St. Louis is on a path to bankruptcy. Should it be allowed to sell vacant condemned buildings to make ends meet?

@Avectoijesuismoi finally if St. Louis could redirect its damaged reputation toward the lessons of correcting the damages it will attract investment research and fresh arrivals. A world standard to be emulated. Positive begets improvement.

@exchrist I currently live in a nice part of California (Rancho Santa Fe) nothing is broken there it all works, the schools etc in the area are good.
Everything is nice and clean too.
But the difference between these type of areas and others is the word "request" has been omitted from the dictionary and substituted by "demands" they get high property taxes and they are expected to do what it is for maintaining the highest standards.

@Avectoijesuismoi I can identify here in upstate New York things are not bad like anywhere there are problems. Taxes are higher than many other states and like everywhere only going up. What you describe is “blue state tax syndrome” poor decisions made in and by red states with smaller populations and lower taxes destroy the nations income reputation and environment. Often the red states that are “firing from the hip” and devastating things for everyone else then externalize blame and cost on democrats on the other side of the country.
The mistakes in Florida or Texas Alabama or Georgia are paid for by federal taxes collected from populous blue states California New York and Massachusetts. Or failed policies by newcomers in the early years of America were committed in blue states: the original 13 and then the culprit fled (disappeared) to a newer state only to F it up there too. MF’ing humans;(Europeans) eh?
The original 13 states despite having the most experience thus the most effective policies are forced to shoulder the burden of younger less populated states that have lower taxes bc no one would move there otherwise. I get it
Unfortunately absent the nation working as a whole (as a team should) most of the country’s worst problems will never be addressed and simply remain unsolved while getting worse.
Hence the federal legislature externalizes its focus to foreign wars, sometimes as a result of scapegoating in order to circumvent blame for the consequences of domestic policies.
Certainly if ww2 era politicians would retire or simply die “finally” war time strategies and demeanor could finally become peacetime attitude and solutions.
America is a young nation but its politicains aren’t.
Regarding property taxes I wish it weren’t a thing. Unfortunately in the same way stewardship of the land which life is dependent on at some point became extraction of resources for profit and exploitation of natural regenerating systems to the point of destruction.
Now we have to fix it (correct course).

@jehova this happens near me too. prior to world war 2 (or just after) inexpensive homes were built on streets that later atttracted McDonalds, Walmart, etc. people actually DONT want to live next door to a McDonalds. A house near me was squeezed between the post office and fire department. It became a budget hotel when sold. this still doesn't help the affordable housing problem, but at least it's not vacant, and is generating property tax revenue again. the post office and fire department pay no property taxes, of course.

@SusanInFlorida you also can't keep building everywhere either
We actually need to start to allocate more space back to nature. The more people we need the more oxygen we need.
What is actually needed is to slow down population growth as a whole.
Forget about just money at the moment.
The other resources food, water, etc are also no longer matching the number of people, and capacity to produce more and more food is going to be reached very soon and there are going to be horrible consequences.

Add to that that at least 30% of the oceans need to be protected and that means no fishing or any other exploitation of those areas
The treaty to do it has been ratified.
There is an "unofficial funding budget" available to buy up companies and literally shut them down. None of the people involved need to be popular or require votes. There is no political sensitivity so it can just do it.
But it can apply pressure on the politicians to stop bad practices.

One company that was logging and owned the land in the Amazon rainforest has already been acquired and closed down.
Good bye jobs that were there.

@Avectoijesuismoi the biggest reason natural spaces are "lost" - they are clear cut or burned for agriculture. to feed the world's relentless overpopulation growth.

@SusanInFlorida it has got to be halted now there is funding to do just that.

@jshm2 i grew up in a home. my mother still owns it. where did you grow up?

@CougarLisa that building is owned by the city

@dale74 post says "buildings"... plural.

@CougarLisa vacant buildings are a public nuisance and safety hazard. no matter if your taxes are up to date, or not.