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'Trump Tower': Can a coat of paint on this eyesore make a difference in a struggling St. Louis suburb?
St. Louis Post-Dispatch - 9/20/2018
Sept. 20--ST. CLAIR COUNTY --Just about everybody in State Park Place has watched the walls of 2890 Black Lane become covered with hate.
First, spray-painted tags for Hispanic gangs appeared on the vacant one-story building in State Park Place, an unincorporated area of Metro East near the Cahokia Mounds.
Then, a few weeks later, another layer would appear: Swastikas, Nazi "SS" symbols, racial slurs against Hispanics and big black letters reading "TRUMP."
The layers of spray paint on the building some locals started to call "Trump Tower" have been a mainstay in the neighborhood for at least five years. It's been cleaned up before, only to be tagged again. This time, no one painted over the graffiti. The swastikas and other scrawls have sat there since at least 2016.
On Saturday, a group of volunteers hopes to change that. The progressive nonprofit Indivisible Metro East will gather volunteers to cover the graffiti, said organizer Jessica Motsinger.
Motsinger started the effort in June after seeing a picture of the property on social media in a post with the question: "Will someone please paint over this trash today?"
"I saw it and thought: I can do that," said Motsinger, a Navy veteran from Swansea. "That's something I can do that can hopefully make that neighborhood a better place."
Motsinger hopes to enlist artists to transform the offensive eyesore into a piece of community art.
Wild West of Metro East
Still, many neighbors say 2890 Black Lane reveals problems facing State Park Place that are deeper than paint: gang activity, racial backlash over a growing Hispanic population and a sense of lawlessness in the unincorporated area spanning Madison and St. Clair counties.
"It's like the Wild, Wild West out here," said Jesse Hernandez, owner of Tienda El Maguey, a Mexican grocery about five blocks from the building.
Hernandez and many others in the community said it often takes sheriff's deputies 20 to 30 minutes to respond to calls because they cover such a large area.
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Window of Tienda El Maguey
The window of the Tienda El Maguey, a Mexican grocery in State Park Place. Owner Jesse Hernandez said he put the sign up as a deterrent because sheriff's deputies often take so long to respond to the area.
Erin Heffernan
"That's why I have that," said Hernandez pointing to a sign printed on his store's window: "Attention: Shoplifters and robbers please carry ID so we can notify next of kin. We support conceal and carry."
To Hernandez, the racial slurs painted on 2890 Black Lane are a symptom of a nasty sentiment towards Hispanics in the area in recent years. "Once Trump ran for president, I think people felt more free to express their hatred," he said.
Others in State Park Place, like Devonna Hayes, said she sees the swastikas and the graffiti referencing President Donald Trump more as a backlash to the trouble gangs have brought to the neighborhood.
"This place has changed. I don't feel safe here any more, so I think it was kind of a reaction to that ... to the Mexican gangs," said Hayes, sitting at her desk at the Mound Public Water District, on Black Lane a block from the building.
Hayes was born and reared in State Park Place, but moved away in 2009 after her home was burglarized. Outside the window of her office, a residential fence is marked with a blue spray-painted tag for a local Hispanic gang, the 155.
The tag dots many buildings and street signs in the neighborhood of about 600 people.
But it's not just graffiti.
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Ladevion Pence and Damian O. Armendariz-Vasquez
Ladevion Pence (left), of Granite City, and Damian O. Armendariz-Vasquez, of Collinsville, were each charged with aggravated great bodily harm with a firearm, unlawful possession of a firearm by a street gang member and aggravated unlawful use of a weapon in connection to a gang-related shooting on Aug. 5, 2018, that left a teenager paralyzed. Pence's bond was set at $1 million. Armendariz-Vasquez's bond was set at $100,000.
On Aug. 5, a 17-year-old mistaken for a gang member was shot several times about three blocks from 2890 Black Lane, according to the St. Clair County Sheriff's Office. The teen was left paralyzed. Two suspected 155 gang members were charged in the shooting, authorities say.
