East St. Louis, Illinois

East St. Louis is a city located in St. Clair County, Illinois, USA, directly across the Mississippi River from St. Louis, Missouri in the Metro-East region of Southern Illinois. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 27,006, less than one-third of its peak of 82,366 in 1950. Like many larger industrial cities, it has been severely affected by loss of jobs in the restructuring of the railroad industry and de-industrialization of the Rust Belt in the second half of the 20th century. In 1950 East St. Louis was the 4th largest city in Illinois. Other cities in the Metro-East that have suffered a similar fate are Granite City and Alton.

One of the highlights of the city's waterfront is the Gateway Geyser, the tallest fountain in the United States. Designed to complement the Gateway Arch across the river in St. Louis, it shoots water to a height of 630 ft, the same height as the Arch.

History
Native Americans long inhabited both sides of the Mississippi River at this point. The Mississippian culture rulers organized thousands of workers to construct villages and complex earthwork mounds at what later became St. Louis and East St. Louis, as well as the urban complex of Cahokia to the north of East St. Louis within present-day Collinsville, Illinois. Before the Civil War, settlers reported up to 50 mounds in the area that became East St. Louis, but most were lost to nineteenth-century development and later roadbuilding.

East St. Louis lies within the American Bottom area of the present day Metro-East area of St. Louis, Missouri. This name was given after the United States acquired the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, and European Americans began to settle in the area. The village was first named "Illinoistown."

The Great Railroad Strike of 1877
A period of extensive industrial growth followed the American Civil War. Industries located in East St. Louis to make use of the local availability of Illinois coal as fuel. Another early industry was meatpacking and stockyards, concentrated in one area to limit their nuisance to other jurisdictions.

In the expansion, many businessmen became overextended in credit, and a major economic collapse followed the Panic of 1873. This was due to railroad and other manufacturing expansion, land speculation and general business optimism caused by large profits from inflation. The economic recession began in the East and steadily moved west, severely crippling the railroads, the main system of transportation. In response to the difficulties, railroad companies began dramatically lowering workers' wages, forcing employees to work without pay, and cutting jobs and the amount of paid work hours. These wage cuts and additional money-saving tactics used by the industry prompted strikes and unrest on a massive scale.

While most of the strikes in the eastern cities during 1877 were accompanied by violence, the late July 1877 St. Louis strike was marked by a bloodless and quick take-over by dissatisfied workers. By July 22, the St. Louis Commune began to take shape, as representatives from almost all the railroad lines met in East St. Louis. They soon elected an executive committee to command the strike and issued General Order No. 1, halting all railroad traffic other than passenger and mail trains. John Bowman, the mayor of East St. Louis, was appointed arbitrator of the committee. He helped the committee select special police to guard the property of the railroads from damage. The strike and the new de facto workers' government, while given encouragement by the largely German-American Workingmen's Party and the Knights of Labor (two key players in the organization of the Missouri general strike), were run by no organized labor group.

The strike closed packing industry houses surrounding the National Stock Yards. At one plant, workers allowed processing of 125 cattle in return for 500 cans of beef for the workers. Though the East St. Louis strike continued in an orderly fashion, across the river there were isolated incidents of violence. Harry Eastman, the East St. Louis workers' representative, addressed the mass of employees: "'Go home to your different wards and organize your different unions, but don't keep coming up here in great bodies and stirring up excitement. Ask the Mayor, as we did, to close up all the saloons... keep sober and orderly, and when you are organized, apply to the United Workingmen for orders. Don't plunder ... don't interfere with the railroads here ... let us attend to that'."The strikers held the railroads and city for about a week, without the violence that took place in Chicago and other cities. On July 28 US troops took over the Relay Depot, the Commune's command center, and the strike ended peacefully.

The East St. Louis riots of 1917
East St. Louis in 1917 had a strong industrial economy boosted by World War I. Many workers entered the military, and other workers went on strike. As the war prevented immigration from Europe, major companies recruited workers from the South to work at the Aluminum Ore Company and the American Steel Company. They were available because the US Army initially rejected many black volunteers in the years before an integrated military. This was also the period of the first Great Migration, as African Americans left poor rural economies in the South for industrial cities of the North.

Resentment on both sides and the arrival of new workers created fears for job security and raised social tensions. At a white labor meeting on May 28, men traded rumors of fraternizing between black men and white women. Three thousand white men left the meeting and headed as a mob for the downtown, where they randomly attacked black men on the street. They destroyed buildings and physically attacked people; they "killed a 14-year-old boy and scalped his mother. Before it was over 244 buildings were destroyed.". The governor called in National Guard to prevent further rioting, but rumors continued to circulate about an organized retaliation from the blacks.

On July 1, 1917, a black man attacked a white man. Whites drove by shooting in retaliation. When police came to investigate, the black attacker proceeded to fire on the police and wounded at least one. The next morning, thousands of white spectators mobbed the black section of town. The rioters burned entire sections of the city and shot blacks as they escaped the flames. They also lynched several blacks.

