LD Country

LD Country, originally uploaded by jasonmlott.

I've never lived in a City that has such a fine line between disparity and wealth. My neighborhood was saved (or ruined, depending on perspective) in the 80's by urban pioneers who braved the crime and began rehabbing houses.

Today, half-million dollar rehabbed mansions* (one a former home of a beer baron, so the story is told) sit next door to dilapidated abandoned shells, slowly deteriorating by means of a new growth urban forest. One house's landscaping is another's demise.


Al Capone used to play poker in this house. Today it has been taken over by another breed of gangster, one who doesn’t seem to employ the same clandestine sensibilities.

*Yes, in St. Louis you can buy a beer baron's mansion for .5 million dollars. Not a typo.