Dear Editor, It has recently come to the attention of a number of residents of the SkinkerDeBaliviere area that plans for a fourstall, do-it-yourself Car Wash are well underway for the corner of Skinker and Kingsbury.
We PROTEST, and hope everyone will actively join with us!
A car wash, open 24 hours a day — with a large neon sign flashing SOAPERY is aesthetically offensive, a potential public nuisance and a hazard to our young children.
The traffic flow on Skinker from Delmar to Milbrook is already at saturation point. We do not need the added horror of more cars pulling on and off
Skinker Blvd. The reasonably effective control of speed on our streets, by use of the oneway horseshoe pattern, will be nullified by cars zipping down the McPhersonKingsbury alley and around Kingsbury back to Skinker, or up the McPherson alleyway to Rosedale — to Des Peres.
This enterprise will undoubtedly draw many people we could well do without. If you doubt this, drive by the three car wash businesses now operating within three blocks of Skinker and Kingsbury. The loud music, the beer drinking, and the undershirts of many who use these facilities are not in keeping with the type of area we are trying to preserve.
Our sympathies are with those who live nearest to this proposed blight and will suffer most from the noise, the loiteers and the loss of property values. They will feel the impact first, but eventually it spills over to the entire area.
Skinker Blvd., while never a complete thing of beauty from Delmar to the park, is in danger of becoming a tremendous eye-sore. We already have two fastservice filling stations, Church’s Fried Chicken is trying to establish itself on Skinker and Delmar and the corner where our drugstore used to be (Skinker and McPherson) looks sadly neglected.
We have worked too long and too hard to maintain the residential character of our neighborhood to let another undesireable business venture move in without doing everything possible to stop it.
Suitable business establishments – YES — We need them.
Car washes and fast food—NO!!!
Bette Botz, Joe Botz, Dan Lodes, Bobbie Lodes, Mary Gioia, Mario Gioia, Joan T. Bender, James R. Dyer, Virginia Cunningham, Lynne Tilton, Virginia LeGueyFeilleux, Mary E. Nerviani, Pat & Bill Kohn, Helen Hitchcock, Rebecca McEneny, John McEneny, Ronald Tilton, George & Marie Doggendorf, Bob & Betty Newsham, Jim & Anne McCarthy, Dick & Donna Lottes, Mary Ann Lindley, Mrs. J. H. Lindley, Debbie Bracey.
Originally published in The Paper, May 1977.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1977_05.pdf, printed page(s) 2; PDF page(s) 2.
