How Capital destroys neighborhoods, families & history

[Hannah Bell]

In 2003, a private company known as Blairmont Associates, LLC began buying up houses and vacant lots on the near north side of St. Louis. In 2005, the pace increased, and many additional shell companies were used to continue the purchases. All these companies have been tied back to one Paul McKee, a suburban developer.

As of 2008, Blairmont owns over 600 parcels of land, concentrated in the St. Louis Place, JeffVanderLou, and Old North St. Louis neighborhoods, directly north of downtown.



Many of Blairmont's initial purchases were empty lots or vacant houses, but they have since branched out into buying houses that were very recently occupied. Word has spread of strong-arm tactics, of tenants forced to vacate before the sale.

Encouraging decay

Much physical evidence exists to suggest that Blairmont's properties are being actively pushed into deterioration, ruin, and ultimately demolition:

Without exception, Blairmont properties are vacant. If there are tenants before the purchase, they are quickly evicted.

Blairmont makes no effort to repair or maintain their buildings.

Blairmont makes no effort to maintain the grounds of their holdings, forcing the city to mow the grass. This neglect makes it obvious that the properties are empty, making them an easy target for criminal activity.

Most of Blairmont's buildings are not properly secured, with windows left unboarded.

In many cases, windows are actually removed from the buildings after their purchase by Blairmont, leaving them open to vandals, thieves, drug dealers, and the elements, all of which hastens their deterioration.

Blairmont's properties are also subject to destruction by brick rustlers with uncanny frequency.
Most of these actions are both illegal and immoral, creating dangerous conditions for residents who live nearby, and preventing other buyers from renovating these buildings. The decay drives down property values, raises fears of emminent domain siezures, and creates isolation and fear.

Demolition by neglect diminishes established historic districts, violating the law and endangering the tax credits that ordinary citizens often rely upon to make their renovations feasible.



A tax-funded shell game

Evidence supports the notion that the Blairmont companies typically sell their properties back and forth to one another at inflated prices. See 2532 Hebert for a typical example of this tactic.

If all these purchases are leading up to a project funded by tax credits, the inflated sale prices are a scheme to blatantly rob taxpayers. It costs McKee nothing, as he's essentially moving his own money from one pocket to another, but it creates a record of a higher price which would be credited to McKee under the Distressed Areas Land Assemblage Tax Credit -- a Missouri state bill which McKee apparently had a very heavy hand in creating.

http://www.builtstlouis.net/northside/blairmont00.html


Paul McKee

Board of Directors- Enterprise Bank
Associated General Contractors (AGC)
Former Young Presidents' Organization (YPO)
Worldwide President's Organization (WPO)
Chief Executives Organization (CEO)
National Privatization Council
National Association of Arbitrators
Board Member of Jefferson Bank & Trust of Creve Coeur
Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors
BJC Health Systems, Inc./Chairman Christian Health Services Corporation National Society of Professional Engineers
Missouri Society of Professional Engineers
Board Member - Boy Scouts of America
Board Member - Regional Commerce & Growth Association
Board Member - Regional Business Council


http://www.mc-eagle.com/experience/p_paulMcKee.html

Capital's "family values"

http://www.stlcommercemagazine.com/archives/october2001/cover.html



"Making life work":

“I’m doing what I do because I want to, not because I have to,” he explains. “I love it, and what’s more, it helps the community.”

And community is something McKee believes in very strongly. So much so, he helped develop McEagle’s LifeWorks® based on his belief that if you can live, learn, work, pray and play in the same community, then you’ve got a better chance that your life will work.

http://www.stlcommercemagazine.com/archives/november2005/spotlight.html

[blindpig]

1. My chlidhood neighborhood has been yuppiefied

Towards the end the new majority presumed to dictate behavior to my relations, the arrogant bastards. If I ever go back it's gonna be with a sack of rocks...

k&r

[mdmc]

2. --

[Greyhound]

3. All of the financial shenanigans of the last 30 years are nearly the same.

We have been forced to finance our own destruction through endless corporate welfare programs dressed up as everything from "trickle down" to "stimulus packages" for two generations and the third is well under way.

[Odin2005]

4. Sneaky scoundrels!

:grr:

[hfojvt]

5. kick, this is interesting n/t

[Nikki Stone1]

6. So he'd get taxpayer money to tear down, rebuild and sell homes at an enormous profit in a

"community" of his design? I think that's what you said.