Church Pastor says Hyde Park neighborhood not a good place to live

The House of Deliverance Pentecostal Church in Hyde Park basically wants to tear down buildings on two city blocks to build a 3-phase project that will take seven years to complete. While the church has noble intentions their thinking is flawed, basically the urban renewal way of thinking – we need to tear it all down so we can improve people’s lives. This is a follow-up to the previous posting on this site.

I spent 3 hours Monday evening attending the St. Louis Preservation Board hearing. They had a large agenda and had already heard a few items in the first hour of the meeting before I arrived. When we finally got to these eight items I began typing notes (on my Mac) as the speakers presented their case. I wasn’t able to get any exact quotes but I got the gist of it down.

First, some background:
• I lived for a few years in the Old North St. Louis neighborhood – a historic neighborhood adjacent to the Hyde Park Historic District.
• I also worked, for about five years, in North St. Louis. I have bike commuted to my office at Union & I-70 from my home in Dutchtown – a total of about 2,000 miles in one year.
• The properties in question are located between the Grand Water Tower and the Bissel Water Tower – both stunning.
• The properties are in the 3rd Ward – Alderman Freeman Bosley Sr.
• Seven of the eight properties were built between 1890-1910, the eight was built in the mid-twenties.
• The church bought the current church building in the late 1960s.
• They submitted a preliminary site plan & elevation to the staff prior to the meeting – Kate Shea, Director of Cultural Resources, said neither would meet the Historic District standards for new construction.

OK, here we go…

Pastor Jesse Battle was a very good speaker – much as you’d expect a Pastor to be. I have no doubt he and his followers sincerely believe what they are doing is the right thing. Based on my education & experience I sincerely believe they are misguided. Unfortunately, I don’t think they can be convinced otherwise.

Pastor Battle made an excellent point early in his comments. That St. Louis University is basically able to tear down many buildings to create a campus effect – why couldn’t they. A member of the Board indicated much of SLU is not in a historic district which is really unfortunate but that will have to be left for another day.

Again, I am paraphrasing Pastor Battle – not quoting (except for what is shown in quotes). Below is a summary of his points for razing eight properties on two city blocks – it is quite lengthy but I want you to understand their full argument:
• All properties are owned by the church
• For 15 years the long-term plan was to raze this buildings and construct a new facility
• All/most buildings in the city and county have some historic element to them so by this standard nothing could be torn down
• This is a “naive” way of dealing with life & growth
• The buildings are not being used – they are mostly vacant
• Pad locks & chains don’t keep the drug dealers out – the locks get cut and then we put more back on
• The buildings look good because they are brick but inside they are “hell holes” and are “despicable”
• Best use is to tear down
• Purpose of the church is to serve the community
• They want to build a community center & gym for the community
• They are working on developing the architectural drawings now – have been working for a year.
• They serve the community which is black & poor
• They must accommodate cars – new plan would provide parking for 113 cars.
• Phase II would construct a community center with meeting & craft rooms
• Phase III would build a full service community gym
• These would not be just for the church but for the neighborhood
• No question – their mission is to serve the community
• They seek to elevate the community
• More than 50% of the area residents are either unemployed or under-employed
• Area residents can’t afford things other can – like a membership to Bally’s
• Only thing the residents can do is congregate which results in crime, and killings
• The church wants to stem recurring events in community
• You can’t compare the value of the buildings to what they save [lives]
• This a “desolate” and “dark” North St. Louis community
• Plan to spend $6-$8 million dollars, church members have contributed large sums of money
• The community is otherwise disenfranchised
• The church has worked with the architect over the last year but have not liked the renderings he has given them, now they are ready to go
• The Board/City’s only interest is bricks & mortar – no regard for life, conditions of those lives
• Phase I – new church – to begin as soon as they have a green light
• They have half of the $4 million needed for that – balance will be loaned by Bank of America
• They plan start Phase II, the community center, in three years
• Phase III, the gym, would either start or finish four years later. A seven year total time frame was mentioned
• They have considered relocating to North St. Louis County – as many black churches have done
• The City has run many black churches out of the city because they couldn’t expand
• Historically 70% of the membership lived in the area
• Because they’ve gotten better educated they make more money and can move to better homes in St. Louis & St. Charles Counties.
• Roughly 40-50% of the church members live in the neighborhood
• The church has assisted the community so they can live better
• Everybody wants to move out – it is not a good place to live

