Historical November–December 2004 article. Dates, prices, services and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
In recent days, I’ve devoted some thought to how our neighborhood is different from what it was when I moved here in 1969.
It is certainly safer and more stable.
The desirability of our older homes has become more marked and property values have soared on certain blocks. Many young professionals, often with toddlers in tow, have joined us in Skinker DeBaliviere. Many apartment buildings are now occupied by Washington U. students, placing more people on the streets particularly in the evenings, and occasionally spilling forth party noise into the evening. We’re a regular stop on the Wash U shuttle although you now needed passes, etc. to ride. But, the tone is quite different.
The various adversities of the 70s and 80s brought people together. Through block club, council, newspaper, disparate residents came together for selfprotection and to ensure a multiracial environment. Now, it’s bascially the same people volunteering to help in neighborhood activities and it’s not always easy to find people to help. Perhaps success has inspired a kind of complacency.
After all, things are basically going well.
There is new housing, the property values climb and Delmar is being resurrected like a Phoenix rising from the ashes. Will we remain a unique, involved, diverse neighborhood? Or will we become more bourgeois, more selfinvolved? Will people forget why we came together? Will this be just another neighborhood? People need reasons to become involved and selfpreservation has always been the best organizing principle. But, if there is no threat, nothing to spur us together, will we lose that essential identity that set us apart among neighborhoods?
There remains a fragility to our success and we should not take the good times for granted.
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, November–December 2004.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times2004_11.pdf, printed page(s) 2; PDF page(s) 2.
