Focusing on Lucas Park…Again (Updated)

Three years ago this month, a group of 10 downtown residents began efforts to clean up and  activate Lucas Park. The intent was not to run out the homeless, but to give the park the love it hadn’t received so the non-homeless would also feel welcomed in the public park.

The park lacked basic maintenance but loft dwellers and numerous homeless individuals worked together on several days that Fall to clean up the park. Many residents wanted a place where they could let their dogs run off-leash. The former playground of the Children’s Center was used for a while but it had serious shortcomings. After a design charrette in November 2008 it was clear to me a few others wanted to filter all communications in the group. My last involvement was in March 2009.

Other than attend the opening of the dog park I’ve stayed away and not been involved, letting others do their thing.

In December 2010 the Missouri Secretary of State’s office dissolved the non-profit Lucas Park Beautification Project for not filing an annual report. The board and the city were unaware of this until I inquired recently.  Really? I’ve come to the conclusion this group is much like a high school clique, a small social group unwelcoming to others. The website, downtownstl10.org, hasn’t been updated since mid-2009. I was told applications could be picked up in person at Washington Ave Post, so I asked for one on my last visit and scanned it (view). By way of contrast, the Frenchtown Dog Park has the logical URL of FrenchtownDogPark.com where the application and dues can be completed online. The Shaw Dog Park is part of the Shaw neighborhood and can be found at www.shawstlouis.org/dogpark/ – rules and applications are also online. The SW City Dog Park in Wilmore Park is located at www.swcitydogpark.org. The Central West End dog park is at www.cwedogparks.com and like all the others the rules and applications are online. A new resident searching online for dog parks might not locate downtown because they wouldn’t find the one in Lucas Park. I knew I had to get back involved, I just couldn’t allow this small group to be the only downtown residents involved in the park that is just 2 blocks from my loft. It’s a public park, they hold no monopoly on it. Lucas Park, like me, is now part of the 5th ward rather than the 6th ward. Alderwomen April Ford Griffin (D-5) says she welcomes “input from all the residents.”  Good. I believe efforts must be on the ground and in the cloud. For the latter I set up the following to help with communications:

• LucasParkSTL.com
• Facebook.com/LucasParkSTL
• Twitter.com/LucasParkSTL

I don’t know at this point where this will go. I do know open communications on issues is a must. – Steve Patterson

Update Wednesday September 14, 2011 @ noon: Turns out there is a website for the dog park — lucasparkdogpark.com. Rules posted? Nope. Membership cost? No. Application form? Negative.  The only thing you can do is submit your email address so someone can contract you.  Oh yeah, the non-profit is still dissolved by the Secretary of State (view).

Happy Labor Day Weekend

Have a great weekend folks.  Listen to me on KDHX’s Collateral Damage show with DJ Wilson Monday at 8:30pm (88.1FM or online here).  I’ll be back on Tuesday with a new post. In the meantime, enjoy four days of bicycle racing with the annual Gateway Cup.

– Steve Patterson

What a Handsome Bride

Recently I attended the open house for Trailnet’s new offices at 10th & Locust. The offices are nice but it was their view to the south that really got my attention.

On the right is the long-vacant Bridge’s House building built in 1886. On the left is the renovated building that has Left Bank Books and Bridge Tap House on the ground floor and rental lofts on the upper floors. By contrast it looks very modern but it was built just four years later, in 1890.

The contrasts are what is so great! First, the floor levels don’t align with each other. Misguided historic standards in some neighborhoods require new construction to align perfectly with adjacent structures. The Materials and colors are also quite different, although brick is used on both buildings.

Then there is the blade sign from the 20th century, a real gem of a sign.

– Steve Patterson

Reaching the St. Louis County Library

I was thinking of attending a meeting being held tonight (7pm-9pm) at the headquarters of the St. Louis County Library located at 1640 South Lindbergh Blvd. The meeting is a St. Louis Aerotropolis Forum sponsored by the Citizens Alliance for Missouri Patriots (a closed Facebook group) that I’m NOT a member of:

Alliance of Tea Party and Patriot Group leaders and organizers in the State of Missouri who wish to combine forces in working together for our state’s sovereignty, who adhere to and believe in our founding fathers’ constitutional principles, government fiscal responsibility, individual unalienable rights, and a free market system. CAMP does NOT represent any one political party, but only the People of Missouri.

