Gregory Freeman: Bare Necessities Scant On North Side. PF 10/23/1997

Headline: BARE NECESSITIES SCANT ON NORTH SIDE
Reporter: By Gregory Freeman

Publication: ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Last Printed: Thu., Oct. 23, 1997
Section: NEWS, Page: 1C, Edition: FIVE STAR LIFT

A FRIEND HAS compiled a list of all the products and services that can't be found or are hard to get in north St. Louis.
The list is pretty impressive. It contains such things as contact lens solution, avocados, nice sit-down restaurants, coffee shops, health food stores, major clothing stores, drugstores, places like Steak 'n Shake, discount stores like Target, Venture or Kmart, and Blockbuster video stores. "I spend a lot of time burning up gas, trying to get to the county or to the Central West End just to buy basic stuff, " said my friend, who's decided to move out of the North Side. "It's ridiculous."

It wasn't always that way. When I was a kid growing up in north St. Louis, there were fancy sit-down restaurants, stores where you could buy all sorts of exotic fruits and vegetables, good furniture stores and lots of other enterprises.

Over the years, the population of north St. Louis started changing, and many of those stores and services disappeared. Suddenly, we couldn't go to Sears on North Kingshighway; we had to go to Northwest Plaza in St. Louis County. We could no longer go to the Water Tower Theater to watch our favorite films; we had to go to the Northland Shopping Center to see a movie. The supermarkets in our neighborhoods were no longer well-kept; we had to go to supermarkets in the county for fresher meat and items that the stores in our neighborhoods no longer stocked.

Today, it's difficult for North Side residents to get the bare necessities. Only a couple of supermarkets are in north St. Louis. Many people choose other locations because they feel that the North Side markets aren't very good. Many elderly people take buses and travel for miles for the goods and services they need.

Why no services for such a populated area? Depends on whom you talk to.

More than one North Sider will tell you that the reason is race. As whites left north St. Louis, so did the businesses, they'll tell you. There's some truth in that. It certainly seems no coincidence that many major businesses and services left the North Side as much of the white population vanished.
Some others will say that the services disappeared because of an increase in crime. There's some truth in that too. There's no question that crime in north St. Louis today is higher than it was, say, 30 years ago.
Still others will say that the stores left when the black middle class left - another statement to which there's some truth. There's no question that north St. Louis has suffered tremendously from a flight of the middle class.

Whatever the case, there's no question that there are as many as 150,000 people in north St. Louis who often have to look elsewhere for their needs.

What makes all of this particularly unfortunate is that north St. Louis is stereotyped as being a sort of unsafe wasteland, a place where people live only because they couldn't go somewhere else.
While the North Side has its problems, it also has lots of law-abiding folks who would like nothing better than to be able to shop in neighborhoods nearby.

A few years ago, the NAACP here conducted a "missing" campaign to point out what goods and services were missing from north St. Louis. Volunteers sent letters, posted bright pink signs and handed out fliers to draw attention to the lack of stores and shops.
"On Saturday mornings, we'd stand at places like Kingshighway and Delmar, and when we did, we'd want to be on the side headed south, because that's where everyone was going to shop, " said NAACP president Charles Mischeaux.

A prolonged battle took place between then-Mayor Freeman Bosley Jr. and Alderman Sharon Tyus, D-20th Ward, over a proposed shopping center at Union and Natural Bridge avenues. Tyus believed the city should hold out for a major shopping center that included a discount store, like Venture, as well as a supermarket. Bosley argued that the city should move on whatever offer it had, which was for a Schnucks supermarket at the site.
The supermarket is finally to be built. Mischeaux says he hopes that store will cause a domino effect, encouraging more stores and restaurants to open in north St. Louis.
"They say if you build it, they will come, " he said. "Let's hope they'll come now."

Clearly, a supermarket isn't the answer to all of north St. Louis' woes.
There's a need for investment there and a greater need for goods and services than people are getting now. When companies are planning to expand, this shouldn't be ignored. And city officials should do what they can to encourage businesses to go into north St. Louis in greater numbers than they do now.
"After all, when it comes to money, it's all green, " Mischeaux said.

Daniel Schesch - Webweaver

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