In front of Elle and Troika Brodsky’s home there is a sinkhole that gets fixed one half at a time every few years.
That’s partly because the Brodsky house — and the dip in the road in front of it — straddle an invisible line that has been there for 150 years: the border between St. Louis and St. Louis County.
“You can see the line in the road from where the city worked up to a certain point and the county worked up to a certain point,” Elle Brodsky said. “They were both dealing with half of the same sinking issue, but they weren't working together. They weren't working on the same schedule.”
The border runs down the center of Limit Avenue, then across the perpendicular Southwest Avenue in front of the Brodsky home, where it meets the dip and continues right through their front door.
When they purchased the home in 2015, the Brodskys knew that owning a property split between St. Louis and Maplewood would always be one of the home's unique quirks. But they hadn’t realized how much it would impact.
When they checked the property value on a popular real estate website, Elle Brodsky said they saw a large — and unsurprising — difference. “Depending on which one you were looking at — whether it was listed as Maplewood or St Louis city — there was a $100,000 difference in valuation,” she said.
Some parts of living on the border are straightforward. The Brodskys serve jury duty in St. Louis and pay most of their taxes to the city. But they also pay some tax to Maplewood, which allows their child to enroll in the Maplewood Richmond Heights School District.
“Which is great,” Elle Brodsky said. “It is a really great school system, and it's been really wonderful for our kiddo.”
Other parts are less clear.
When the Richmond Heights Memorial Library checked her address, it initially approved Elle’s application. A week later, the library called back: She would need to visit a St. Louis Public Library branch first.
Troika Brodsky is concerned about cracks in their sewer lateral, but he isn’t sure where to start. “The city and the county have two very different programs in terms of what they will pay for and take responsibility for,” he said.
Calling emergency services can become a bureaucratic coin flip. “When we've had to call police officers for issues in the area … 911 answers and is like, ‘OK, so I'm getting your location. Is this the city or the county?’” Elle Brodsky said.
The Brodskys aren’t alone. Dozens of properties along the border are bisected by the city-county line, forcing residents to navigate varying rules, services and institutions tied to two different governments.
Elle Brodsky said what everyone who has dealt with the city-county divide in some way seems to understand: “Trying to get two governments to work together — to do anything anywhere — I think you just assume is going to be difficult.”
The first two episodes of Meet Me — a new project from St. Louis Public Radio exploring divisions in the region — focus on this border. Episode 1 dives into the history of how that boundary came to be, including the 150-year-old landmark decision now known as the Great Divorce. Episode 2 will highlight the voices of residents along the border, along with civic leaders, and examines the most recent effort to reunify the region, known as Better Together, and how it all fell apart.
Listen to the first episode of Meet Me here and subscribe to the newsletter.
