BLIGHT BUSTERS TAKE A STAND – 9 Aug 1997 P-D

Resident lawyers in the Shaw neighborhood are putting their professions to work in an attempt to get problem landlords to clean up their problem properties. Their weapon? The threat of lawsuits.

Amid the tree-lined medians, neat single homes with porches, and modest multifamily flats making up St. Louis’ Shaw neighborhood, a legal battle is brewing.

The Shaw neighborhood is giving its bad landlords an ultimatum: Start repairing your run-down buildings and doing something about troublemaking tenants in 60 days, or else.

Else means lawsuits demanding large financial damages.

About 20 lawyers who call themselves the Shaw Neighborhood Lawyers’ Council are planning to file lawsuits against the neighborhood’s “worst offending landlords,” the group announced Friday. They would not identify the landlords.

Mayor Clarence Harmon and other community leaders announced their support of the ultimatum and their intentions to promote similar legal ch allenges against bad landlords throughout the city.

“This venture represents the continuation of the city’s stepped-up efforts to rid all neighborhoods of absentee landlords,” Harmon said. “However, the commitment of lawyers in the Shaw neighborhood is the first of its kind, and we hope that it will become a model for other neighborhoods to follow.”

As a former police officer, Harmon said, he has seen how just a few bad buildings “can be the destroyer of neighborhoods.” What works in Shaw could be applied citywide in stressed neighborhoods, the mayor said.

Shaw – population about 6,000 – is a mixture of large homes on tree-shaded streets, low-rise flats and high-rise apartments. It is bounded by South Grand Boulevard, Interstate 44, Tower Grove Avenue and Magnolia Avenue.

“The Shaw neighborhood is everybody’s neighborhood – black, white, brown, tan, young, old, gay, straight, single, married, homeowner, renter, rich, poor, in-between, Christian, Jew, Muslim, Catholic, Protestant,” said Edward Roth, one of the lawyers and president of the Shaw Neighborhood Improvement Association.

“The sole qualification for admission to the Shaw neighborhood is respect – for yourself and for your neighbors,” Roth said.

“But what we won’t tolerate is outlaws. And to the few bad landlords in Shaw, let me say that we have the support of the community, we have the support of the good landlords in Shaw, and we have the support of our mayor. We have the resources and energy either to help you to become a good neighbor or to run you out of the community.”

No one needs a degree in urban affairs to spot the problem buildings, Roth added.

“They have dirt front yards devoid of grass,” he said.

“They are a shambles. They are magnets for large congregations of peop le intent on disturbing the peace and breaking the law.”

The council’s ultimatum to landlords is this:

* Personally monitor property conditions several times weekly;

* Take immediate action to “shape up” or evict bad tenants and to screen new tenants, obligating them to “to behave respectfully to the neighborhood.”

* Improve building exteriors by repairing windows and doors, providing lighting and modest landscaping; daily trash pickups are required.

“If you do all of these things, you will not be sued,” Roth said.

He emphasized the ultimatum’s “economic aspects.” In the long run, landlords are better off putting their money into their properties rather than spending $30,000 to $50,000 to fight such suits and “put some lawyer’s kid through orthodontia,” Roth said.

The suits would be similar to one settled last year. In that suit, absentee landlord John Gorecki of Des Peres agreed to fix up his buildings and screen potential tenants. Shaw residents said Gorecki has improved his properties substantially.

Through his lawyer, Gorecki said: “As a landlord against whom one of these nuisance actions was brought, let me say to fellow landlords that it was an extremely expensive and unpleasant experience. My advice to other landlords is that you are much better off to work with the community.”

In June, the city joined in a similar lawsuit that alleges a landlord in the Old North St. Louis neighborhood allowed his four-family flat to become a haven for criminals. Harmon said his staff, the city counselor’s office and other city agencies will also help the Shaw lawyers.

“By plying their professional skills as lawyers and their organizing skills as community leaders, they intend to take the profit out of operating rundown rental properties where anything goes,” Harmon said.

“They intend to put the financial hurt on irresponsible landlords who have made ill-gotten gains on the backs of the great city neighborhoods.”