Their architect, Bill Watkins, spoke next – they were the only two present to speak in favor of the project:
• Existing church building is roughly 8,500sf and seats 200
• Proposed church would have 24,000sf and seat 750
• No work has been done on proposals for the community center or gym

I spoke next – I was the only other person in the audience. I’m not going to bore you with a long list of my points but basically I said the church had good intentions but was misguided. I said the idea of tearing down the neighborhood to save the neighborhood concept doesn’t work – that Pruitt-Igoe (the housing project) failed because of that way of thinking. I compared the church to Home Depot – they are the big box of churches surrounded by parking. I mentioned (and showed) that I was reading Jane Jacobs’ ‘Death and Life of Great American Cities’ and several of the board members nodded their understanding. I told them I felt the church had a great disdain for the neighborhood based on the Pastor’s comments.

The Pastor was upset and questioned my credentials to speak on their project – that he didn’t know me or where I came from. The city attorney for the Preservation Board, Matt Moak, explained that as a citizen I have a right to speak. A board member moved to uphold the staff recommendation of denial on all eight permits and another seconded the motion. Then the recording equipment failed. After about five minutes of trying to get the equipment working I decided to quietly step out – the last thing I wanted was an angry Pastor riding down the elevator with me. Based on their discussion before the equipment failure, I’m sure the board will deny the request.

The real tragedy here is you’ve got good people wanting to spend their hard earned cash on doing good deeds – but we all can’t agree on the best method. I’d like to see them spread their wealth around several smaller churches and make the community feel proud of their homes – not ways to flee. Churches, like retail stores, believe bigger is better and that drawing folks in from far away by car is beneficial to the area in which it is located. A massive church with equally massive parking lot just doesn’t belong within the City of St. Louis. We’ve got some great old churches in town – many vacant and some are quite large. With all the vacant land in North St. Louis it doesn’t seem prudent to raze viable structures.

Hopefully they can see the error of their ways and focus their energies & money in a more urban fashion. If not, I’ll see them at the Planning Commission meeting where they will likely appeal this denial. [note: I just confirmed the Preservation Board upheld the staff recommendation to deny the demoiltion request, 11/23/04, 9am]

I was unable to locate a website for the church but here is there information:
House of Deliverance Pentecostal Church
1524 East Grand Boulevard, Saint Louis, MO 63107
(314) 533-3566

Further Reading for those still interested…
• Cultural Resources website

• Cultural Resources Preservation policies

• ‘A Preservation Plan for St. Louis’

• Title 24 of the city code relating to Cultural Resources

• St. Louis Five Year Consolidated Strategy – Hyde Park

• Hyde Park neighborhood info

• Info on “College Hill” area within Hyde Park Historic District

ALERT: Church wants to raze eight properties in Hyde Park Historic District

The House of Deliverence Pentecostal Church of Hyde Park is seeking permission from the St. Louis Preservation Board to raze it’s own church building and seven other buildings on the block. I’m told the church wishes to put up a steel warehouse type building with massive parking lot. Demolition permits for two other buildings on the block were denied by the Preservation Board but the more politically influenced Planning Commission overturned this decision and allowed the demotions.

The church is threatening to leave the city and go to the county if they don’t get their way. I think they need to start packing – and take the Planning Commission with them!

View of existing church to be razed under current proposal. (photo: Cultural Resources)

The meeting has already started but these properties are later on the agenda – go to the meeting if you can.

Click here to see Preservation Board agenda

Wisdom from unlikely urbanists, the Beastie Boys

When I was in high school in the early 80s I was a bit of a musical prude – preferring soft pop rock tunes over more progressive music. The Beastie Boys was a group I dismissed. Interestingly, these guys are my age – one is younger while the oldest is barely two years my senior. They, like me, are quickly approaching forty. With age does come wisdom.

A diverse musical library has been a big part of my growth. I’m happy to report that I can’t get enough Beastie Boys. Their latest album, To the 5 Boroughs, is awesome. From the album title to their videos, it is clear these guys really love New York City.