Although the governor had called in the National Guard to try to control the situation, several accounts reported that they joined in the rioting. The mob included "ten or fifteen white women, [who] chased a negro woman at the Relay Depot in broad daylight. The girls were brandishing clubs and calling upon the men to kill the woman." 2 The woman was a known prostitute frequented by white men.

Recent history
East St. Louis was named an All-America City in 1958, having retained prosperity through the decade as its population reached a peak of 82,295 residents. Through the 1950s and later, the city's musicians were an integral creative force in blues, rock and roll and jazz. Some left and achieved national recognition, such as Ike and Tina Turner and jazz great Miles Davis, who was born in nearby Alton and grew up in East St. Louis. Many were featured on the PBS series River of Song in 1999, covering music of cities along the Mississippi River.

The city was dramatically affected by mid-century deindustrialization and railroad restructuring. As a number of local factories began to close because of changes in industry, the railroad and meatpacking industries also were cutting back and moving jobs out of the region. This led to a precipitous loss of working and middle-class jobs. The city's financial conditions deteriorated. Elected in 1951, Mayor Alvin Fields tried funding measures that resulted in raising the city's bonded indebtedness and the property tax rate. More businesses closed as workers left the area to seek jobs in other regions. Crime increased as a result of poverty and lack of opportunities. "Brownfields" (areas with environmental contamination by heavy industry) make redevelopment more difficult and expensive.

Street gangs appeared in city neighborhoods. Like other cities with endemic problems by the 1960s, East St. Louis suffered riots in the latter part of the decade. In September 1967, rioting occurred in the city's South End and the following summer there were some sniping attacks. The violence added to residential mistrust and adversely affected the downtown retail base and the city's income.

The construction of freeways also contributed to East St. Louis' decline, as they cut through and broke up functioning neighborhoods and community networks. The freeways made it easier for residents to commute back and forth from suburban homes, so more people moved out to newer housing. East St. Louis adopted a number of programs to try to reverse decline — the Model Cities program, the Concentrated Employment Program and Operation Breakthrough. The programs were not enough to offset the industrial restructuring.

In 1971, James Williams was elected as the city's first black mayor. Faced with the overwhelming economic problems, he was unable to make much of a difference. By the election of Carl Officer as mayor (the youngest in the country at that time at age 25) in 1979, many said the city had nowhere to go but up, yet things grew worse. Middle-class whites and blacks left the city. People who could get jobs simply went to where there was work and a decent quality of life. Because the city had been obliged to cut back on maintenance, sewers failed and garbage pickup ceased. Police cars and radios stopped working. The East St. Louis Fire Department went on strike in the 1970s.

In the 1980s the state imposed a financial advisory board to manage the city in exchange for a financial bailout. State legislative approval in 1990 of riverboat gambling and the installation of the Casino Queen riverboat casino provided the first new source of income for the city in nearly 30 years. In 1991 Gordon Bush was elected mayor.

During the last decade, the city has completed several redevelopment projects: in 2001 it opened a new library and built a new city hall. Public-private partnerships have resulted in a variety of new retail developments, housing initiatives, and the St. Louis Metrolink light rail, which have sparked renewal. Some observers have questioned whether access to the Metrolink from the East Side has increased crime in the Saint Louis Metro Area.

The city, now small in terms of population, has drastic urban blight. Sections of "urban prairie" can be found where vacant buildings have been torn down and whole blocks became overgrown with vegetation. Much of the territory surrounding the city remains undeveloped, bypassed for growth in more affluent suburban areas. Many old, "inner city" neighborhoods abut large swaths of corn and soybean fields or otherwise vacant land. In addition to agricultural uses, a number of truck stops, strip clubs, and semi-rural businesses surround blighted areas in the city.

In 2010 the East St Louis community gardening movement began to develop plots for "urban farming", as has been done in North St. Louis. Inspired by Detroit's planned use of vacant land for green development, community associations, nonprofits and universities collaborated to spark green development in East St Louis.

In the early 1990s, archeological surveys and excavations prior to construction of I55/70 revealed evidence of important prehistoric structures. Illinois researchers discovered the remains of several earthwork mounds, the largest believed to have been 40 feet high with a base nearly the size of a football field. Also within the group were burial mounds, a large plaza and palisade, and other features showing this was a ceremonial center. This complex is now called the East St. Louis Mound group. It was built by the Mississippian culture, which reached its peak in the region about 1250 AD at the nearby major center of Cahokia, a UNESCO World Heritage Site within the present-day boundaries of Collinsville. The state and University of Illinois are trying to develop coordinated projects with East St. Louis and businesses that might use the mounds and artifacts as attractions for heritage tourism.

Geography
East St. Louis is located at 38°36'56" North, 90°7'40" West (38.615550, -90.127825).

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 14.4 square miles (37.4 km²), of which, 14.1 square miles (36.4 km²) of it is land and 0.4 square miles (1.0 km²) of it is water. The total area is 2.56% water.

