggested. When something like this costs 1.1 BILLION and for it only to be used 5-10% of the time, its disgusting.
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I think it's sad, I don't understand why you are being so harsh. Yes, things change, that is inevitable, but that doesn't make some of those changes any less meaningful (for good or bad).
And eminent domain is bull. They have torn down thousands of houses to build big box stores and then cried out asking why all the people in the city were leaving! It is no longer used for the purpose it was intended. I have to agree with Denise64 on this one.
You can't just call her a whiner and be done with it. And lux, way to completely assume they are only tearing down "low income shanties" because they aren't. That sounds a little self-important to me.
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If that's the biggest/worst/most awful thing you have to worry about in your life then you aren't too bad off really are you :P I mean tell it to the millions around the world who don't have or never had a place to call home. Cry me a river honestly.
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This shit has been going on forever in St. Louis. It seems like a couple of decades. I understand the former residents sadness and am still quite pissed at the eminent domain issues that were raised but move on, people. This whole subject is just tired, tired, tired.
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I know Carrollton and Carrollton Oaks well - my aunts, uncles and cousins lived there since the 60s when the houses were new. I spent many a week visiting. Kissed my first girl there. Thousands of kids grew up there, and unless you don't have a heart, it is poignant seeing not only your childhood home, but schools, churches and the entire landscape removed. I applaud 56 Houses Left for documenting what little is left of what was a historically significant community.
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I moved to carrollton subdivison when it was first built and have all my youthful memories of that place.It was a wonderful place to grow up and the airplanes flying over never bothered us.It certainly was no crappy place to live as Brett,one of your commenters had to say.People are allowed to feel their pain for their homes needlessly being taken.My parents lived there for 41years and in their 80s being up rooted, there health failed.Sure they got a sweet deal maybe a better home but at their age home will never be home.Also comments like cry me a river from river rat. your name speaks volumes.
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