-Hands up! -Don't shoot!
-Every protest starts with a gathering spot.
In Ferguson, Missouri this was it.
A couple of blocks of West Florissant Avenue.
In late summer of 2014, a white police officer shot
and killed 18 year old Michael Brown.
It was an act that unleashed years of pent-up rage.
About police, race, and the haves and have-nots
in the city of 21,000.
-No peace! -No justice!
-No peace!
-Four years later, not much has changed.
-It's decades of systemic neglect, abuse,
racism, marginalization.
All of those things contribute to a situation like this.
And, you know, Ferguson,
this side of Ferguson deserves a chance.
-Chris Phillips is a local film maker.
-Right here is, like, the complex.
-Living in the same apartment complex
where Michael Brown was killed.
Crews later replaced the pavement where he bled to death.
-It's a obvious marker for what happened here.
But just a lot of emotions a lot of pain.
A lot of people still hurt from it.
-And there's a different kind of trauma along West Florissant.
You see it in the beauty salon and phone store that burned,
never to be rebuilt.
And the restaurant that was abandoned before the unrest,
and remains that way.
The QuickTrip gas station set on fire
became a job-training center.
But for those living nearby...
-They don't know what it even does, you know?
They don't.
They just know it's a new building
where the QuickTrip was.
And some of these people probably wish
that the QuickTrip was still here versus this.
-That's because it stayed open late and sold essentials
like food and medicine.
in a neighborhood where there's not much else.
Farther up West Florissant...
-They were 6- and 8-foot sections of glass
that went all the way around the building.
-John Zisser had the windows of his showroom smashed.
Inside, looters made off with rims and tires.
But he rebuilt the front of his store and stayed.
-It comes down to a lot of people still think
that this whole Ferguson situation happened yesterday
and it's been four years.
A lot of people ask me, "Is everything okay up there?"
like -- -Wholesale line 8.
Wholesale line 8.
-It's been okay since Day 2 of the riots and everything.
Joshura and Lisa Davis had a view of the protests
from their office where they sell insurance
and offer home healthcare.
Four years later, business is still down by almost half.
-People are waiting for something to happen.
People are waiting for a champion to come along and say,
"Redevelop our community.
Let us know that there are a future ahead for us."
-You don't have to go far to see what that future
looks like on the other Florissant and Ferguson.
This is South Florissant, which runs through downtown.
There are sit-down restaurants and new loft apartments.
It's not far from Chris Phillips' neighborhood.
Only a couple miles,
but there's a distance that's difficult to measure.
-This is not an all-inclusive community, so, you know,
a business over there,
you know, they market to people that know about it
and their existing customers.
They don't make the effort to come over here
because there's a stigmatism about people
that live on this side of town, you know.
Whether all of their thugs are over here.
Or they're gonna cause problems, or they're gonna give us issues.
-Since the unrest, Ferguson has added
this call center and a Starbucks.
But they're just off the highway and miles
from the part of West Florissant that needs help.
Ferguson Mayor James Knowles III was in office before, during,
and after the riots.
He says the city is hoping to land federal dollars
to make West Florissant prettier, to attract business.
-We're very confident that the work we're doing over there,
we're moving it forward.
That we are seeing forward progress
and that I think the people over there will see,
in the next year,
my goal is by the 5-year anniversary for them
to be able to see a significant change along that corridor.
-Lisa Davis sees potential. -You know, when I sit here,
all the cars that drive through here is just incredible.
And if they only just had a reason to stop, they would.
So one day they will,
they'll have a reason to stop and they will.
-Chris Phillips isn't waiting.
After 13 years in Ferguson, he's leaving,
moving to a bigger place in another town.
-I love, I love Ferguson. I mean, I love it.
It's a nostalgic, it's a sad thing.