East St. Louis usually experiences cold winters and hot summers. On July 14, 1954 the temperature at East Saint Louis reached 117 °F (48 °C), the highest temperature ever recorded in Illinois.

Transportation
East St. Louis is home to four St. Louis MetroLink stations; East Riverfront, 5th & Missouri, Emerson Park, and JJK Center.

Interstate 55, Interstate 64, Interstate 70, and US Highway 40 run concurrently through East St. Louis and are linked to St. Louis by the Poplar Street Bridge. Prior to its decommissioning, the fabled Route 66 also shared a concurrence with these Interstate highways. In addition, US Highway 50 also shared a concurrence prior to its being rerouting and concurrence with Interstate 255.

Demographics
As of the census of 2000, there were 31,542 people, 11,178 households, and 7,668 families residing in the city. The population density is 2,242.9 people per square mile (866.2/km²). There are 12,899 housing units at an average density of 917.2 per square mile (354.2/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 97.74% Black or African-American, 1.23% Caucasian, 0.19% Native American, 0.08% Asian-American, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 0.19% from other races, and 0.55% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.73% of the population.

There are 11,178 households out of which 33.2% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 21.9% are married couples living together, 40.6% have a female householder with no husband present, and 31.4% are non-families. 27.8% of all households are made up of individuals and 10.4% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 3.80 and the average family size is 4.02.

In the city the population is spread out with 32.8% under the age of 18, 9.7% from 18 to 24, 24.6% from 25 to 44, 20.3% from 45 to 64, and 12.5% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 31 years. For every 100 females there are 81.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 72.5 males.

The median income for a household in the city is $21,324, and the median income for a family is $24,567. Males have a median income of $27,864 versus $21,850 for females. The per capita income for the city is $11,169. 35.1% of the population and 31.8% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 48.6% of those under the age of 18 and 25.2% of those 65 and older are living below the poverty line.

Government and infrastructure
The Southwestern Illinois Correctional Center, operated by the Illinois Department of Corrections, is near East St. Louis.

Education
The city is served by the East St. Louis School District 189.

All residents are zoned to East St. Louis High School.

East St. Louis in popular culture

 * In an episode of Leave It to Beaver, Ward Cleaver mentioned that June Cleaver was the "Former Belle of East St. Louis."
 * In The Simpsons episode "They Saved Lisa's Brain", the local chapter of Mensa takes over the government of Springfield and improves the city to 299th place on America's list of 300 most livable cities, displacing East St. Louis. According to the DVD commentary for this episode, this joke caused a lot of controversy. In "Days of Wine and D'oh'ses", the show is kinder to the city: Homer plans a trip there through AAA. In yet another episode, the family takes a discount route that includes East St. Louis when they head to Brazil.
 * Aaron McGruder and Reginald Hudlin penned a 2004 graphic novel Birth of a Nation, in which they theorize what would happen if the 2000 Florida election debacle had instead happened in East St. Louis, resulting in ESL seceding from the nation and creating its own called "Republic of Blackland."
 * Comic book author Dennis O'Neil of St. Louis based The Question's fictional Hub City on East St. Louis.
 * Duke Ellington and Bubber Miley wrote a song, "East St. Louis Toodle-Oo", which also appeared on the Steely Dan album Pretzel Logic.
 * In an episode of That '70s Show Kitty Foreman, outraged over her husband Red Foreman and son's friend Steven Hyde selling Heart medication, says that they have "turned my living room into East St. Louis."
 * The first chapter of Jonathan Kozol's book Savage Inequalities has to do with the East St. Louis Educational system.

Film

 * In the films Going My Way (1944) and The Bells of St. Mary's (1945), the character of Father Charles O'Malley (played by Bing Crosby) was from East St. Louis. He sang the "East St. Louis High" alma mater ("Hail alma mater, thy time-honored halls shall echo with our praise till we die, and round our hearts are the ivy-covered walls of East St. Louis High.") in Going My Way.
 * In the 1981 science fiction/action film Escape from New York, director John Carpenter used East St. Louis to represent a decaying, semi-destroyed future version of New York City. At that time, East St. Louis had entire neighborhoods burned out in 1976 during a massive urban fire, which suited the director's vision of a Manhattan Island that has been turned into a maximum security prison.
 * The 1992 film Trespass takes place almost entirely in East St. Louis.



Crime
East St. Louis has one of the highest crime rates in the United States. According to FBI's data of 2007, its murder rate hit 101.9 per population of 100,000, surpassing that of cities such as Gary, Indiana (48.3 per pop. 100,000), New Orleans, Louisiana (37.6), Baltimore, Maryland (43.3), and Detroit, Michigan (47.3), as well as that of its neighbor St. Louis (37.2). FBI data shows East St. Louis' rate of rape exceeded 250 per population of 100,000.

The following table shows East St. Louis's crime rate in six crimes that Morgan Quitno uses for its calculation for "America's most dangerous cities" ranking, in comparison to the national average: Year: 2006'' number of crimes per 100,000.