Abandoned subdivision near STL airport?
April 24, 2018 6:16 AM   Subscribe

What's the story behind the abandoned subdivision just northwest of the STL airport?

On final approach (to the Southeast) at Lambert St. Louis Airport, you pass over what appears to be an abandoned subdivision. It is locked-in by the airport and industrial areas, and is nearly bisected by I-270. Other subdivisions have suffered similar fates without being totally abandoned. What's the story?
posted by John Borrowman to Law & Government (11 answers total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
Oh hey! I found this! I was thinking, after looking at the area on Google maps, that probably an airport expansion was the reason, and it looks like I was right.
posted by cooker girl at 6:22 AM on April 24, 2018 [3 favorites]


You mean the site that's labelled on Google Maps as the West Lake Landfill Superfund Site?
posted by 1970s Antihero at 6:23 AM on April 24, 2018


Best answer: That's Carrollton, a neighborhood that was victim of Lambert's disaster of a runway expansion plan in the late '90s/early '00s. Here are a couple of other good links with pictures/stories.
posted by AgentRocket at 6:29 AM on April 24, 2018 [3 favorites]


Here's a blog from a former resident talking not only about the airport expansion but the Superfund site as well.
posted by cooker girl at 6:29 AM on April 24, 2018 [1 favorite]


Here's a good report on the airport expansion and all of the people/houses that were displaced. From the intro: "the annual passengers reached an all-time peak at 30.6 million in the year 2000, then dropped to a twenty-year low at 13.4 million in 2004." (Though the writing was on the wall since at least the mid-'90s that STL wasn't going to compete with O'Hare or Atlanta Hartsfield.)
posted by AgentRocket at 6:45 AM on April 24, 2018 [3 favorites]


I used to work "under the hill" from Carrollton (to the north) at the former sewage treatment plant for the subdivision. It was interesting to drive through the abandoned streets.

(I also spent NYE 1999->Y2K at some random house that was slated for demolition. We were told by the owners that we could have as destructive a party as we wanted...)
posted by notsnot at 7:59 AM on April 24, 2018 [3 favorites]


Response by poster: You mean the site that's labelled on Google Maps as the West Lake Landfill Superfund Site?

No. That site is nearby and has its own story, I'm sure.
posted by John Borrowman at 9:20 AM on April 24, 2018


I can't contribute to the answer, but I'm amazed at the coincidence that I was just ogling this site on google maps as this question was being answered. I tracked a UPS order this morning and saw that it originated in Earth City. There's an Earth City? Awesome name. It's apparently a distribution hub and it lies next in line from STL to Carrollton to the West Lake Landfill. That's where your new shoes come from, folks.
posted by rlk at 9:45 AM on April 24, 2018 [1 favorite]


There is an Earth City! It's the most amazing name for an extremely boring place. We used to say it was something an alien would think the Big City on Earth was called: "Take me to Earth City!" When in reality I think it was mostly a casino boat floating in a human-made lake.
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 10:01 AM on April 24, 2018 [1 favorite]


When in reality I think it was mostly a casino boat floating in a human-made lake.

Earth City is a not city on the north side of 70 which has some office parks and distribution centers and the West Lake Landfill. Maryland Heights is on the other side of 70 and has the casino, i forget what it's current incarnation is, that was built as Boat in Moat to maliciously comply with the gaming rule that casinos had to be in water. It also has the other landfill and the shittiest concert venue in the area.
posted by fluttering hellfire at 12:33 PM on April 24, 2018


Well, damn. Agent Rocket's answer to John Borrowman's question connected me to an informative link that left me sad for a neighborhood that I'll never see, in a city I've never visited. That's some good writing, that is.
posted by virago at 6:54 PM on April 24, 2018 [2 favorites]


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