East St. Louis

One of the highlights of the city's waterfront is the Gateway Geyser, the tallest fountain in the United States. Designed to complement the Gateway Arch across the river in St. Louis, it raises water to a height of 630 feet, the same height as the arch. It is part of the redevelopment of the waterfront.

Before Gordon Bush was elected mayor in 1991, the state imposed a financial advisory board to manage the city in exchange for a financial bailout. State legislative approval in 1990 of riverboat gambling and the installation of the Casino Queen riverboat casino provided the first new source of income for the city in nearly 30 years.

The city, now small in terms of population, is still one of the prime examples of drastic urban blight in the country. Sections of "urban prairie" can be found where vacant buildings were torn down and whole blocks became overgrown with vegetation. Additionally, white people have massively moved away from the city, a phenomenon known as White Flight that has affected the whole of Greater St. Louis, including St. Louis proper and Metro-East, among other big cities of the United States.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_St._Louis