"Gangs have been a problem in State Park forever," said St. Clair County Sheriff Richard Watson. "It's a big concern."
Watson offered his department's support behind the recent effort to clean up the graffiti on Black Lane by assigning deputies as security to volunteers as they work Saturday.
"It's like the broken windows effect of law enforcement," Watson said after a recent meeting at the building with Motsinger, who organized the cleanup. "You leave a building like that and it creates an environment for crime. So we want to help any effort to fix this."
Empty 20 years
There are still signs of what the building used to be: Look close and you'll see a faded painting of an American flag under the spray paint. An old parking lot for customers is overgrown with weeds.
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Vacant building in State Park Place
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Courtney Hasty, 22, mows grass on Friday, Sept. 14, 2018, across the street from a graffiti-covered building at 2890 Black Lane in State Park Place. The empty building is covered with swastikas and gang symbols. A progressive community group, Indivisible Metro East, is planning a volunteer "Paint the Hate Away" event to paint over the messages with graffiti-resistant paint. Hasty said she and her boyfriend plan to help. Photo by Hillary Levin, hlevin@post-dispatch.com
Hillary Levin
The building stands on one of the main roads in State Park Place, near a row of ranch homes and trailers where children jump on trampolines and play with dogs across from the Nazi symbols. Abandoned homes dot the street: Some with black marks from fires, many others tagged with gang signs.
Dorothy Christie, 90, has been living in State Park Place longer than just about anyone. She and her husband built her home on Black Lane 63 years ago, back when the area was first developed as a rural suburb of St. Louis.
Today the graffiti-covered building is one of her closest neighbors.
"You know, I'm 90," she said, sitting at her kitchen table and working on a pink quilt for her great-granddaughter. "I need to sell this place soon, and I can't imagine how I'm going to be able to. It's very vulgar."
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Vacant building in State Park Place
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An empty building on Black Lane in the State Park Place area, seen Friday, Sept. 14, 2018, is covered with Nazi symbols, gang references, slurs and President Donald Trump's name, right across the street from where people live. A progressive community group, Indivisible Metro East, is planning a volunteer "Paint the Hate Away" event to paint over the messages with graffiti-resistant paint. Photo by Hillary Levin, hlevin@post-dispatch.com
Hillary Levin
Christie worked for more than 20 years as a bookkeeper at the Brooks Catsup Company, which built the famous 70-foot Collinsville Catsup bottle about 4 miles from State Park Place. Christie also ran an ice cream shop on her property for years before business slowed.
She remembers the building at 2890 Black Lane as the Oasis Super Club in the 1960s and 1970s, then a string of bars known for their gambling machines.
The most recent business there was "Doc's Place," but it closed some 20 years ago, according to Helen Hollen who has lived in State Park Place for 68 years. And for years, it's attracted graffiti.
Cleanup organizer Motsinger worked with St. Clair County for months to try to contact the owner of the building, but letters were never answered.
Eventually, she decided to paint over the graffiti anyway. She set a date -- this Saturday -- for the event she called "Paint the Hate Away."
An owner steps forward
Less than a week before the painting event, Motsinger got an answer to the mystery of the building's owner. She got a notification on the Facebook page for the cleanup from a man named Jose Carrillo who said he owns 2890 Black Lane.
Carrillo told her he bought the building about seven years ago with dreams of opening a restaurant. At the time, his family owned a small Mexican market in the area but wanted to find another space to expand with an eatery.
Carrillo invested about $7,000 into the building at 2890 Black Lane, he told a reporter, using his 16-year-old son, Jose Carrillo Jr. as an interpreter. He had a crew of friends and family working to fix it up, but said the county stopped their work because they didn't have a proper work permit.
