Mayor Cervantes failed in his attempt to get a new airport started in Illinois, close to downtown St. Louis. He thought this would be a great benefit to the City and downtown St. Louis, but the proposal generated great controversy and helped lead to his defeat for a third term in 1973. Cervantes was defeated in that bid by John Poelker in the Democratic primary. Cervantes was defeated in another bid for mayor in 1977 by James F. Conway. Another Cervantes failure was allowing the demolition of Pruitt Igoe, which left thousands of residents homeless.