Gregory Freeman: Change Moves To South Side. PD 11/24/1989

Headline: CHANGE MOVES TO SOUTH SIDE
Reporter: By Gregory Freeman

Publication: ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Last Printed: Fri. Nov. 24, 1989
Section: WAR PAGE, Page: 1B, Edition: FIVE STAR

TIM CROSBY is adjusting uneasily to a neighborhood in transition.
     Crosby, 35, has lived most of his life in the Shaw neighborhood, in south St. Louis, among white, working-class people. Recently his neighborhood has been browning. And Crosby is chagrined.
     Since blacks have moved in, Crosby says, ''crime has gone up, the neighborhood's noisy as hell and graffiti has sprung up out of nowhere.''
     Crosby notes that in the past, when older whites died or moved away, younger whites took their places. ''I don't see that happening now, '' he said. He thinks that a lot of his former neighbors have fled because of the influx of blacks.

There is no disputing that Crosby's neighborhood and others like it are changing.
A Post-Dispatch analysis of the city's special census last year showed that the number of blacks living in many predominantly white South Side neighborhoods had increased dramatically. At the same time, the number of whites in many of those neighborhoods had decreased.

But Crosby's point of view - that neighborhood problems coincide with the appearance of more blacks - isn't shared by everyone.
Are blacks chasing the whites away? Not necessarily, some would suggest. They say that the census data simply reflect the differences in age of the city's population. The population in south St. Louis is generally older than the North Side population. As older whites die, younger blacks are moving into the area, they say.
To be sure, some whites may leave because they feel uncomfortable living near blacks. A long-held theory among urban affairs scholars has been that when the black population of any area reaches about 40 percent, known as the ''tipping point, '' the area experiences rapid white flight. Property values may decline.

But it could be argued that the blame should be placed on those who are doing the selling instead of those doing the buying.
It's quite likely that if half of the homeowners in a black neighborhood suddenly felt an urgent need to move, the property values in that neighborhood also would decline.

In neighborhoods where whites have chosen not to leave, property values often stay the same or, in some cases, increase. Mayor Vincent C. Schoemehl Jr. likes to point to his own Skinker-DeBaliviere neighborhood in the city's West End, where many whites chose not to flee when the neighborhood became integrated. He notes that property values there have increased, not decreased.

When rapid white flight does occur in a neighborhood and property values do drop, they often drop to a point where the housing is then available to an entirely different class of people. Upper-middle-class neighborhoods become available to middle-class folks, middle-class neighborhoods suddenly become accessible to poorer people, and so on.

But that has nothing to do with race. The presence of blacks in a neighborhood does not equate to crime, vandalism or noise. Those matters depend on the type of people who move into that neighborhood and how they have been raised. There are too many all-black neighborhoods in north St. Louis and North County that are well-maintained to suggest that the problems that Crosby points to are problems of race.

Charles Leven, a professor of economics at Washington University, views the census results as good news.
Years ago Leven did a study of how housing would work here in a color-blind world. He thinks that blacks moving into south St. Louis might be an indication of a reduction in racial tension here. Leven's earlier study - done in 1970 - showed that if race were not a factor, fewer blacks would live in north St. Louis and more would live south. The good housing stock, available at affordable prices, makes South Side housing attractive. But racial tensions prevented that from happening in 1970, Leven said.
Leven says there is no ideal racial mix in a neighborhood. Studies show that blacks generally prefer to live in neighborhoods that are 50-50, white to black. But whites are more comfortable in neighborhoods that are 75-25, he says. ''That's why it's hard to maintain a 50-50 mix, '' he said.

It's easy to blame blacks for new problems that some South Side neighborhoods are facing. But that's a superficial way of looking at the matter.
     It's easy to see that your neighbor's skin is darker than your own. It's harder to discern what that neighbor is really like.
     For Crosby, watching his neighborhood change is a painful experience.
     But for others, who are able to look beyond race to other factors - some positive - the experience can be much easier to accommodate.

Daniel Schesch - Webweaver

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