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Vacant building in State Park Place
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An empty building in the State Park Place area, seen Friday, Sept. 14, 2018, is covered with Nazi symbols, gang references, slurs and President Donald Trump's name, right across the street from where people live. A progressive community group, Indivisible Metro East, is planning a volunteer "Paint the Hate Away" event to paint over the messages with graffiti-resistant paint. Photo by Hillary Levin, hlevin@post-dispatch.com
Carrillo eventually found another space around the corner where he now runs La Esquinita market and restaurant. The place needed less work and he could rent-to-own the building.
Still, he tried to keep up the property at 2890 Black Lane for years. He paid the taxes. He would ask people to mow the lawn and says he painted over gang graffiti and swastikas three or four times.
He called police when it was vandalized or broken into, but an officer told him he would need to install security cameras for them to be able to catch the perpetrators, Carrillo said.
The last time he tried to paint over the graffiti, a group of men drove up and rolled down their windows. They yelled at him in English and said "Get out of here!"
"That sort of thing happens a lot around here, but I basically gave up then," Carrillo said through his son. "I was afraid. Maybe if they saw me out there they would target me at my market."
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Vacant building in State Park Place
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Jessica Motsinger, who is with a progressive community group, Indivisible Metro East, is trying to clean up the building at 2890 Black Lane in the State Park Place area of St. Clair County. The empty building, seen Friday, Sept. 14, 2018, i is covered with Nazi symbols, gang references, slurs and President Donald Trump's name, right across the street from where people live. The group is planning a volunteer "Paint the Hate Away" event to paint over the messages with graffiti-resistant paint. Photo by Hillary Levin, hlevin@post-dispatch.com
Carrillo said he feels bad when he drives by the building. He hates the message and racist language written on the walls he owns, but doesn't have the money to install cameras and keep repainting while focusing on building up his other business.
Then, this week, Carrillo's family discovered Motsinger's Facebook event and the plan to clean up the property.
"I was surprised, amazed that someone wanted to help," he said.
Carrillo and many other neighbors still worry the building will just be painted with graffiti again, but Motsinger said she hopes this time will be different.
Volunteers plan to use a graffiti-repelling sealant donated by the Fairview Heights Sherwin-Williams for the project. The sheriff's department also offered to send jail inmates on work duties to help upkeep on the property if it is vandalized again, Sheriff Watson said.
Graffiti cleanup
What: Cleanup event to cover graffiti in State Park Place
Where: 2890 Black Lane outside of Collinsville
When: Saturday. The event will officially start at 12 p.m. and end at 5 p.m., but volunteers can come most of the day.
To find out more: Visit the "Paint the Hate Away" event on Facebook hosted by Indivisible Metro East.
"Thank you very much," Carrillo told Motsinger on a recent afternoon when she came to talk to him about the project. Carrillo said he is still trying to figure out what to do with the building long term.
More than 50 people indicated on Facebook they would attend Saturday's event with messages like: "Thank you for doing this!"
Still some in State Park Place are dubious. They worry the graffiti will just return. They want the deteriorating building to be demolished. And they know that after the volunteers leave and the swastikas are covered, the underlying problems in State Park Place that led to the Nazi and gang graffiti will remain.
"It's not going to fix all the problems," said Motsinger in response. "I know that. But it's better than doing nothing."
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Vacant building in State Park Place
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Jessica Motsinger, who is with a progressive community group, Indivisible Metro East, speaks on Friday, Sept. 14, 2018, to a resident about an effort to clean up the building at 2890 Black Lane in the State Park Place area. The empty building is covered with Nazi symbols, gang references, slurs and President Donald Trump's name, right across the street from where people live. The group is planning a volunteer "Paint the Hate Away" event to paint over the messages with graffiti-resistant paint. Photo by Hillary Levin, hlevin@post-dispatch.com
Hillary Levin
Tipping point: St. Louis struggles to keep up with rising tide of broken, abandoned buildings
Tipping point: St. Louis struggles to keep up with rising tide of broken, abandoned buildings
Some neighborhoods may be beyond saving; others need help now
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