Passing through East St. Louis, Illinois -- June 13, 2007, 9am
I was also puzzled by why there were no functioning traffic signals, and temporary looking stop signs at all the main intersections. Steve Patterson (see upcoming post) told me later that East St. Louis couldn't afford the electrical bill for traffic signals.
There may well be some bright spots in East St. Louis. But what I saw made me feel ashamed that in our country of such great wealth & power, we can tolerate (or ignore) scenes like this.
