Spanish Lake | Living St. Louis

Producer Jim Kirchherr rides along with the St. Louis County Problem Property Unit as they inspect empty homes in the Spanish Lake neighborhood. An unincorporated municipality, Spanish Lake has no mayor or city hall, but does have an active community association which is trying to address the problem of abandoned home in the area, many the result of the foreclosure crisis. The Problem Property Unit and community association look for signs of neglect, yard waste, gang graffiti, or break-ins and attempt to clean up the properties whenever possible with the help of organizations like Neighbors Assisting Neighbors.

[@rollingvee]

This is a great story. My hats off to these fine people in helping reclaim this area. I hope they made progress.

[@coryl3075]

Nah keep hoping

[@iluvcakes19]

11 years from the future... No progress made.

[@craigmorgan7310]

12 years later it’s one of the worst cities in north county

[@mattsmith3312]

i watched the whole thing didnt see one black person help clean up or even concerned it sucks to that happen to a area i live in florissant 3 miles away live here 27 yrs and it happen here too Q;what do u think the problem is ?

[@iluvcakes19]

To be fair, they only showed 3 people.

[@Xenthoid]

I'm glad to see that people are proactive.

[@superfly9173]

What I don’t like or agree with is at the very beginning the County Building Inspector tells the lady that is a community volunteer about a certain abandoned house. “Hey this is a perfect opportunity for you, it’s Labor Intensive”. What he is really telling her is “Yeah you and your volunteers should do all this Labor Intensive work for free so the county doesn’t have to use its workers and the County tax money to clean it up. Where he is trying to pull off a fast one is “it is the counties job to clean those properties up” that’s why we pay our taxes.

[@Armitix]

What else did you expect?
Look at Detoilet and Ookland. (Detroit and Oakland)

[@iluvcakes19]

Oakland is a nice place to be right now.

[@Xenthoid]

This isn't always true. Try some areas in Atlanta.

[@grandmagrandson1]

Please come to YOUR Larimore Park , We will sure to handle all comments you have about us blacks .

[@davidstough302]

Where are the black people? Not one volunteer to improve the situation?

[@iluvcakes19]

I'm missing the part about Larimore Park. Can you timestamp it?

[@danthebest]

lol

[@danthebest]

I stopped reading your comment after you misused "red."