Commentary

Editor’s Notebook — Detroit And St. Louis

By Lana Stein

October 1993

Historical October 1993 article. Dates, prices, services and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.

The grass is not necessarily greener in other cities.

I have a tendency to remind my class of that when youthful critics wax on about the shortcomings of the St. Louis area.

As an antidote, I generally assign books about my hometown, Detroit. But, sometimes even I forget.

A visit this summer perhaps showed me more about St. Louis than the Motor City.

I must first explain that there was a significant highlight to the trip, an afternoon at Tiger Stadium.

The Tigers are my hometown team and I’ve never given up that allegiance, in good years or bad. And, I love the old ballpark with its real grass and its closeness to the field.

When I hear talk of tearing down this venerable park, I cringe.

It was a beautiful day for a game, sunny, 75 degrees, and Cecil Fielder hit two home runs. Nirvana in August.

When not at the stadium, the sadness that is Detroit became very clear.

It all looked so tired, the neighborhoods, the parks. Saddest of all were the main streets.

There was nothing of the commerce I remembered: no chain supermarkets, no major drug stores, no clothing outlets. Actually there was little of anything. Detroit was a single industry town and that industry declined significantly. Over 46% of Detroit’s children live in poverty.

The city’s revenues have declined along with its population and work force.

There has been some building along the river but otherwise the neighborhoods have not received any funding.

I cannot find the words to adequately describe the decay of one of nation’s largest cities. But, I can say that St. Louis has more going for it in its neighborhoods, its commercial areas, its downtown–with the exception of course of artificial turf.

In Detroit, you can’t find a sidewalk cafe, you can’t find a Thai restaurant, you can’t find the music spots of Soulard. Detroit is the spectre of what could be. Despite its problems and they are significant, St. Louis is not close to that spectre. St. Louis’s hometown critics should take a trip to what used to be a booming community of 1,800,000 souls.

It would give anyone pause. Needless to say, there is no Skinker DeBaliviere there.

In truth, there are almost no neighborhoods as diverse and as stable as ours in this country. And so I’m glad to live here and will continue to catch the Tigers on ESPN.

With a little pitching, next year is their year.

Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, October 1993.

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