Roth sketched out how lawyer councils might operate elsewhere. They would evaluate residents’ and neighborhood groups’ requests for help solving neighborhood problems. Working with city lawyers, the private lawyer groups would come up with ways to help people who live near problem buildings.

Lawyers would donate their efforts or pursue lawsuits against landlords on a “contingent” fee basis, meaning they would get a share of damage awards.

Jonathan Kleinbard, a new Shaw resident, has lived in revitalized urban areas such as Washington’s Georgetown, Philadelphia’s Society Hill and Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhoods.

He moved recently to St. Louis from a Chicago neighborhood where building-code enforcement was vigorous.

“It’s very effective,” said Kleinbard.

He said he chose Shaw over other St. Louis areas “because it’s a real neighborhood.”

Harmon said that while the city will do what it can to rejuvenate neighborhoods, the real work begins outside City Hall.

“Neighborhood improvement begins at home, among neighbors,” he said, “with discussions in living rooms, on street corners and on front porches.”

JOYCE-HAYES GIVES RESIDENTS CREDIT FOR DRUG-HOUSE BILL – 7 Jun 1997 P-D

A bill that Gov. Mel Carnahan is expected to sign would help neighborhood groups get proven troublemakers evicted.

Shaw neighborhood residents deserve credit for a new measure that would give community groups a hand in evicting people from drug houses, St. Louis Circuit Attorney Dee Joyce-Hayes said Friday.

The neighborhood’s two-year court battle with a landlord who neglected his properties ended last year with the landlord’s agreement to fix up his rundown apartments and screen prospective tenants. Joyce-Hayes said Shaw residents who had sued the landlord showed that neighborhood groups can make a difference, even before the new measure aimed at drug houses takes effect.

“We still need to give kudos to those people down in the Shaw neighborhood,” the city’s top prosecutor said.

Joyce-Hayes and Claire McCaskill, Jackson County prosecuting attorney in Kansas City, said at a news conference that the drug-house law was among several newly passed bills that should reduce street crime. They said they expected Gov. Mel Carnahan to sign the measures into law.

Under the drug-house law, a prosecutor or even neighborhood groups could file civil eviction suits to remove drug dealers from their residences. Such petitions would get a court hearing within 15 days of their filing. A judge could order an eviction even without the cooperation of the landlord.

McCaskill, head of the Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, said such a law had proven successful in Philadelphia.

Landlords are protected by the requirement that police must show drug activity at a residence before a judge may order the tenants evicted, the prosecutors said.

Edward M. Roth, president of the Shaw Neighborhood Improvement Association, said that “on balance, things are really good” in the neighborhood.

“There are, however, a number of landlords in the Shaw neighborhood who still haven’t gotten the message,” he said. “They will be hearing from a group of lawyers in the Shaw neighborhood early this summer.”

Roth, who is among those lawyers, said the neighborhood had five attorneys “for every bad property or drug house.”

“With that kind of ratio there shouldn’t be any such problem properties for too much longer,” he added.

Joyce-Hayes and McCaskill also applauded a new measure that says people arrested for more than one prostitution-related crime could be forced to submit to HIV tests. It also toughens the state law preventing the reckless spread of HIV and AIDS and would increase the penalty for knowingly infecting others with the disease.

Another measure, long sought by prosecutors, would provide immunity for witnesses who balk at testifying in criminal trials. The measure would allow a judge to compel a witness to testify.

Such witnesses would be granted immunity from prosecution for information he or she might disclose.

The measure would be most valuable in drug-related murders in which witnesses sometimes refuse to testify out of loyalty to a friend, relative or gang member, the prosecutors said.

BOSLEY PRAISES SETTLEMENT OF LAWSUIT – 2 May 1996 P-D

St. Louis Mayor Freeman R. Bosley Jr. told residents of the Shaw Neighborhood on Wednesday night that a recent settlement in a lawsuit sent a message about people determined to protect their neighborhoods from decay.

