Historical May 1984 report or notice. Original dates, prices and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
(Editor’s Note: This article was submitted in response to the recent closing of certain streets in the neighborhood and it does not reflect official opinions of the staff or the board of West End Publishing Co.
The Paper would like to encourage those who have opinions concerning street closings to submit articles or letters to the editor. Remember, The Paper is an independent publication for the residents of the neighborhood and your views do count.) by Don Fitz When 80 to 100 residents heard Alderman Dan McGuire justify the barricades at Des Peres and Delmar, not a single person from the audience supported the councilman.
The unlucky street barricades were erected on Friday, the 13th of April.
An emergency meeting was held on April 19 at Hamilton School, 5819 Westminster.
When Dan McGuire showed up, area residents bombarded him with a barrage of complaints. What was immediately obvious to everyone was the inconvenience caused by taking more time to get into and out of the neighborhood. “And how much money am I going to have to waste on gas from all this extra driving?” one resident wanted to know. Others complained about their children having to walk to bus stops further from their homes. “I can’t even drive around the corner to go to the store now.
It takes so long to drive to get two blocks away that I just end up walking.” This is a particular concern for elderly residents who may find walking after dark with groceries to be extremely difficult.
The barricades all but cut off the community from the small shops on Delmar, which most residents would like to see built up. Discussion was particularly heated on the issue of increased danger to the neighborhood.
When the barricades were originally proposed, they were described as part of “Operation Safestreet,” which supposedly makes it more difficult to burglarize the neighborhood. Neighbors pointed out that a robber can be on foot and complained about the increased time that would be needed for firemen and police to answer calls.
The alderman didn’t try to convince anyone that the streets would be safer, but responded that fire engines could arrive almost as fast. Residents who live on Waterman were quite upset that by closing Des Peres, which has very few homes facing it, traffic would be increased on Waterman, which is almost solid homes.
One woman spoke of witnessing two fatalities of children on Waterman before the Des Peres barricades and dreaded what would happen with them.
Since the left-hand turn onto Waterman from Skinker is unprotected, the audience had no doubt that accidents would increase at that intersection, especially during rush hour traffic.
With fewer and fewer entrances into the area, one car getting stuck in heavy snow could make hundreds of residents late for work and spell disaster if an emergency vehicle needed to get in or out. Other than the speed with which fire and police calls could be made, most of these objections drew little comment from the alderman, except for the oft-repeated, “Wait for six months and see if it’s all that bad.” When people complained that they had not been adequately notified, McGuire pointed out that several notices of the impending barricades had appeared in The Paper and St. Louis dailies.
A bitter set of exchanges dealt with how the barricades cut the community off from the rest of St. Louis. Staff at Hamilton Community School had already mailed announcements for courses and found many people arrived late or missed classes altogether.
As the discussion continued after the meeting, more and more people talked about how inconvenient it would be to visit with friends and relatives north of Delmar. Locating the barriers at Des Peres and Delmar does not exactly give the impression of inviting north St. Louisans to drop in and see their Skinker-DeBaliviere neighbors. Washington Heights residents have long had a distrust of redevelopers and politicians.
Many are worried that redevelopers intend to force them out of the neighborhood by way of spot blights and selectively enforced building codes.
If Washington Heights follows the pattern of Tiffany and urban redevelopment around the country, the current residents would be replaced by those who can afford $100,000 homes. Were the barriers designed to suggest to potential property buyers from West County that our area is too exclusive to be identified with black north St. Louis?
By cutting off our integrated community from north St. Louis while leaving open all entrances to bordering areas that are predominantly white, the barriers are more than a racist insult—they are a flagrant reminder to residents that, at any time, they may be forced out of homes they have lived in for decades so that some real estate dealer can make a quick buck.
The last part of the meeting was chaired by Ed Jones, president of the Washington Heights Neighbors Association.
The discussion changed to what could be done to get the barricades down.
Everyone agreed to begin with a petition being taken door to door, hopefully covering every block in the Skinker-DeBaliviere area. Readers who want to help circulate the petition or who haven’t had a chance to sign it by the time they read this article, should call Willis Lloyd at 727-0462 or Ed Jones at 454-1795.
Originally published in The Paper, May 1984.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1984_05.pdf, printed page(s) 6; PDF page(s) 6.
