Source: Mercantile Library Collection

"For St. Louis the alternative is BONDS OR BLIGHT!"
-St. Louis Globe Democrat editorial, May 20, 1955

"This city has delayed making improvements in and additions to its municipal facilities that other cities have already completed. It (St. Louis) has been too tolerant…of growing slums and congested traffic..."
-Report to Mayor Raymond Tucker from Executive committee of the Citizens' Group

On May 26, 1955, city and county citizens of St. Louis voted on the largest bond issue in St. Louis history. The bond issue was worth $110.6 million and included propositions to improve everything from hospital improvement and slum clearance to garbage disposal and flood control. A bond issue is a special election to help raise money for a specific purpose and for a specific place. The money for the new projects came from a simple tax increase of no more than five cents per $100 of assessed property. The bond issue was divided into twenty-three separate propositions; each was voted on separately.

Of the twenty-three propositions, a few were given special attention. Slum clearance was given $10,000,000, and vastly affected the areas of Mill Creek Valley and its residents along with the clearance of Chinatown for the building of Busch Stadium in the 1960s. Neighborhood rehabilitation was given $4,000,000 and was used for the preventing of further decay of neighborhoods and the preservation of property values. New Parks and improved streets and alleys were a major part of this proposition. Street widening, new expressways, and new bridges and viaducts consisted of a total amount of $41,015,000 as passed by the special election. The congestion of city traffic was a major problem in the St. Louis of the 1950s, and the new expressway system demanded the civic improvement of streets and bridges to help alleviate downtown traffic.