If you see a sh!+hole...then that's what it will be.

The place may have changed a lot since the 1990's, but there are still some amazing people that call the place home....some are quite brilliant, I know a few of them.

Granite City has a lot going against it. St. Louis is not the nearby thriving city it once was, and going over to North County may not offer the adjacent access to goods and services. I haven't been to Fairview Heights in years, but I hear that some of its former prosperity has moved farther to O'Fallon and even farther from Granite City.


There are people that still live there and still alive that inspired me to believe that I'm only as good as what I see for myself.

There was also a lot of other unpleasant influences that were more about 'go with the flow' and a destructive flow at that, and thank God I didn't allow their voices to keep me in that way of thinking.

People from Granite City helped me see a vision for myself and I'm glad that some of them crossed my path.

But in entering the conversation about Granite City...if that's all you see for it, then why do you post about it?

Visionaries have their place, and it takes someone to see something for Granite City that's reasonable to achieve, but beyond what it is today.

I'd hope there's one leader that has a vision that scares him/her/they/it, and perhaps eight to ten other smaller ones that could be reasonable to achieve.

1. Tuck your shirt in, go to JCP.com and stock up on Stafford Shirts.....good affordable stuff. Keep the Carhartts though, because a good leader in Granite City has to also get his/her/their/its hands dirty when appropriate.

2. Have a big vision.....something.... The 'revival' of downtown was a big vision.. It worked to a degree... all in all, it's a good vision, at least it didn't fail....it's just that people may hang out down there one night, but not every night. It still made the area better than it was ...

3. Have several practical visions....That's the block-to-block thing I was telling you about. Have some community meetings on all sides of the tracks, listen to the problems...but make room for knowing their hopes and dreams.....besides bugging out and going to some backwater red state.

There are still some great people in Granite City....find them....listen to them....use them to share their talents to reach the next generation.

On the practical side, I sometimes wonder when Granite City will be singing it's swan song....But I think it still has something to offer people...
As long as there are people willing to work for it and take pride in their community, maybe some of these trends can reverse....or at least keep the deterioration from accelerating.

I think the leaders are to be commended.... They have tried new things....some have worked better than others....but I see that they're trying and that there are still many in the community that care about its success.