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Crossing a St Louis street that divides communities

9:13 pm - 03/17/2012
The city of St Louis, Missouri, remains one of the most segregated cities in the US, according to a study by the Manhattan Institute. But one street in particular has been known to residents as the "dividing line".

Delmar Boulevard, which spans the city from east to west, features million-dollar mansions directly to the south, and poverty-stricken areas to its north. What separates rich and poor is sometimes just one street block.

The BBC's Franz Strasser talked to residents, business owners and pastors on both sides of the street about why things are the way they are.

Video won't embed, click for link






Source

Short but moving, imo. Also first post, hi.
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azul_bleu 18th-Mar-2012 01:47 am (UTC)
:D
blinkidybah 17th-Mar-2012 04:38 pm (UTC)
I appreciate the video attempting to bring some attention to the issue but it totally misses that there is real and absolute fault, and not just on "banks and realtors" who enacted racist policies. If you drive around the gentrified residential neighborhoods south of Delmar, you find street after street after street that have massive, physical barriers to entering and exiting the neighborhoods. The white people living there have deliberately made it difficult if not impossible to enter their space from the north.

Meanwhile, the gentrification of the Central West end marches forward.
rebness 17th-Mar-2012 04:42 pm (UTC)
The white people living there have deliberately made it difficult if not impossible to enter their space from the north.

That's just disturbing and awful.
blinkidybah 17th-Mar-2012 04:52 pm (UTC)
Google Maps example

It's not even subtle. They blocked off the sidewalks, even.

blinkidybah 17th-Mar-2012 05:22 pm (UTC)
I would guess that it's not really about stopping anyone really bound and determined to get in (thieves or whatever) but more about sending a message and creating a suggestion of criminality in anyone who enters without belonging. It's a lot easier for a cop to harass someone who had to a hop a fence to pass through than it is if the victim just wandered in, I guess?

Also, (and I only lived there a year back in like, 04 so things might have changed) a lot of the commercial development that's fueling the gentrification relies heavily on the Central West End being a walkable neighborhood. When people can't walk to the south from the north they can't partake in that economic growth (jobs, shopping opportunities, even the hospitals and health care access that's in the Forest Park area), and when people can't walk from the south to the north it provides developers and business owners with ready made excuses not to expand and make economic investments in the northern area.
bnmc2005 18th-Mar-2012 08:01 pm (UTC)
SO MUCH GOOD in this comment.
rebness 17th-Mar-2012 05:22 pm (UTC)
*Takes a look*

How dare they?

I can't believe how blatant and ridiculous it is.
13chapters 17th-Mar-2012 05:44 pm (UTC)
ummm. what the fuck is that? How is that allowed and not a violation of the ADA?
azul_bleu 18th-Mar-2012 01:47 am (UTC)
What? Just what? What the what? HOW is that even legal??
rex_dart 17th-Mar-2012 06:36 pm (UTC)
Can't watch the video where I am, but you make a great point. I lived in STL for a year, and the segregation there is really striking. The fenced-in upper class neighborhoods (or even single blocks) are something I've never seen in any other cities, and it's pretty obvious that it's tied to the fact that wealthy and poor neighborhoods tend to be right up on each other and interspersed in incredibly noticeable ways.
azul_bleu 18th-Mar-2012 01:51 am (UTC)
BBC is blocked??

A man in the video described the situation as modern plantations. So that gives it a whole new horrible overtone.
bnmc2005 18th-Mar-2012 08:00 pm (UTC)
If you drive around the gentrified residential neighborhoods south of Delmar, you find street after street after street that have massive, physical barriers to entering and exiting the neighborhoods. THIS, thank you!
fornikate 19th-Mar-2012 08:05 pm (UTC)
it's ridiculous. the last time i was in the area i got lost because i couldn't get out.
wapiko 17th-Mar-2012 08:26 pm (UTC)
Very, very interesting video. Despite recognizing these areas (I live 20min away in Illinois), I can't believe I didn't see the bigger picture of it all before.
msp_hacker 18th-Mar-2012 02:29 pm (UTC)
I don't go into St. Louis often ( I don't get out of the house often ) but I've noticed by getting lost several times that it's a fairly quick transition to rich to poor.

That, and it's almost fucking impossible to get anywhere by taking sidestreets because random shit is blocked off.
nycscribbler 19th-Mar-2012 03:42 am (UTC)
St. Louis creeped me out the few days I was there, and I never even got into the parts of the city where there were actual people from St. Louis. (My then-boyfriend and I went to the Women's Final Four in 2009; we stayed by Busch Stadium and spent most of our time in the tourist district. Not necessarily by intent, but it seemed clear where we were supposed to be.)
hammersxstrings 19th-Mar-2012 07:24 am (UTC)
yeah, it's generally really easy to go down one block and be fine and then down another block within sight that is definitely somewhere you wouldn't want to be alone on a late night. I live about a half mile from the stadium; it's really not that bad that far downtown, but like someone said above, the CWE is so blatant, it's ridiculous.
miss_almost 19th-Mar-2012 06:25 pm (UTC)
i don't miss you st louis.

fornikate 19th-Mar-2012 08:06 pm (UTC)
me either, tbh
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