Here is the description of the Facebook event:

Concerned about the China Hub issue to be brought before our state legislators in the upcoming special session? For those in the local St. Louis metro area or across the state, you are invited to join us in hearing our panel of speakers who will be discussing and debating this topic which will affect every citizen in Missouri.

Scheduled panelists are Audrey Spalding from Show Me Institute, and David Roland from Missouri Freedom Center.

We are currently awaiting confirmation on panel speakers from the St. Louis Regional Chamber & Growth Association who are working to bring the China Hub to St. Louis.

The forum will be held in the library auditorium starting at 7pm and ending promptly at 9pm.

Scheduled Host is Mr. Rodney White, retired businessman, local author and speaker.

Please invite your neighbors, family, and friends who are wanting to know more about this new government tax credit.

I’d like to hear this perspective,  I have three choices on how to get to the meeting:

1. Drive my car
2. Ask for a ride with someone else.
3. Take public transit

Let’s look at each option.

1) Drive my car

This is the option 99% of those attending will use. But I try to use my car as little as possible, plus I have a narrow window between 6pm-9pm when I can drive to get the best insurance discount. I’d have to leave the event early if I drove to be home by 9pm.  And yes, Progressive knows exactly when I drive  because of the device I voluntarily plugged into my diagnostic port. Google Maps says the drive is 12.6 miles long and would take 18 minutes if I use I-64 or 13.7-14.2 miles (& 29-33 minutes) if I use surface streets.

2) Ask for a ride with someone else

This is a good option, one I wish more people would use rather than driving themselves. I know only one person on the attending list, but I know Ed Martin online only and I’m not sure I want to ask him or be at his mercy.

3) Take public transit

Finally my favorite option! I have two choices to reach the library via transit. The option that gets me there closest to the start time takes the longest (59 minutes) and would involve using MetroLink and two buses. The other option takes 50-56 minutes depending upon when I leave.  This is twice as long as if I drove but from my view this is time I can read, check email, observe the city, etc.

Since I’ve never been there in my power chair before I need to investigate the route in detail. The option that includes only one bus is more appealing than having to transfer from one bus to another so I looked at taking the #58 bus from the Clayton MetroLink/MetroBus station.

Seems simple enough, “walking” 3/10th of a mile is no big deal in my chair.

But when I looked at the aerial image and the street view is when problems became clear.

The street view shows curbs on both sides of the driveway, which means no deal.  In looking back up at the aerial it seems the near side may have been fixed, but the far sides of the drive is unknown. This route is too uncertain.

The other option is to take the #58X Express Bus to Big Bend & Kirkwood Rd then transfer to the #48 northbound on Kirkwood/Lindbergh.

I’m pretty sure the stops are not as shown, but still the area has good sidewalks, ramps and crosswalks. I just need to figure out where to board the 48. Oh, just a bit to the north.

And here we see a common problem. A large pad is provided as well as a shelter but the pad isn’t connected to the sidewalk. Suburban sidewalks are often just for show, not actual use, so having the sidewalk actually connect to points pedestrians would actually use is just radical thinking I suppose.  My chair can deal with the grade change and grass but someone using a manual chair, walker or cane might have difficulty.

The great thing is the #48 stops right in front of the library. I should be good from this point, right? Wrong!

Where the bus stops there is no pedestrian route to the entrance. Perhaps a proper pedestrian access route exists somewhere in either direction?

If I were to risk my life trying either vehicle drive I still have no clue where to find a ramp to reach and accessible entrance. Even the able-bodied would take a chance if they walked in one of the driveways. Walking to the library seems as American as apple pie, but not in St. Louis County apparently.

I checked out their accessibility page:

Buildings and Bookmobiles

What physical accommodations exist for persons with physical limitations?