“No longer will people in neighborhoods tolerate people who own property and who don’t take care of property,” Bosley told about 120 people at a town hall meeting at Mullanphy School, 4221 Shaw Avenue.

Two weeks ago some Shaw residents and a landlord settled a suit out of court with an agreement that includes a promise for a code of conduct for tenants, keeping property in good repair and a $1.1 million judgment.

At the town meeting, Bosley heard Joyce Potter complain about young people throwing trash in her front yard in the 4100 block of DeTonty Avenue.

“I’ll pick up a lawn bag full in the morning and another at night,” she said. “There’s Frito wrappers and toilet paper. I ask the teens to pick up their trash, and they dump more.”

Bosley promised to spend $1 million for 18 recreation sites in the city, one of which, he said, will be at Mullanphy School.

Gina Ryan, president of the Shaw Neighborhood Improvement Association, said she was pleased to hear the mayor’s comments.

`Obviously a lot of people have concern about rental properties, about absentee landlords and about people who don’t take care of their property,” she said.

SUIT CLAIMS VICTORY FOR CITY LIVING – SHAW RESIDENTS, LANDLORD REACH ACCORD – 21 Apr 1996 P-D

Some Shaw neighborhood residents — supported by the city — and a landlord have reached an agreement that backers call a grass-roots victory for people determined to protect their streets from decay.

“We do need to be listened to, and we do need to be heard when we have problems,” said Terri Merideth, who has lived in Shaw for 16 years.

The agreement, approved Friday by St. Louis Circuit Judge Robert H. Dierker Jr., applies to a landlord who allegedly let his buildings fall into disrepair. The landlord also allegedly rented apartments to people who menaced neighbors.

A suit filed in the matter in 1994 had been set for trial Monday.

Instead, the landlord, John W. Gorecki of Des Peres, agreed to:

Include in his leases a code of conduct for tenants. The code – perhaps the most important part of the agreement – bans illegal drugs from Gorecki’s buildings targeted in the suit. It also prohibits loitering, excessive noise and overcrowding. Violations can lead to evictions.

Screen his tenants in accordance with the city’s Neighborhood Stabilization Office or hire a screening service acceptable to both sides.

Keep his rental property in good repair.

Pay a total of $10,000 to the four plaintiffs. His insurance company will pay a total of $20,000 to them. The plaintiffs also plan to seek $1.1 million from another of Gorecki’s insurance companies; the $1.1 million judgment is part of the agreement.

Supporters said the agreement could be a model for many neighborhoods. Circuit Attorney Dee Joyce-Hayes said that, so far, the Shaw case is one of a kind in the city.

“It’s the first time a neighborhood has taken hold like this and gone after a derelict landlord,” she said. “I think it’s wonderful. I think it’s a big red flag for all the other delinquent landlords.

“We all know that crime grows in neighborhoods that are deteriorating and drops in neighborhoods, like this one, that are fighting the battle,” she said. “It just takes some dedicated people in the neighborhood and a few lawyers willing to give some of their time.”

Gorecki was unavailable for comment. One of his attorneys, Samuel Vandover, said the city had insisted on the tenants’ code of conduct as part of the agreement to end the suit. He said Gorecki would do his best to abide by the agreement.

`A Strong Signal’

Mayor Freeman Bosley Jr. said in a statement Friday that the case “isn’t about bad landlords, it’s about good neighbors.”

“Good neighbors, with the city’s help, will always prevail over the few irresponsible property owners that plague the city.”

Anna Ginzburg, head of the city’s Neighborhood Stabilization Team, said the case is “a strong signal to property owners that they will be held accountable for keeping their buildings safe and clean.”

Gina Ryan, president of the Shaw Neighborhood Improvement Association, said “We do not look for opportunities to start lawsuits unless everything else has failed.” She added that she and half the neighborhood’s other residents are renters.

“We are sure that more owners will become better managers as a result of this court settlement,” she said.

When the suit was filed in July 1994, part of Shaw was a battleground between residents and Gorecki. Residents, with help from the city, filed the $2 million suit, which focused on three of Gorecki’s buildings: two two-family flats in the 4100 block of Shenandoah Avenue and a four-family flat in the 4200 block of Russell Boulevard.

