Historical December 1979 report or notice. Original dates, prices and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
Dear Editor, We have tried to contact personally as many as possible of our neighbors by the following letter. For everyone who wishes to know where we stand and what the issues are, we provide the following letter to you to share with all our neighbors.
Dear Neighbors,
It has been brought to our attention that some of you have signed the petition in support of the “Three Fifty Four Skinker Corporation” application for a full drink liquor license, to be used in their operation of a restaurant at the same address here in the neighborhood. We are writing to you because we are opposed to the granting of the license and to the opening of the restaurant and because we feel that this issue has not had a fair hearing here in our neighborhood.
We hope that, after you have listened to our reasons, you will reconsider, withdraw your name from the petition supporting the application, and sign our petition to the Excise Commissioner of the City of Saint Louis protesting the application for the liquor license.
Our reasons for being opposed to the restaurant are as follows:
1. For those of us who live on the west end of the 6100 block of McPherson, parking is already a major problem, even without the addition of the proposed restaurant. Due to the full occupancy of the Sherman Apartments at 354 Skinker (Skinker and McPherson), all available on-the-street parking at our end of the block is normally taken in the evening: therefore, a sizeable number (10-20) of the parking spaces in the Grace Methodist Church parking lot have to be used. The addition of the restaurant would only add to the parking problems we are already experiencing. Because of this already existing parking problem, the use of the church’s parking lot by restaurant patrons (as is being proposed by the restaurant owners) would not resolve any parking problems; rather, their plan would only serve to multiply existing parking problems for the people who live in the neighborhood. Those of us who live east of Skinker do not have the luxury of a private street ordinance and, therefore, we can not use the threat of towing unauthorized parked cars to resolve this problem as our neighbors in Parkview can.
2. Given the parking problem already described above, it is difficult for neighborhood children and youth to use the Grace Methodist Church parking lot now as a neighborhood playground, as it was intended to be used by the church. With the addition of the proposed restaurant, it will become impossible.
3. There are many young children on the 6100 blocks of McPherson and Kingsbury. The increase in traffic up and down these blocks brought about by the proposed restaurant can only serve to increase the danger to our children.
4. There are plenty of restaurants in our community already. easily accessible by walking or a short drive. We simply do not need another restaurant, especially at this location.
5. Finally, some of us who live close to the proposed restaurant site are very concerned about the increase in noise and about the ever pervading odor from the restaurant’s kitchen. We do not look forward to the inevitable increase in noise brought about by the increase in automobile traffic and people at our end of the block: nor do we relish the prospects of the odor from the restaurant in our back yards and homes.
We hope that you will give our concerns serious consideration; we hope that you will reconsider your position in our behalf.
Already the legal wheels are working to grant the liquor license, so we hope that you will give this your immediate attention.
If you wish to discuss this issue with us, please call Ed Stout at home (726.5782) or at work (771-9601).
Thank you for your time and attention.
Ed Stout and Mary Bea Stout — 6182 McPherson
Georgi Ann Fox — 6178 McPherson
David G. F. Schmidt and Barbara Schmidt — 6168 McPherson
Rosemary Kilcullen — 6164 McPherson
Bill Kuhl and Jan Kuhl — 6170 McPherson
Originally published in The Paper, December 1979.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Archival transcription note: Printed Barbara Schmidt is matched to the existing Mrs. Barbara Schmidt name variant. Her relationship to Barbara Quinn Schmidt is not established; those profiles have not been merged. Please review author identity if necessary.
Original source: SD_Times1979_12.pdf, printed page(s) 2; PDF page(s) 2.
