GARDEN DISTRICT DEVELOPMENT PLAN DRAWS OPPOSITION – AREA MAY LOSE SOME LOW-PRICED HOUSING – 18 Feb 2003 P-D

An ambitious effort to improve the neighborhoods around the Missouri Botanical Garden is beginning to take shape. So is the opposition, which claims the project will rob the area of low-priced housing.

After more than four years of planning and community input, leaders of the revitalization effort had hoped to avoid such a conflict. But residents of the McRee Town neighborhood, north of the Botanical Garden, feel the bulldozers getting closer.

The situation is classic: a redevelopment plan overseen by the Garden District Commission versus longtime residents — and their advocates — who fear they won’t be able to afford to live in the revitalized neighborhood.

David Jones is one of those longtime residents, and he’s worried. He lives in an apartment that is scheduled to be torn down. On Sunday afternoon, Jones and his grandson, K.C. Branch, 8, were among almost two dozen demonstrators outside the Garden gate, protesting the Garden’s role in the multimillion-dollar plan to create what will be known as the Garden District.

“I can barely pay the rent now,” Jones said. “The location is convenient and it’s good for the salary I make.” Jones said he pays $255 a month for his three-room apartment. He is a maintenance worker for Neighborhood Enterprises, a nearby property management organization that owns several buildings in the targeted area.

Plans for the Garden District call for building more than 120 houses, and the renovation of dozens of other houses and apartment buildings in the Shaw, McRee Town, Tiffany and Southwest Garden neighborhoods. The area is bounded by Magnolia Avenue on the south, Folsom Avenue on the north, South Grand Boulevard on the east and Kingshighway-Vandeventer on the west.

The 120 new houses would be in McRee Town, although another later project calls for 20 to 25 new homes in the Shaw neighborhood.

The houses would range in price from about $100,000 to $180,000.

The Garden District Commission has raised about $10 million for the project, with contributions from the Garden, the city of St. Louis, the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Danforth Foundation.

The Missouri Botanical Garden planted the seeds for the redevelopment project in 1998. Jonathan Kleinbard, the Garden’s deputy director, said at the time that without such improvements the Garden likely would move some of its research operations to its Gray Summit property.

Today, Kleinbard stresses that the redevelopment plan is not just the garden’s project, but rather a community-based endeavor involving a coalition of clergy, residents and community leaders who claim broad-based support.

Among the reasons for the effort, he pointed out that McRee Town’s rates for infant mortality, lead poisoning among children and crime have increased while the population has dropped by almost two-thirds in the past 10 years. Much of the remaining population is transient, he said.

Edward Roth, former head of the Garden District Commission and now of Dayton, Ohio, called the tension between the neighbors and the redevelopers “very difficult stuff.”

He added, “In fact, there’s nothing tougher in community life than trying to rebuild a neighborhood that, like McRee Town, has been neglected for decades.”

But that is little comfort for Jones and his neighbors. Jones lives in the 3900 block of McRee Avenue, one of the blocks slated to be demolished as part of the overall redevelopment plan.

George Robnett Jr., executive director of the Garden District, said all homeowners will be compensated for the value of their homes and relocated to replacement housing in accordance with federal guidelines. He said the district was in the process of negotiating with the owners of 16 properties in the six blocks slated for demolition.

Charlie Finley, 67, has lived in McRee Town with his wife, Louise, 71, for about 30 years. His seven-room brick home is on one of the blocks slated to be demolished. In the time he’s been there, he’s added a third bedroom upstairs, has put in air conditioning and upgraded one of the bathrooms, remodeled the kitchen and put in new windows.

Finley doesn’t want to leave. He thinks his block has stabilized. He loves his cozy bungalow and the fact that his daughter lives across the street.

“He’s invested in the neighborhood by upgrading his house. But now they’re going to say that’s not good enough,” said John Pachak, director of Midtown Catholic Community Services, a family support agency that has been in the neighborhood for 20 years.

The Rev. Gerald J. Kleba, pastor of St. Cronan Church near the Garden District, is the spokesman for Citizens for a Fair McRee Town Plan. At Sunday’s rally he distributed fliers on which he had borrowed statements from signs in the Garden’s Climatron and adapted them to the situation in McRee Town.