• Handicapped-accessible parking
• Ramp entrances
• Power doors
• Elevators
• Accessible aisles and routes inside the buildings
• Accessible restrooms, water fountains, and public telephones
• Low service desks
• Specially-designed school bookmobile with wheelchair lift

No thought is given to pedestrians at all. My example is extreme in that I’m coming from a long distance. What about someone, like a senior or a child, in Kirkwood? What is the reverse route?  Public buildings like libraries should demonstrate to others what is expected. Oh, I guess it does, they don’t expect pedestrians. But people do use these bus routes and stops and every transit rider is a pedestrian on at least one end of their trip.

St. Louis County and municipalities continue to spend money on sidewalks and ADA ramps but they fail to connect the dots! These new & improved sidewalks are mere roadside decoration  to give the appearance of walkability & accessibility.

I contacted the St. Louis County Library on the 26th about their lack of a pedestrian access route and they are tagged on the tweet of this post.

– Steve Patterson

Jefferson Bank’s 1956 Move South of Delmar, Away From Pruitt-Igoe, & 1963 Protest

For it’s first 64 years Jefferson Bank & Trust was located a couple of blocks north of Delmar:

“Jefferson Bank was organized and incorporated in Missouri on July 20, 1892 and was one of the earliest neighborhood banks in the City of Saint Louis. The bank’s first location was at the Northwest corner of Jefferson and Franklin (now known as Martin Luther King Drive). Over the last century Jefferson Bank and Trust has earned an enviable reputation for providing excellent service to small businesses throughout the Saint Louis Metropolitan area. The foundation of prudent fiscal policy has served the bank well and provided for sound growth.”

Today the St. Louis Police Central Patrol Division is located on the corner where the original Jefferson Bank stood.

When Jefferson Bank needed a new building they simply moved east across Jefferson:

“In January of 1922, ground was broken for Jefferson Bank’s first new banking house at the Northeast corner of Jefferson and Franklin. This new building featured a Safe Deposit Department inside a modern vault with a capacity of 4000 safety deposit boxes.”

The building was quite handsome!

But 30 years later they would feel the need to move again, the neighborhood & banking were changing.

“On April 2, 1956, Jefferson Bank and Trust Company celebrated the opening of the first new bank building constructed in the City of Saint Louis since 1928. This modern building was located at 2600 Washington on the corner of Washington, Jefferson, and Locust featuring four drive-in banking windows and walk-up and drive-up night depositories. During 1956 the bank grew to $22,000,000 in assets and exceeded $52,000,000 during 1963.”

Part of what likely prompted Jefferson Bank to move south of Delmar was the massive Pruitt-Igoe public housing complex just two blocks north of the prior location.

Pruitt-Igoe was “first occupied in 1954 and completed in 1956.” Was the timing a coincidence? Perhaps, but they may have been unable to find a site to build the new bank with drive-thru lanes close to their 1922 bank.  It should be noted that Jefferson Bank had African American tellers at the prior location, and many African American customers.

But when the new bank opened in April 1956 the bank no longer had any African American tellers. Another coincidence? Local civil rights groups tried for years to get Jefferson Bank, other banks, and other businesses, to hire black workers. Years passed with no real progress.

Here is a 5-minute video from the Nine Network with vintage footage of the Jefferson Bank protests:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awYGQpnh2Bk

Wednesday, August 28, 1963 thousands converged in Washington D.C. for the one-day March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom event. The next day, Thursday August 29, 1963 (48 years ago today) some who didn’t go to Washington D.C. decided to picket outside Jefferson Bank.

Friday August 30, 1963 the protest moved into the bank’s lobby. Nine protestors were arrested for interfering with bank business (shown with sentences):

• Marion Oldham – 60 days – $500*
• Rev. Charles Perkins -180 days – $500
• Raymond Howard -60 days -$500*
• William Clay – 270 days – $1,000
• Norman Seay – 90 days – $500
• Herman Thompson -60 days -$500
• Robert Curtis – 270 days – $1,000
• Charles Oldham – 90 days – $1,000
• Lucian Richards -90 days -$500

* indicates conviction reversed on January 15, 1964.

The city’s conservative daily paper, the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, ran the following editorial on Tuesday September 3, 1963:

The decision by the St. Louis NAACP to attempt to boycott of public schools when they open Thursday was a sensible abandonment of amost unwise scheme.