Police had been called to the buildings many times in the two years before the suit was filed. Rock-throwing, fighting, loud music and intimidation of passers-by were reported. Three children and an adult were wounded in May 1994 in a shooting in front of one of the buildings on Shenandoah.

Vandover, the landlord’s attorney, said the problems resulted more from tenants’ visitors than the tenants themselves or the condition of Gorecki’s buildings.

`Fight As A Group’

Residents nearby acknowledge that within a few months of the suit’s filing, Gorecki improved the buildings’ conditions and got better tenants. Merideth, block captain of the 4200 block of Russell, said settling the suit is “a real exciting step forward” and a victory for city living.

“When we get landlord problems, it’s good to have the law on our side,” she said.

Merideth teaches at St. Margaret of Scotland School, in the middle of Shaw. She said the neighborhood is worth fighting for.

“Neighbors cooperating is the key,” she said. “You need to fight as a group, not as individuals. Shaw is willing to do that. It is dear to our hearts to see this kind of city living work.”

Edward M. Roth, a Shaw resident and the plaintiffs’ lawyer, said conscie ntious landlords should not see the suit’s outcome as a threat.

“To the incorrigible few, however, this case demonstrates the extraordinary financial risk they can face when they are unresponsive to community needs and they allow their properties to lurch out of control and become chronic threats to neighborhood safety and peace,” Roth said.

Katherine Heidenfelder, one of the plaintiffs, said the case was much more than an effort to settle “some petty grievance.”

“My hope is that, as a result of this suit, landlords will apply the `golden rule,’ managing their properties and selecting their tenants as though they, themselves were living next door.”

TAKING BACK THEIR BLOCK – FED-UP RESIDENTS LAUNCH CRIME SWEEP PROJECT IN SHAW NEIGHBORHOOD – 15 Apr 1995 P-D

AS THE SHAW Neighborhood goes, so goes St. Louis, many city residents believe.

This spring, the neighborhood is launching an experiment to fight crime and deterioration that, if successful, could spread throughout the city.

The effort is different because of its concentration on a single block – the north and south sides of the 4000 block of Shenandoah Avenue – in the heart of Shaw. The goal of the three-month blitz is to rapidly drive out troublemakers and physically improve what has become the sorest block in the neighborhood – an oozing ulcer of gangsters, vandals, dope and decay.

After the initial push, the neighborhood will keep attention focused on the block by frequently holding meetings, parties and concerts there. And property managers hired by the neighborhood with approval of the landlords will tightly monitor the behavior of tenants in the block.

The most important benefit, organizers say, will be confidence. When residents see their efforts pay off, they will feel they have gained more control over the urban environment and will become more willing to exercise it.

Next year, the effort will expand to two new troublesome blocks, and so on.

The planning for the spring offensive began nearly a year ago, said Ed Roth, secretary of the Shaw Neighborhood Improvement Association and head of Project 4000 Shenandoah.

Landlords representing 80 percent of the property on the block have participated willingly, he said, even though the plan calls on them to make $2,000 in improvements per building.

Police have advised organizers on strategy. Heavy patrols and “zero tolerance” enforcement policies already have begun.

“This has been a very heartening process,” Roth said. “This battle and this war are eminently winnable, and we’re going to do it. We are more motivated, creative, thoughtful and organized than the bad guys.”

The Shaw Neighborhood sits on the centerline of the city and is in many ways a microcosm of St. Louis with all its richness, problems and potential.

The area is bounded by Interstate 44 to the north, Grand Boulevard to the east, Magnolia Avenue to the south and Tower Grove Avenue to the west.

The area’s alderman, Stephen Conway, said: “What the Shaw Neighborhood represents is the tenacity of people to make city living what it ought to be . . . enjoyable, replete with historic buildings and people of diverse backgrounds all living together. It is very representative of the successes and challenges that all city neighborhoods have to be willing to accept.”

