Ferguson's Neighbor, 98 Percent Black Pine Lawn, Offers a Glimpse into the Future for the Ever Darkening City...

"The wrong side of history."

You hear this phrase used a lot. You see it written even more, to celebrate the steamrolling of "traditional" America by the combined forces of the united left. 

What's left behind via this steamrolling of a once healthy people and culture resembles the pulverized remains of roadkill on a highway. 

Or so you'd be led to believe, for history has no side. 

History is indifferent.

Which is why it's always worth a chuckle when this reality seeps into the present, where the phrase "the wrong side of history" is shown to be irrelevant. [Black Officials Fleece Ferguson’s Neighboring Town: Hope for change in Mike Brown’s hometown lies with voters, but just changing the color of government isn’t enough: Just look down the road in Pine Lawn, Missouri., Daily Beast, 4-7-15]:

Ferguson, Missouri, voters head to the polls Tuesday with a chance to overthrow the white City Council and all those who answer to it who have been blamed for keeping the town’s black residents broke and scared of police. 

But it’s far from certain that a Ferguson City Council with more black members will change how the city is run. Black leaders may not necessarily mean better lives for black residents, a fact of life that anyone from Detroit or Newark could tell you about. 

You don’t have to peer all the way to Motown to see this. In fact, all you have to do is look five miles down the road from Ferguson to Pine Lawn, Missouri.Led by Sylvester Caldwell, Pine Lawn’s black mayor, a majority black City Council represents a 98 percent black population there. It’s no statistical surprise then that the majority of traffic stops are directed at African Americans, but the scope of those interactions with police are a bit staggering. Those pushing for reforms in Ferguson, Pine Lawn, and the rest of St. Louis County hope the area’s black residents who are affected by predatory policing show up at the polls in large numbers. That hasn’t been the case in Pine Lawn. 

In 2013, Pine Lawn police handed out more than five tickets per resident. That same year, the city’s municipal court made $2.2 million for Pine Lawn, more than $500,000 of that coming from the fines and fees netted from traffic offenses and other petty crimes. 

In both Ferguson and Pine Lawn, police have been responsible for enforcing the rules of a municipal system that is addicted to the revenue from fines and fees. The distinction lies in the racial makeup of the two cities’ governments. While Ferguson’s overwhelmingly white leadership has come under international scrutiny for their practices, which led to the death of Michael Brown, Pine Lawn’s black leaders have received virtually no attention. Among those leaders is Anthony Gray, who is most know as the attorney for the family of Michael Brown but is probably more recognized in Pine Lawn as the city’s ex-police chief. Gray now moonlights as Pine Lawn’s prosecutor in addition to running his private law practice.

Five miles down the road from currently 70 percent black Ferguson sits 98 percent black Pine Lawn, a city whose incredibly depressing state - The Riverfront Times dubbed it "The Little City That Couldn't" in 2006 - serves as nothing more than a glimpse into the future for the municipality 18-year-old Michael Brown made famous. 
A staggering 70 percent of the revenue 98 percent black Pine Lawn brought in for fiscal year 2013 was through the courts (tickets, court fees, etc.), a hilarious, emphatic statistic in understanding how a soon-to-be white-free Ferguson will generate revenue. 
The entirely black city government of Pine Lawn has even used speed-cameras to collect more than $1 million in 2013... enough to boost the black mayor's salary by 200%!
Even the St. Louis Post-Dispatch begrudgingly labeled 98 percent black Pine Lawn "the poster child for dysfunction?" in an October 2014 story (no doubt the dysfunction is because of white privilege sucking all the jobs and capital from the city...) :

Some had seethed for years about their mayor hanging his hat miles away from a place where one-third live below the poverty line and nearly half of households are on food stamps, and where the police rank fourth in Missouri for most tickets per square mile. 

Without many other sources of income, the city relied on its police and court to raise about two-thirds of the city’s general revenue last year alone. A state law says cities can’t get more than 30 percent of general revenue from traffic fines. Last year, Pine Lawn issued about seven summonses for traffic violations and other infractions for every city resident.

City Administrator Brian Krueger said complaints about city government, and unfair police and housing code practices come from a vocal few. He said good things happen here: The city in 2012 saw the construction of about 40 homes using state tax credits for low-income housing, and in 2011 saw the dedication of the Barack Obama Elementary School in the Normandy School District.

Fitting Barack Obama Elementary School would be found in 98 percent black Pine Lawn, a city only a short jog away from Ferguson where Mr. Obama sent three representatives of his administration to attend Brown's "state" funeral...

Though those on "the right side of history" don't care, but Pine Lawn was 71 percent white in 1970; by 1980, Pine Lawn was only 19 percent white (the black population grew from 29 percent to 81 percent of the population of the city). In fact, Pine Lawn was one of eighteen cities in St. Louis County to from less than 1 percent black to 65 percent in a forty year timespan (1960 - 2000].[Source: St. Louis Metromorphosis: Past Trends and Future Directions (edited by Brady Baybeck and F. Terrence Jones, p. 287-289]

And though the Riverfront Times will never admit it, the growth of the black population in a city is the kiss of death for economic vibrance and tax-revenue producing commerce in the municipality. [IT'S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE ST. LOUIS: Jobs are leaving, the tax base is shrinking and the population is dropping. North County is feeling the squeeze., 12-22-1999]:

Ferguson suffered a steep decline in population in the 1980s, something Mayor Steve Wegert attributes to white flight and the effects of uncontrolled urban sprawl. "When Ferguson was incorporated 100 years ago ... people wanted to move away from the dirt and noise of downtown," he says. "This was urban sprawl back then. We've both benefited and are now a victim of urban sprawl." 

Retail has left his city, too. Ferguson went without a supermarket for two years after Schnucks pulled out, although it has since been replaced with a Shop-'N-Save.

Remember, Ferguson was 74 percent white in 1990; by 2000, the white population of the city was 44 percent...

Though the civilization whites built and the infrastructure once creating growth and prosperity (streets, sidewalks, civic buildings, private houses and commercial buildings) remain in place when white flight occurs, the vital variable necessary to the city's overall health is gone.

Irreplaceable.

The buildings will only remain until time weathers them into the blight we see so many people maintain is proof of America's declining fortune, when the dilapidated state of the houses and buildings is only proof of how four simple letters explain everything.

Race.

Four letters, when combined, help spell out the truth for why a civilization will flourish, or - more importantly - why a civilization blacks inherit via white flight will ultimately crumble into the blight we see in Detroit, Newark, and Pine Lawn... the latter being a 98 percent black city mere miles away from Ferguson.