After years of offering data and ideas to tackle local blight, the St. Louis Vacancy Collaborative's entire agenda will now be put to the test as the organization receives a two-year, $500,000 contract to devise a strategy for addressing the city's out-of-control vacancy problem. Where other initiatives have failed miserably, St. Louisans should hope this one will succeed because the collaborative's work is based on realistic assessments of the problem and strong community input on achievable solutions.

The collaborative's hallmark accomplishment, years in the making, is a comprehensive online database and map depicting the massive scope of the city's vacancy problem. This isn't just any website. It provides just about any vacancy information a resident, researcher or official could need with just a few mouse clicks. And with every click comes a new, startling revelation of how serious the vacancy problem has become.

When people talk about St. Louis emptying out, stlvacancytools.com is the place to go to visualize what that mass exodus looks like on the ground.

There are 24,326 vacant parcels in the city, including 8,740 vacant buildings and 15,586 vacant lots. In three years, those vacancies left a deficit of $20.1 million in unpaid property taxes, city maintenance fees and unpaid vacant building fees and fines. These aren't just eyesores; they're revenue-drainers. The longer the vacancy problem goes unaddressed, the more it costs the taxpayers who have chosen not to flee the city, which is why it's in everyone's interest to reverse this vicious depopulation cycle.

The website breaks down precisely who is responsible for the upkeep of derelict properties, listing where they are and who owns them. Top on the list of private owners, not surprisingly, are Northside Regeneration LLC and Hudson & McKee Real Estate LLC, followed by Tabernacle Community Development Corp.

Anyone concerned about an eyesore vacant property in their neighborhood can go to this map, click on the property to identify the address, owner, code violations and other status indicators. Got a complaint? A single click allows the site visitor to report it to the city.

This is precisely what makes the Vacancy Collaborative so worthy of taxpayer support in developing a strategy to address the vacancy problem and, hopefully, restore properties to productive use.

The city has hundreds of millions of dollars in its coffers to address all the problems it faces, but eliminating vacancy and blight should be at the top of the list because all other problems stem from it. Tourists don't want to come to a city that looks like a crime-infested war zone. Would-be employers and investors are immediately repelled. Existing residents are voting with their feet.

It took decades to create this problem, and it will likely take decades more to solve. But the Vacancy Collaborative is on it, and that's something for every (remaining) St. Louisan to cheer about.

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