ST. LOUIS – A north St. Louis street that’s already seen more than its share of trouble was recently hit by storm damage. The storms uprooted a big tree pushing up the sidewalk. It’s blocking people from walking down the street.
Local Gregory Allison told Elliott Davis it’s been like this too long.
”It’s been 15 days since this happened and after 15 days I would expect it to be cleaned up,” Allison shared. “I was expecting it to be cleaned up a lot sooner than that. It’s dangerous I did report it as being a dangerous situation.”
He says he’s not ready to point fingers or assign blame.
”When I talked to Forestry Division last, the gentlemen I spoke with said that they are understaffed, and I’ve talked to other people that worked for the city, and they’re saying the same thing that the city is understaffed and if you go on the city’s website it does say they are hiring, so it could be a personnel issue.”
That’s just the latest problem on this block with a lot of troubles.
Grace Craft who lives there, explained the situation she’s dealing with.
There are two abandoned houses on both sides of her. Both of them have high vegetation growing on them. She’s had no luck with getting something done.
“I don’t understand why it can’t be cut down who wants to live like that?” Craft asked. “It’s scary, and it’s just sad. Embarrassed somebody drops you off – it’s embarrassing look at this. I be scared some nights sometime it sounds like you hear something over there I’m fed up – but I like my house, but I don’t want to go nowhere really, but this is getting ridiculous.”
Craft revealed that she contacted her Alderwoman Sharon Tyus. FOX 2’s Elliott Davis called Alderwoman Tyus, and she agreed to meet me on Terry Road. Elliott asked what had she done to make things better.
“What I’ve done on this particular street, I’ve torn down between seven and 12 buildings and got another seven to 12 buildings,” Tyus said. “I often ask Forestry to come cut the grass to board up properties.”
While speaking with Davis, Tyus called the Forestry Department to let them know about the conditions on Terry Avenue. Just under an hour later, Forestry Workers showed up on Terry, and cutting grass tearing down the overgrown vegetation. The Alderwoman says another crew will come to deal with the sidewalk issue caused by the storm.