Historical April–May 2005 article. Dates, prices, services and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
In the old days, you would pass a deteriorating but arresting wall along the southern border of the Forest Park Parkway.
This wall dated back to the halcyon days of the World’s Fair.
It appears that METRO agreed to substitute a new wall between the new MetroLink tracks and the alley and backyards of Lindell property owners.
This substitute was discussed at advisory group meetings and, apparently, people have differing interpretations of what would occur. Dan Schesch, SDCC president, feels that tracery or design was supposed to appear on both sides of the newly constructed barrier. Others remember that the design would face the tracks and parkway and hence our neighborhood. Well, as many of you have seen, the wall design faces Lindell backyards and is not where most people would be able to see it. Why did this happen? METRO says Caitlin Track/Lindell insisted on it so that’s what they did. Caitlin Track owns the land on which the wall has been placed.
It has struck many in Skinker DeBaliviere as prima facie ridiculous.
According to Alderman Lyda Krewson, what may be the worst thing is that with its huge cost overruns and its months behind schedule, METRO may well do nothing to rectify what appears to many of us to be a mistake. Or as Frost wrote, “There is something that does not love a wall.”
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, April–May 2005.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times2005_04.pdf, printed page(s) 7; PDF page(s) 7.