It is the most densely populated neighborhood in the city, and its demographics and voting patterns reflect the city as a whole. Blacks and whites reside there in virtually equal numbers. Immigrants also are amply represented. It is economically diverse, encompassing the very rich and very poor and a solid base of the middle class.

Like the city itself, it bears the scars of crimes and faded glory. But its residents have a dogged commitment toward Shaw and the city as a whole. If the city can be turned around, they believe, it will start here.

What Triggered Decline

By many accounts, the decline of the 4000 block of Shenandoah started a few years ago with a single family that still lives there. The outlaw behavior of its children frightened neighbors and landlords alike, and the block soon became known as a hot spot for drug dealing and other nefarious activity.

Although the police make frequent arrests, the ringleaders return to the block almost immediately because the city jails have limited space for small-time criminals.

Residents have observed that in the many police roundups on the block, most of those arrested lived outside the neighborhood.

The outlaws have been able to flourish because of a network of empty buildings and gangways that give them good lookout posts and dark hideaways to stash their weapons and drugs when police arrive.

A coin laundry at Thurman and Shenandoah avenues became a criminal hangout. It closed three years ago, but the gangsters repeatedly break through its boarded up doors and windows. Once inside, they can climb to the roof for a vantage point over several blocks.

They have been known to jump from roof to roof to make their escape from the police. Eliminating those escape routes is one key to the plan.

Plan To Spruce Up

Among improvements required of property owners are iron gates in gangways between buildings and bright lights in gangways and front and rear porches.

The landlords also have pledged to paint and spruce up facades along the block.

Conway, the area’s alderman, has prodded city agencies to schedule the emergency demolition of two vacant buildings that have sheltered crime.

Organizers will clear and landscape several vacant lots using neighborhood and city money.

A neighborhood resident has designed banners that will be hung from light standards on the block to identify the area of concentration. Later, marketing organizations will promote rehabilitated housing on the block to help landlords acquire solid tenants at market rates.

The landlords already have started evicting chronic troublemakers.

Later this month, the landlords and the neighborhood association will choose a property management company to run the entire block. If half the landlords sign up, the city will pay for the first year of the management service, Conway says, giving landlords a valuable service for free.

Landlords who decline to participate will find themselves subjects of frequent city inspections and enforcement, Conway says.

Landlords Laud Project

But most landlords have joined the process enthusiastically. They were as frustrated as the neighborhood, Conway said. They were losing equity in their property, suffering losses to vandalism and abuse and having trouble attracting good tenants.

Brendan Isom, who has owned a four-family flat on the block for 10 years, said he was optimistic about the plan.

“I’m excited,” he said. “It’s a specific action plan with specific deadlines, and there seems to be some follow-through. In the past, we’ve gotten together and discussed these problems, but we didn’t have the organization, and there was no follow-through.”

Isom said the block had deteriorated sharply since he’s owned the flat. “I’ve arranged to meet people down there, and they drive up, don’t like what they see and drive away,” he said.”

Herman Livingstone, a renter who has lived on the block for two years, said he hopes the effort succeeds, but he’s not sticking around to find out.

In recent weeks, his car has been vandalized twice and youths have threatened him repeatedly. He said he was embarrassed recently when a co-worker came to visit and shots rang out nearby as they stepped out of the building.

“I tried to work with them and make it better, but I’ve had enough,” he said.

Neighborhood Files Suit

Last year, neighborhood leaders sued the owner of two problem properties in the next block, holding him liable for damages caused by his tenants. The suit caught the attention of landlords citywide, Roth notes.

He jokes that Shaw has more lawyers per capita than any neighborhood in the city. Many landlords can see that they’re better off spending $2,000 for improvements than fighting the neighborhood and the city in court.

The first visible action in the blitz will come later this month when volunteers saturate the block and then the neighborhood with leaflets outlining the project and the commitment to run out bad neighbors.

In May, organizers hope to draw thousands of residents to the block for a rededication ceremony. “We’ll have marching bands and the whole bit,” Roth says.

By July 1, planners intend to have completed all lighting, landscaping and building improvements, and to have evicted all troublemakers. Then comes the marketing push.

