I noticed that I have a problem. (big shock right?) When you travel you usually come across a variation of good places and bad places. You know those good places, the ones you favor and just fall in love with. The bad places are pretty easy to describe in writing. I find the one or two things I like and just stick to it. But the good places, the places that make me want to celebrate life, those are the ones I get caught up on. When writing, I just don't know where to start and unfortunately for my blogging, I have come across many many good places. One of my favorites being, good ol' St. Louis.
WE ALL KNOW THE DIFFERENT STEREOTYPES of south. Usually they fall under the categorizes of incredibly hospitable to hysterically racist. I don't really know if either is true but no matter what the people are like, southern USA is a beautiful place. We are still working our way down the Mississippi and have spent the better part of today in good ol' St. Louis.
Now, before we started this trip I knew hardly anything about this supposedly great city. I mean, it wasn't Chicago or New York so how great could it be? And let me just say, that I was wrong. As it turns out, I love St. Louis!! Don't get me wrong, it does have quite a few problems. In fact, my class spent most of our prep for the trip learning just how kind of messed up St. Louis is. (Not the best first impression, let me tell you) The biggest one, apparently the population for the city has been drastically declining over the past decade or so. Bad neighborhoods have forced people to flee long time homes to outside suburbs. This mass emigration has left the city looking post apocalyptic in some parts. The streets bare except for littler and rubble crowding the sidewalk and laws. People leaving their once beautiful brick homes to crumble,rot and decay. However, I want to be clear, this apocalyptic parts of the city that I am describing is quickly becoming the exception rather than the norm. People are starting to move back into certain communities and redefine their neighborhoods. We actually got a tour for of one of the neighborhoods and saw two groups that were working on renovations and creating community centers. It was probably one of my all time favorite places I have seen just thanks to the warmth and love people have been making to create a beautiful place to live. Also, to explain the title of this post, EVERYTHING here is red brick here. Every building, the streets, the sidewalks, EVERYTHING! I know what some of you are thinking, whats the big freaking deal? I will tell you, as a photographer obsessed with color and texture, this is a dream come true. Truly, truly, truly, one of the most beautiful and historic looking cities I have seen in a really long time. |
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