ST. LOUIS – After FOX 2 exposed a major public safety hazard near a St. Louis park, things have gotten worse, not better.
Our follow-up report finds the site is considered so dangerous that building inspectors now feel it cannot be ignored.
On one side of Switzer Avenue in the Baden neighborhood of north St. Louis, you have the well-kept Dickman Park, with its updated fitness trail. On the other side, you have a complex of empty, crumbling, burned-out buildings that take up nearly an entire city block.
The site is condemned and has been vacant for about three years. The problems there have spilled over since our first report in January.
“It has not been easy doing business next to them,” said Bob Griesedieck, operations manager of Griesedieck Brothers Brewery, a historic St. Louis beer-maker, adjacent to the problem property. “We stand with the residents. They have to deal with this on a 24/7 basis.”
So does he. Police are now investigating an attempted break-in at his business two days after our initial report.
Gloria Gooden’s jaw dropped when she heard that bit of news.
“Oh, they’re driving (Griesedieck) crazy,” she said.
Gooden is a 50-year Baden resident and long-time St. Louis businesswoman. She’s active with the Revitalization of Baden Association, which is pushing for demolition of the condemned property.
“I don’t want (Griesedieck) to leave from down there. I’ve been trying to work with him. I’m like, ‘Please don’t go,’” she said. “We shouldn’t have to look at all of that. You see all of that trash? Oh my God, and now they’ve started dumping in the park across the street.”
The neighborhood has endured years of fires, flying bullets, and a massive amount of illegal dumping at what was most recently City to City Ministries, which offered heavily discounted furniture to those in need.
Baden’s alderwoman, Sharon Tyus, wants to fence off the site.
“When the voters, residents, businesses are asking, sometimes begging for something to be done and this is the response we get? We’re angry,” Griesedieck said.
”We cannot have this hanging around,” Tashara Earl, president of the Revitalization of Baden Association, said. “This is an ugly building. I know it has a history but unfortunately, someone didn’t take care of it. I think the community will come together and talk about what we would want here: definitely some type of walkway, greenery, to connect with the park that’s across the street.”
In internal e-mails, a manager in the City of St. Louis’s Building Division recommends an emergency demolition project citing “a major fire/biohazard.”
FOX 2 asked whether demolition has actually been planned and whether there’s a timeline for it, but have yet to get a response from city hall.
