Apparently, good sense and taste are reverse Darwinian… only pure shit survives.

Northside… see the larger picture before judging my comments, or make your own comments apart from mine.

What larger picture? Zavist comments that Hampton Village is prosperous. John W makes observation that only shit survives. What am I missing here?
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Then Josh L piles on John W’s post that Hampton Village is shit. HV, for all of its critics posting here, is one of the most succesful shopping centers in the St. Louis region.
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The Target across the street is one of the top performing Target stores in the entire chain.
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The HV parking lot is always full.
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Do you guys feel good knocking successful city establishments? How about offering something constructive?

Northside, look at Steve’s entire post- ALL of the content- and you’ll see that it is about the chronic decay of our city as seen from the unfortunate march of destruction of fabric and replacement with S H I T. The post exhibits the morphological [de]evolution of the urban fabric with respect to MLK Boulevard, apropos of today’s national holiday. The point of the post seems to be that a historic figure imbued with the qualities we should all aspire to, and enshrined as the national symbol of social justice, deserves civic gestures such as street dedications to be treated with the respect that the gestures should expect. Instead, as can be seen clealy in the photos Steve has provided, this city (along with many others) have ignored the significance of the contribution made to our society by Dr. King by taking a huge crap all over that which bears his name. That, Northside, is the big picture that you are so amazingly missing by being distracted by the shiny object Jim Zavist cast into the pond on his line.
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With our city’s rapidly disappearing history that can simply not be replaced in today’s architectural design and construction economy (as unrelated to the nation’s economy), we cannot be content with suburban sprawl pattern infill development a la Hampton Village because a few modern infill projects are commercially successful, because if that were the simple goal then we could simply bulldoze all of our 19th-century brick architecture and pave the entire place for surface parking to serve the expectedly successful, big box Target retail store. You’re smarter than that, and you know it. Do you feel good skimming over the central thesis in an author’s post and missing the point entirely? I’d say that’s about as constructive an offering I should have to make.

I didn’t say anything about black vs. white neighborhoods- you did. Are those aspects fair to bring up while discussion MLK? Sure. Perhaps you seem to think that one race of St. Louisans owns certains streets and neighborhoods, and those who care very much about the quality and condition of our TOTAL city should just but out if our skin is not the right color. Your second to last sentence was dead on. Your last sentence was nothing but racist garbage.

Racist garbage:

“If locals in black neighborhood (read: owned by blacks, and no whites should bother with any involvement, because their white opinions and contributions are not wanted) believe a strip center or new Walgreen’s is progress for their community, increasing opportunities and providing local jobs, is it right for a bunch of white urbanists to criticize their choices?”

All those in favor of destructive surburban sprawl pattern infill development, presumably north of Delmar Boulevard and other select areas in the city, are black, or so it seems by your inference.
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All those if favor of the preservation of the irreplaceable history that gives our city not only the character that makes our city what it is, but is most likely one of the strongest persuasions for many to locate in the city, are white, or so it seems by your inference.
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Accepting your offer to be vastly outnumbered in a neighborhood meeting (which, I suspect, is your wish) by denizens seeking immediate relief from degredation and poverty, will do little to further what all urbanists, of all colors, strive for in our and all cities, and you know that. Will my presence at such a neighborhood meeting persuade many, if any of the value of what we’re erasing at an alarming pace? Of course not, and you know that (which, I suspect, is your wish). I’ll readily admit that there are hurdles higher than seem possible to leap standing in front of a resurgence of the city of St. Louis, but I can promise you that removing what gives the city its character to make way for poor quality installations and low wage jobs won’t get us there.

My original comment had little to with race and much to do with economics. There are many businesses doing well in buildings in Soulard that are much older than most of the ones along MLK, so it’s not the age of the buildings that’s the core problem. There are also plenty of businesses in Festus doing equally as well in newer, vinyl-clad or EIFS boxes. 50 years ago, the Wellston Loop was a thriving African-American business neighborhood, so there’s a history of success there, similar to the Delmar Loop (without its recent renaissance), to go back to. Hampton Village was also doing well 50 years ago – three neighborhood business districts, three distinct recent histories.
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What’s changed? Overt segregation has gone away, but so have the streetcars. And because most businesses are owned/run by capitalists, most businesses only care about one color, green! If there were money to be made along MLK, trust me, businesses would be fighting to locate there. What has changed, obviously, is that profits have gone down or gone away. Why? Has the neighborhood gotten relatively poorer? Have neighborhood residents found “better” places to shop? Have traffic patterns changed (even poor people now have access to options other than public transit)? Have crimes against businesses (robberies, shoplifting, vandalism, etc.) simply became too much of a hassle? Bottom line, it’s the bottom line. If the neighbors want a thriving business corridor, they need to shop locally and support their local businesses, be it MLK, Hampton Village, Michigan Avenue or Rodeo Drive!

I want to point out that Alderman Sam Moore actually has gone to great lengths to save the corner building that you show, and has been a supporter of the Dick Gregory Place project that RHCDA is developing. I don’t always see eye to eye with Moore, but he deserves some credit for keeping these buildings standing.

Thanks for the pictures, Steve. I decided to drive MLK/Rock Rd from Kingshighway to 170 today, because of your post. I can’t believe it’s been nearly 20 years since I traveled that particular section of road, and was surprised to see as many beautiful structures as I did still standing, although many in the later stages of decay.

I’d love to hear or read more regarding this avenue from the folks who are more familiar with it than me. In particular, I would be interested in learning more about the streetcar loop building, and the former bank at the corner of Skinker and MLK.

^ If there are 10 other “middle sections of town” routes to take… it is pretty easy.

The other day I drove north on 9th street heading to the 170.
1. It looks scary
2. curbs have decayed
3. who owns this land?

Now, why cant an organization/city just go one day and PAINT these buildings exterior. Just like before you sell your house, you clean it up, paint it, etc. I wish we could do something like that to these old warehouses. I mean colorful painting, not some dull white paint.

If others disagree, what can we do instead besides leaving them as eye soars or tearing them down. Just give them some TLC on the outside!

You wouldn’t need to “use it”. But how about explore it? There is a strange thing here in St. Louis. Many people seldom venture out of their routines or comfort zones. A good example is the way so many people avoid north city. They just don’t visit there. There’s a lot to see if you get out of your routine.

Dumb Me; why is this unique to STL? Having lived in several other large metro areas in the USA, lots of people basically don’t do much ‘exploring’ beyong their own neighborhood. In Boston where I spent two years, people commonly didn’t know much about what was happening two miles down the road.

Speaking of exploration, how many people here have raised a glass at the Harlem Tap Room?

Great bar on MLK!

When ever something is named MLK it translate to 'go somewhere else'. Schools, roads, parks, hospitals, etc. all have this warning name.

Look at the lovely place niggers made