Relevant to Omaha on many levels. Compare tax credits, annexation issues and overall downtown residency numbers as a percentage of metro population. Many thigs to be learned and inferred from the article.For decades, St. Louis saw its population decline as the wealthy and middle class moved to the suburbs. The city's population was about 850,000 in the 1950s; by 2000, it dipped below 350,000.
Thanks in part to tax credits, developers have taken a liking to a downtown filled with beautiful old buildings that had fallen into disrepair. Five years ago, many were boarded up and vacant. Today, those buildings house condos, boutiques, restaurants and nightclubs.
For the first time in a half-century, the city's population is on the rise again, up 1.2 percent in 2005. About 10,000 people now live downtown, an increase of about a third in the past five years
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