Plans and projects for improvements in parts of the 25th and 28th wards, comprising Region V of the Women for City Living were outlined at a meeting for local residents on October 12.
Mr. Robert Burke of the City Plan Commission and Mr. John Roach, alderman of the 28th ward, explained the "blighting" process of the state 353 program and its use for the first time in a residential area by groups in west end neighborhoods.
Mr. Jerry Pratter of Team 4 outlined redevelopment plans for the "triangle" area and Mr. Don Lipton presented his firm's plans for "Forest Village" to be developed from DeBaliviere to Clara and from Waterman to Delmar.
Audience participation increased considerably when representatives of two commercial real estate firms dealing in city property described the difficulties both firms and individuals find in getting financing on property in the city. Mr. Jack Lowell of Edward K. Love Realty explained that just as individuals cannot get financing to buy homes, all the redevelopment plans will eventually have to be financed and that citizens and developers will then be dependent on lending institutions, on the policies of the Housing and Urban Development Staff and the Federal Housing Authority. He urged residents to start now to observe the policies of these organizations and to exert political pressure on them to cooperate with citizen-planned neighborhood improvement and development.
Mrs. Linda Eyerman of Feinberg Realty agreed with a suggestion from the audience that citizens investigate the lending policies of banks and savings and loan companies with whom they do business. She referred to a recent survey by Women for City Living which found most savings and loan companies unwilling to investigate city property, much less lend their clients money to purchase such property. She and others strongly urged citizens throughout the city to take their money out of uncooperative lending institutions and deposit it with institutions interested in city property. (See Box, P. 7.)
Original sidebar — page 7
To help obtain financing for individual and corporate property buying in the city ask your senators and congressman to inform themselves of FHA and HUD policies in this regard. Ask them to alert the Federal Home Loan Bank Board in Washington to study lending policies of St. Louis lending institutions.
Write immediately to: Senator Stuart Symington, Senator Thomas Eagleton, U.S. Senate Building, Washington, D.C. Representative Leonor K. Sullivan, or Representative James Symington, House of Representatives, Washington, D.C.
Send a post card or a clipping from this paper with your name and address.
Original newspaper source
Originally published in The Paper, November 1971.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
