Historical November–December 2023 article. Dates, prices, services and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
This past summer, the Skinker-Debaliviere Community Council Community Engagement Committee embarked on an effort to reinvigorate the block captain program.
A first step in this effort is the recruitment of ready, willing, and able block captains. At the suggestion of long-time neighbors, June Vaughan, committee chairperson, invited me and my wife Heidi to be block captains for the 6100 block of Pershing Avenue. Our history with the neighborhood began in 1981, when I purchased a wreck of a duplex to renovate.
After our children graduated from college, Heidi and I moved back into the duplex to downsize from our single-family house in University City. Even though this is our first stint as “official” block captains, we are quite used to monitoring the local activity.
In short, we have seen it all. Our block has 49 properties listed on the city’s property records, including buildings that end-cap our block on Skinker and Rosedale.
There is much variety: single, two, three, six, and twelve family properties, condominiums, shops, and offices. Only 15 properties (31%) are owner-occupied, and four of those are condominium units in the same building. Our block is just off the northeast corner of the Washington University campus.
The university owns twenty-one of the properties (43%) as student housing and fully renovated the multi-families a few years ago. Their buildings across the street from us are beautiful. Other non-owner-occupied buildings also cater to students.
The annual student move-in/move-out periods generate an unbelievable amount of trash, our most persistent problem. 2022 was especially bad, with overfilled dumpsters, piles next to the dumpsters, alley obstruction, and abandoned furniture. Since then, the City, SDCC, Quadrangle Properties, and JoAnna Schooler, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Community & Local Government Relations at the university, have joined the few permanent residents to bring about a noticeable improvement.
However, some students continue to dispose of their trash improperly, requiring special appeals.
We have distributed cards in Mandarin about recycling, provided by Brightside, and made up our own flyers illustrating basic dumpster etiquette.
This year the move-outs took on a new wrinkle, with students leaving furniture on the front lawn of their buildings.
Some of it remained an eyesore for days, exposed to the weather. Litter, mainly from the nearby eateries, appears on sidewalks and streets. About once a month, using a bag and rubber gloves, I pick it up while walking the dog – getting some much-needed exercise.
I hope my example encourages our student residents to do the same. Living a short walk from the campus, on weekdays we watch the street parking fill with the cars of commuting students. Apparently, they choose to use our parking rather than pay for on-campus parking ($874 per year) or use a free, university-provided, Metro pass. Every parking space is taken by 9AM. For years, this effectively made street cleaning impossible. Often a dozen commuter cars lined the streetside being swept.
In recent months active enforcement of parking restrictions by the City has brought noticeable improvement.
We do our part on street cleaning days by calling the police to request a visit by a parking enforcement officer. Last month almost the entire street was swept. Progress!
Several dead trees have dropped branches for years with every windstorm, while some healthy trees damaged by delivery trucks need limbing up. Complaints to the Citizens Service Bureau brought only acknowledgements.
Then we engaged our new Neighborhood Improvement Specialist (NIS), Sheree Hickman, to help.
Now we are hopeful that our permit to do tree-trimming ourselves, applied for via the CSB, arrives before wintertime. Like nearly every other street in the neighborhood, Pershing is oneway (our block is westbound).
However, unlike the other streets, there is a short stretch of two-way traffic at the west end of our street to provide access from Skinker to the parking lot behind Kaldi’s Coffee. Consequently, despite the curb bump out with two Do Not Enter signs, we get wrong way traffic as far as Rosedale several times a day: cars, delivery trucks, postal service trucks, scooters–even the odd police car.
It is an accident waiting to happen.
We have engaged with our former NIS who is now a supervisor, Karen Clifford, to upgrade the current signage.
We also filed a complaint with the local postmaster, including times and vehicle identification.
This seems to be working.
We have been pleasantly surprised that there are few loud, latenight parties.
However, we have had good results calling the police and Washington University Security when things get out of hand. Commercial dumping is an occasional problem, when dumpsters are filled with building material and apartment cleanup items. Heidi is especially vigilant about this, recording the dumpers in the act and promising to report them to the police dumping hotline.
The dumpers take their debris and leave, probably just to do the deed a few blocks over. Someone else needs to be watching there! Block Captains can help SDCC preserve one of the reasons we all live here: a quality of life.
We are looking forward to meeting the other block captains and exchanging our experiences, resources, and ideas.
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, November–December 2023.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times2023_11.pdf, printed page(s) 7, 8; PDF page(s) 4, 5.