Keeping children out of school to whomp up a demonstration would be illegal, useless and make helpless victims of youngsters.

Whatever the reason in foregoing the boycott for school integration at all costs, itwas a sound change of heart. We hope it was because parents set their children’s education above every other consideration.

***

The congress of Racial Equality leaders, who brazenly violated the law and the court Friday by their “demonstrations, ”  harassing business of the Jefferson Bank and Trust Company, showed a far different and insupportable attitude.

Nine of the CORE’S chief demonstrators were arrested for contempt of the Circuit Court, whose injunction they debauched. Some were released on bond, others stayed in jail, apparently to get more publicity and pose as martyrs.

They are not martyrs. What they wanted was jobs–now–whether any jobs were available or whether Negro applicants were competent to hold the positions. It was intimidation, an extortion tactic in the guise of racial equality. There is no equality in the demands they made, only an attempt at gaining racial discrimination for Negroes. There is no martyrdom in arrest and jail forflagrant flouting of courts and law.

These CORE people should be treated just like any other law-breaker. They deserve no sympathy. If any groups, apart from the race issue, were to do the same thing they would get the book thrown at them…

***

St. Louis is sympathetic toward Negro rights and equal opportunity. But it is, as Mayor Tucker stated, a debasement of such principles to employ tactics of wanton law-breaking.

These CORE principals have divorced themselves from Negro rights and equal opportunity.

Seven protestors were arrested on Friday October 4th and three more on Monday October 7th.

The St. Louis American, an African American newspaper, ran this editorial on Thursday October 17, 1963:

The Jefferson Avenue Bank has been under daily picket-protest for several weeks…

This long protest on the Jefferson Bank led by the CORE group has developed many facets of the present revolution that is going on in this country.

The Negro at large is no longer in a passive state over public jimcrow and lack of jobs because of the jimcrow customs.

The first stages of the Jefferson Bank protests were in the line of the orderly non-violent action. But after the court order prohibiting pickets interfering with the bank’s operation, the pickets did interfere with business. This part of the action, it is this corner’s opinion, was wrong…

But on the other hand, the criticism from high officials… that the court order must be obeyed: it can be recalled right here in St. Louis less than ten years ago the same high authority both winked at and openly condoned the disregard of the unanimous Supreme Court opinion against jimcrow graduate schools…

The Jefferson Bank’s lawyer gave open offense by using his court-appointed position to brow-beat and intimidate persons not even charged with court contempt. This, with the quick night arrests of early pickets without first giving them a hearing,contribute greatly to subsequent demonstrations.

… this newspaper does not agree with the application of a quota system in setting out the precise number of jobs a business must offer Negroes. We think thatMartin Luther King was wrong in demanding exactly 25 Negro policemen in Birmingham-and that is an extreme situation. What Dr. King intends is that a mere token of 2 or 3 would not suffice. But this is far from the situation at the Jefferson Bank, where Negroes have previously been as clerks and tellers.

Most of all, this newspaper disagrees with the final type of protest demonstrations at the Jefferson Bank-not the persistence of picketing, for that shows determination; but the ‘jazzed-up’ handclapping, laughing, aimless singing of youngsters who made it look like a jitter-bug contest. This whole business of gaining full civil rights may need the enthusiasm of the young people, but it should not be regarded merely as an exposition of enthusiasm with a touch of fun-time added. It is all a very serious matter, and the dedication would be genuine…

But that, too, must not be a too severe criticism on the youngsters, for there are some of the old leaders who are belatedly appearing in picket lines and giving directives who only a few years back were neutrals…

For the many years of positive good done by the CORE group here in St. Louis and elsewhere it alone should not be judged by this one Jefferson Bank affair…

Let the solemn picketing continue where and where necessary within the bounds of the law. Let the exhibitionists and face-spitters desist in the name of human dignity, that status we all have been so loudly demanding.

Clearly the older leadership split with the youth of the day.   Apparently the courts moved faster in 1963. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch ran the following slightly more supportive editorial on October 25, 1963:

For the sake of both the public peace and progress toward equality in employment, we hope that all concerned in the Jefferson Bank contempt cases will now resolve to face forward.

