Historical February–March 2002 article. Dates, prices, services and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
The Skinker DeBaliviere Community Council has initiated a new planning effort for the neighborhood.
The Planning Committee (a sub-committee of Lana Stein’s Residential Committee), headed by Sole Van Emden began this large undertaking in September and has made significant progress in setting forth a process for the planning endeavor.
The goal of the planning process is to develop a written document, a neighborhood plan, to serve as a guide and resource to our institutions and neighbors as we work to improve and preserve the community in which we live. Our first step was to gather background information on the current conditions in the neighborhood. Many residents have volunteered to help with the research which includes a history of the neighborhood, zoning and demographics, transportation and circulation maps, among many other topics. Once the Information Gathering phase began the Planning Committee established four working groups.
The Infrastructure Group, headed by Eric Mumford, will focus on the physical characteristics of the neighborhood, including topics such as security, transportation, recreational space, and areas for beautification.
The Neighborhood Relations Group, led by Amy Gill, will tackle the ‘people’ aspect of the neighborhood, exploring areas such as social / recreational / philanthropic / cultural activities, internal neighborhood relations and external neighborhood relations (including marketing and perception) and availability of services for residents.
The Housing Group, headed by John Thomas and Paul Hohmann will explore the topic of housing as it relates to the residential character of the neighborhood. Possible areas of interest are development of new housing units, renovation of existing housing, and other neighborhood elements that can improve the quality of the housing available in Skinker-DeBaliviere.
Finally, the Commercial Group, led by Juli Einspanier will deal with how to improve existing commercial areas in and adjacent to Skinker-DeBaliviere to better serve our residents.
The goal of each working group is to develop short term goals, long term goals and strategies by which these goals are to be met.
We welcome members of existing Skinker-DeBaliviere Community Council committees to share their knowledge and experience with the topics mentioned.
The next major element of the planning process is the residents’ participation.
The Planning Committee will be hosting an event this spring open to all residents, business owners, and institutions.
In this neighborhood wide brainstorming session we intend to develop a Neighborhood Mission/Vision statement.
This statement will be a description of the desired future of the neighborhood, a reflection of the spirit that guides or neighbors and institutions.
After working on the statement we will break into the four working groups previously described and neighbors are invited to share ideas, complaints, hopes and dreams for the neighborhood on specific topics.
If you are interested in getting involved with our planning effort please contact Sole Van Emden . at mail to:sole@vanemden.com sole@vanemden.com or Laure Porterfield, Executive Director of the Skinker DeBaliviere Community Council, at 862- 5122 or at mail to:skinkerd@stlouis.missouri.org skinkerd@stlouis.missouri.org.
The following is the schedule of planning meetings. Feel free to join us.
All meetings are held at the Skinker DeBaliviere Community Council, 6008. Kingsbury. , Commercial Group: Thursday, February 28th, 5:30 pm, Infrastructure Group: Tuesday, February 19th, 6:15 pm, Housing Group: Monday, February 18th, 7:30pm. Neighborhood Planning Steering Committee will meet Tuesday, March 5th, 7:00 pm.
We will be sending out flyers to announce the Neighborhood Wide Brainstorming Session in the near future.
We are looking forward to hearing everyone’s ideas for the future of Skinker-DeBaliviere.
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, February–March 2002.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times2002_02.pdf, printed page(s) 7; PDF page(s) 7.