“In my view, of the 7,000 people in the neighborhood, 6,800 take care of themselves and their homes and go about the business of being good neighbors,” Roth said. “About 200 scattered throughout the neighborhood are not inclined to do so. With every one of them we can expel, confine or turn around, there will be a tangible, palpable improvement in the neighborhood.”

LANDLORD BATTLE ADVANCES – JUDGE WON’T DISMISS SUIT BY SHAW RESIDENTS, CITY – 4 Oct 1994 P-D

In a struggle that could spread across the city, the Shaw neighborhood has become a battleground where St. Louis officials and residents are fighting a man they claim is a bad landlord.

The suit against the landlord, John W. Gorecki of Des Peres, is the first in which the city and neighborhood residents have joined forces. If successful, more suits could be filed.

On Monday, lawyer Edward M. Roth, who is representing the residents, said their cause got a boost last week when Circuit Judge Michael P. David rejected Gorecki’s request to dismiss the suit.

Roth said the judge’s ruling “marks the beginning of the end for real estate speculators who try to suck the life out of city neighborhoods by neglecting their properties and allowing them to become staging grounds for outrageous conduct.”

Gorecki was unavailable for comment. His lawyers declined to discuss the allegations.

The suit seeks $2 million from Gorecki and focuses on three of his buildings: two two-family flats in the 4100 block of Shenandoah Avenue and a four-family flat in the 4200 block of Russell Boulevard. All are in the Shaw neighborhood.

The suit seeks a ruling on the extent to which landlords can be held liable for their tenants’ behavior. The Shaw residents want David to bar Gorecki from renting to tenants who cause trouble. Gorecki, in papers filed with the court and at meetings with Shaw neighborhood leaders, has contended that he was unaware of his tenants’ conduct and shouldn’t be held liable for it.

A Shenandoah resident, who declined to give his name, said Monday that the 4100 block has been quieter since Shaw residents filed their suit in July. Outwardly, the block shows more restoration than decay.

Roth said the suit was unusual in that it focused on the behavior of tenants rather than the physical condition of rental property.

Shaw residents allege that “Gorecki properties have been the site of grossly disruptive and menacing misconduct.”

Fighting, rock throwing, loud music and intimidation of passers-by are among the incidents, the suit says.

Gorecki’s tenants have caused problems at the three addresses for two years, the suit says.

Tenants began leaving Gorecki’s building in the 4100 block of Shenandoah after a shooting in front of it in May wounded three children and an adult. A reporter who visited the buildings Monday couldn’t determine whether anyone lived there.

Gorecki had argued, unsuccessfully, that the city had no claim against him and lacked the legal capacity to sue. He had claimed also that he couldn’t be held responsible for his tenants’ behavior.

Stephen J. Kovac, the associate city counselor handling the city’s end of the suit, said David’s decision to allow the suit against Gorecki to proceed could mean more action against derelict landlords.

“This public-private partnership holds great promise for neighborhoods as an effective and efficient way to maximize city resources,” Kovac said.

Roth said David’s decision could be a potent weapon in the fight against landlords who “have either showed contempt or shrugged their shoulders in response to neighborhood complaints.”

A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD – 22 Aug 1994 P-D

It’s been a busy summer for residents of the Shaw Neighborhood in south St. Louis. We’ve dealt with the fear generated by a rapist and the increasingly noisy presence of gangs, while attending neighborhood meetings to handle these problems.

The 4000 block of Botanical, where I live, has been particularly active in addressing problems that weren’t around last summer. Or, if they were, we chose to ignore them, not see them, or hope that someone else would take care of them. Not any more.

Muted awareness of our problems became a clarion call at the end of April when it became evident that one house on our street was becoming the headquarters for gang wannabes. These male teens sat in groups on the porch, the curb, in neighboring yards, or wherever else they decided was their turf. The noise, threats, intimidation and fear had to be stopped.

A three-block meeting at the end of May drew about 50 people from Botanical, Magnolia and Magnolia Place. Men and women, black and white, gathered in a neighbor’s backyard on a warm Tuesday evening to listen to the Shaw Neighborhood Improvement Association officers and Alderman Steve Conway explain how to reactivate our block units.