There will be no gain for anybody in trying to reopen a closed chapter, to fight all over again a battle of the past. The community at large and the Negro community in particular should fix its sights on the paramount issue, which is how St. Louis can peacefully establish, not just in one small firm but throughout themetropolitan economy true equality of opportunity.

Leaders of various demonstrations at the bank have been sentenced and fined for violating a court order against interference with the bank’s business. We think Judge Scott’s decision should be reviewed by another court, not only to confirm the legality of the convictions but to determine whether the severe penalties imposed are commensurate with the offense. But there is no question that violations of a court order must be punished. Those who deliberately violate the law should expect to pay the proper penalty…

It is regrettable that the Jefferson Bank management evidently chooses tomake only aminimal response to Mayor Tucker’s request that during the two-week truce it began to work with the St. Louis Council on Human Relations to put into effect the ten-point program for equal employment opportunity. But a beginning, small as it may seem, has been made. It should be accepted forwhat it is, in the hope that both the orderly processes of the law and a sense of employer responsibility to the community will bring about a steady widening of employment op portunities. After all, 18Negroes have been hired by five downtown banks since August. The record as a whole is a favorable one. A new test of strength at Jefferson Avenue and Washington will accomplish nothing.

For the future, two obligations are inescapable. Leaders of theNegro community have an obligation to press their case by lawful means and only by lawful means. St. Louis employers and labor unions, for their part, have an obligation to break down the bars of discrimination rapidly and unreservedly without waiting to be pushed.

The St. Louis Argus, another African American newspaper, ran the following editorial on Friday November 1, 1963:

If we are to return this community to a state of reason, some cool and calm heads are going to have to move and do so quickly.

Today, the Negro community is riled and properly so, over what many consider excessive fines and jail sentences meted out by the Jefferson Bank demonstrations. And while we have called for law and order before, we view the sentencing by Judge Scott as severe in the light of the circumstance.

The Jefferson Bank with its one “promotable” Negro messenger did little to stem the tide of rising hostility. Couple this with the St. Louis Council on Human Relations report that the bank had hired five white persons during the past few weeks and you trigger further anger and frustration. The bank has denied discrimination.

It is also apparent that the bank has gotten its back up and CORE has retaliated by throwing down the gauntlet again. Demonstrations have been carried into City Hall as a protest of city funds at the Bank. Citizens have their right of protest to their government, regardless of the form it takes. They have been peaceful…

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch said… leaders of the Negro community have an obligation to pursue their goals “in ways that do not deepen social cleavage.” We could not agree more, but… we would have to give priority to the P-D’s admonishing note to those who hold the decisions of housing and employment in their hands…

Call the situations that exist at the bank, the public agencies, et al, what you will. They are neither Red nor subversive. There may be other considerations, but the followers of this movement are a part of the social ferment sweeping the country. The Negro is caught up in this ferment and sporadically, here and elsewhere, is reacting to it…

What is needed now is an immediate expansion of those jobs at the banks. And we would urge that this kind of a program be extended, at once, to the total industrial areas. What is needed now is a crash program designed to produce tangible results. A series of meaningful specifics is needed. Lines of communication must be re established between the two communities…

Someone, and someone fast, must start picking up the pieces.

Jefferson Bank remained at 2600 Washington until 1977 when a new location opened one block east of Jefferson on Market.  They remain there today.

President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas TX on November 22, 1963.

Every year, on the last Friday of August, the Jefferson Bank and Trust Commemorative Committee holds a protest outside the current Jefferson Bank. I couldn’t make the 48th anniversary event last Friday but I will be there next year and especially in 2013.

Material for this post came from sources cited above, with additional insight and the editorials were from the scholarly article A Strong Seed Planted the Civil Rights Movement in St. Louis, 1954-1968 published in the Organization of American Historians Vol 4, No. 3 1989.  Thanks to again to Kristen Gassel of the St. Louis Curio Shoppe for permission to use her lobby photograph.

I can’t help but think where we would be today had the youth of 1963 not gone into the bank lobby that day and had similar tactics not been used around the country to force change to come quicker. I’m thankful to all who were in the struggle back then.  We must never forget!

– Steve Patterson