Historical September 1992 article. Dates, prices, services and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
My subject this month is the strange but frequent phenomenon of St. Louisans denigrating their city.
They say it is too provincial, the most racist, etc. Yet, as a relatively recent immigrant to the area who has lived in a variety of other cities, large and small, I find this self-criticism ill-placed.
All large American cities have significant racial problems and all suffer from fiscal stress to one degree or another. Job loss and mounting crime are everywhere.
A recent trip to my hometown and home state have reaffirmed for me many of St. Louis’s positive features. Recently, I traveled across Michigan’s lower peninsula from Detroit to Traverse City and back again.
While I thoroughly enjoyed the beautiful lakes and low humidity, I found the people I encountered to be either taciturn or sullen. Spoiled by the genuine hospitality of our neighborhood and city, I was disappointed in my routine encounters with Michiganians. Taking long walks in my cousins’ suburban neighborhood, I found almost no one who would initiate a greeting or respond to one when our paths crossed.
I was depressed further by a trip to downtown Detroit. Although I knew of the general conditions there, it was nonetheless very disconcerting to see the abandonment by department stores, specialty shops, and the best ice cream and bakery store I knew.
There is a people mover that permits visitors to traverse the downtown area quickly.
However, except for the area right by the Detroit River there is little to see.
I know that St. Louis’s downtown is not Boston, New York, or San Francisco but there are department stores, more people, and construction under way. Friends tell me of great improvement downtown in the last 10 to 15 years. But, in Detroit, I looked for places I loved and found them gone with nothing comparable in their stead. St. Louis has its good and bad features.
But it’s not the worst in any category. And, as Thomas Wolfe said, “You can’t go home again:
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, September 1992.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1992_09.pdf, printed page(s) 2; PDF page(s) 2.