Their explanations vied with the noise of the gang on the front porch only a block away. No one needed to tell us that we had a problem.

After the meeting, some of us exchanged phone numbers and agreed to call 911 when the teens got too disruptive. We called each other, described what we saw and where it was so that 911 had several calls on the same disturbance within 15 minutes.

I wrote a letter to the owners of the problem property, explaining that tenants who allowed the gathering of the teens were permitting behavior that was disturbing the peace and contributing to gang activity. I sent copies to the building management, the alderman, the neighborhood president and the safety committee chair. Within a week, the teens had moved elsewhere in the Shaw neighborhood.

But the problems were literally around the corner in the 4000 block of Shenandoah, a block of run-down, poorly maintained flats, sprinkled with abandoned buildings that are prime locations for drug dealing. Even though the kids from Shenandoah and elsewhere had stopped congregating in large numbers in front of the two-family flat on Botanical, their next move was to roam our street in smaller groups. We were becoming too acquainted with 911 dispatchers and the police. A small group of us beganwalking our street in the evening, greeting people, even the teens who thought the street belonged to them.

Before the three-block meeting, a small group of us had met to do some preliminary planning about getting our block organized. Our preliminary planning – complete with small committees for hospitality, trouble-shooting, beautification and communication – became a launching pad for the large group. We elected block officers and agreed to meet regularly.

What have I learned as the hot summer days melt away? I’ve gotten to know others on our block a lot better than before. I know names, phone numbers, addresses and family members.

This tree-lined street with its turn-of-the-century, mostly cared-for homes, is our street, our small town – a place worth saving from the gang and drugs. I’ve learned that we need to befriend one another and get the teens who live on our block to help us protect our street from unwelcomed rovers.

Our evening strolls have introduced me to people I didn’t know before – good, concerned folks who are willing to sit on their front steps as watchful eyes and ears.

I also know the problem is bigger than 4000 Botanical or the Shaw neighborhood. Drugs, gangs, poor housing, not enough community centers to channel activities are citywide issues as well as national concerns.

Botanical is a microcosm; we live right in the middle of it. Moving to the illusion of safety in the county or in another part of the city is indeed only an illusion.

I’ve learned to be more cautious, since the rapist is still out there. But so also are many good people who share concern for the neighborhood, its children and its safety.

Two people who live on our street might have to move, simply to get more room. One of them commented, “We really don’t want to move, now that we’ve met so many great people; the party’s really picking up on this block!”

• Memo: Regina Siegfried, a member of the Adorers of the Blood of Christ, teaches at Aquinas Institute of Theology.

MAYOR BACKS SUIT AGAINST LANDLORD – 10 Jul 1994

Mayor Freeman Bosley Jr. is putting his support behind Shaw neighborhood residents who filed suit Friday against an absentee landlord.

The neighbors claim that the landlord’s tenants engage in “grossly disruptive and menacing misconduct.”

The suit, a joint effort by the city of St. Louis and neighborhood residents, was filed in St. Louis Circuit Court. The suit seeks punitive and actual damages against John W. Gorecki of St. Louis County. He owns two, two-family flats in the 4100 block of Shenandoah Avenue.

Gorecki couldn’t be reached for comment.

Bosley said in a statement that the mayor, city and neighborhood residents “will not tolerate absentee landlords who do not screen their tenants, who do not establish and enforce rules governing tenant misconduct, who do not monitor their properties or maintain their properties’ appearance and who fail to promptly and effectively respond to disruptive and outrageous conduct occurring at or on their properties.”

The plaintiffs in the suit are Shaw residents Katherine Heidenfelder, her two children, and Ralph Frach. The Heidenfelders and Frach live in homes adjacent to properties Gorecki owns.

Heidenfelder and Frach allege in that suit that “Gorecki properties have been the site of grossly disruptive and menacing misconduct.” They charged that there have been many incidents of fighting, rock throwing, loud music and intimidation of passers-by.