Pay attention to the lyrics and you know they get it. Consider this verse from the track Right Right Now Now:

I went to get a loan and they asked my race

It ain’t the bank’s damn business how my lineage trace

Banks have long been a destructive force in cities. Past crimes of racial & economic red lining have, for the most part, disappeared but the damage has been done. The effort now required to undue what has been done by prior generations of bankers and planners is monumental. But, we of the Generation X crowd (1965-1975 by some accounts) are a group reaching increasing political power. It is becoming our time to make our mark on the City of St. Louis.

Let’s make our mark more meaningful than prior generations.

Click here for the complete lyrics to Right Right Now Now.

Click here to preview the song on the iTunes Music Store.

More Wisdom from Jane Jacobs

As I make my way through Jane Jacobs’ 1961 classic, “Death and Life of Great American Cities.” I realize just how fucking brilliant this woman is!

“Probably everyone is aware of certain general descriptions by a city on its heart. When a city heart stagnates or disintegrates, a city as a social neighborhood of the whole begins to suffer: People who ought to get together, by means of central activities that are failing, fail get together. Ideas and money that ought to meet, and do so often only by happenstance in a place of central vitality, fail to meet. The networks of city public life develop gaps they cannot afford. Without a strong and inclusive central heart, a city tends to become a collection of interests isolated from one another. It falters at producing something greater, socially, culturally, and economically, than the sum of its separated parts.”

This really deep stuff. It is taking me much longer to read this book than I usually spend – mostly because I’m finding myself reading a good many paragraphs several times to fully grasp all that she talks about. Thinking back to see if what she says rings true based on my personal experiences and so far she has been dead on. I only wish this book had been forced reading for every high school student in America. If so, we might live in a much different society?

But, no point crying over spilled soy milk, right? We’ve got the lessons now we must apply them. If that means electing new leaders then so be it. Mayor Slay – time to send you back to the family trucking business.

You aldermen need show more understanding of urbanity and cut out this “aldermanic courtesy” shit that removes all accountability. Don’t vote in favor of another alderman’s ward-destroying project so that alderman will vote in favor of your ward-destroying project. You are not helping anyone but yourselves!

Fire Departments encourage sprawl

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch is reporting, “The St. Louis Fire Department has denied the Cardinals permission for further construction of their new stadium because of safety concerns, namely the proximity of the stadium to the highway.”

I’m not sure what good the objection will do at this point. While I’m not thrilled about losing the current Busch Stadium for a new “retro” stadium and the promised “ballpark village” I also think we need to get it done as quickly as possible.

But, back to the issue of the fire department. I know in other cities the unions require a certain number of firemen per truck – not sure about in the City of St. Louis. Whatever the reason, most fire departments are buying bigger and bigger equipment. This requires bigger and bigger streets. Any transportation engineer will tell you, the wider the street the faster the traffic will go – regardless of the posted speed limit.

In making cities more pedestrian & bicycle friendly we try to slow down traffic. In fact, a bit of congestion is a good thing.

Consider this from “Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream” by Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Jeff Speck:

When fire departments are allowed to usurp the role of town planner, they generally commit two errors. First, they put more weight on fire rescue than on the prevention of injury in general; they try to minimize emergency response time, without considering that the resulting wide streets lead to an increased number of traffic accidents, since people drive faster on them. Fire departments have yet to acknowledge that fire safety is but a small part of a much larger picture that others refer to as life safety. The biggest threat to life safety is not fires but car accidents, by a tremendous margin. Since the vast majority of fire department emergencies involve car accidents, it is surprising that fire chiefs have not begun to reconsider response time in this light; if they did, narrow streets would logically become the norm in residential areas. In the meantime, the wider streets that fire departments require are indeed quite effective at providing them with the quick access to the accidents they help cause.”

They continue on this subject…
“The second mistake fire departments make is purchasing oversized trucks, vehicles that have trouble maneuvering through anything but the widest of streets. Sometimes these trucks are required by outdatad union regulations, but often they are simply the result of a town’s desire to have the most effective machinery it can afford.* Unfortunately, a part of a truck’s effectiveness is its abillity to reach the fire in the first place. Once purchased, the truck turns from servant to master, making all but the most wasteful and unpleasant steet spaces impossible.”

In the footnotes the authors basically say these big trucks may be due to fire marshalls comparing “the size of their trucks” at conventions.

I’m guessing this issue with the stadium will get resolved with a nice donation to the fire department’s retirement fund.