For example, from a statement about recycling, Kleba responded, “Recycle the adequate homes in McRee Town rather than destroy them.”

From a statement about the protecting biodiversity, Kleba responded, “The destruction of McRee Town (a largely black community) is causing the alarming loss of diversity at the very entrance of the Missouri Botanical Garden.”

Activist Percy Green was one of the demonstrators. “Much of this area can be rehabbed; it doesn’t have to be destroyed. It makes it very difficult for poor blacks to remain in the neighborhood,” Green said.

PROTEST AGAINST POLICE BRINGS PICKET SIGNS TO HOME OF MAYOR HARMON – 28 May 1999 P-D

A group protesting against police brutality took their picket signs and chants to the home of St. Louis Mayor Clarence Harmon Thursday night.

About 20 people, a few of them small children, marched in front of Harmon’s home in the 1900 block of Virginia Avenue for about 45 minutes.

They chanted, “No justice, no peace!” and “Clarence Harmon, you can’t hide. We charge you with genocide!” They carried signs that read, “No More Coverups” and “Get Crooked Cops Off the Street.”

“It’s all about zero tolerance for police brutality, and we want the mayor to take a position,” said Prince Carter, who organized the protest. “He’s refusing to take a stand, and we’ll protest here every Sunday until he does.

“He’s got blatant disregard for us.”

Carter maintains that police brutality is racially based, with white officers victimizing black citizens.

The demonstrators were protesting police brutality in general and the death of Jerome Ruffin in particular. Ruffin, 22, was fatally shot April 2 as he wrestled with a police officer for the officer’s gun in a gangway in the 4000 block of Flad Avenue. The gun discharged during the struggle, police said, and the bullet went through Ruffin’s wrist and entered his abdomen.

Police said Ruffin had run away when two officers stopped to question a group of young men drinking near the intersection of Shenandoah and Thurman avenues, a troublesome corner for police in the Shaw neighborhood.

Investigators have found no witnesses to dispute the officer’s account.

Ruffin’s mother was among the protesters in front of Harmon’s home.

Harmon wasn’t home, or simply refused to answer his door, but some of his neighbors were angered at the presence of the protesters. “This is awful,” said Mary Arthur. “The mayor should be allowed to live in peace.”

Another neighbor added, “It’s not only disturbing the mayor’s peace, its disturbing the peace of all of us.”

A few police officers responded to the scene, but took no action against the demonstrators.

Ed Davis, a spokesman for Harmon, appeared and said, “Of course the mayor is against police brutality.” Davis said Harmon won’t speak publicly about police brutality because, as a member of the St. Louis Police Board, he may have to sit in judgment of officers charged with brutality.

Since the Ruffin incident, a suspect has died after struggling with police on the rooftop of a burglarized building. Julius Thurman, 19, died April 26 from a blow with an object that caused a massive skull fracture to the back of his head. Circuit Attorney Dee Joyce-Hayes charged two police officers with second-degree murder in the case.

PICKETING DECISION DEBATED – 3 Jul 1988 P-D

A casket was dumped on the front yard of Mayor Vincent T. Schoemehl Jr.’s house in the Central West End; residents of Ladue and Ballwin found gold-painted bedsprings in their yards from a city neighborhood group; and a county judge was called Pontius Pilate on his doorstep in Webster Groves.

Those are some of the activities by demonstrators for various causes that could be barred locally under a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court. The ruling tried to weigh the free-speech rights of protesters against the right to residential privacy.

On Tuesday, the high court upheld an ordinance adopted by Brookfield, Wis., a suburb of Milwaukee. The ordinance had been passed in reaction to demonstrations at the home of a doctor who performed abortions. The ordinance banned picketing in front of a particular residence.

Writing for the court majority, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor said that ”even a solitary picket can invade residential privacy. . . . There simply is no right to force speech into the home of an unwilling listener.”

Some of St. Louisans who have been the target of such picketing would agree. But groups that have conducted such protests side with the minority on the court who say such bans violate their rights of free speech under the First Amendment.

Interviews with public officials and special interest groups disclosed several instances of residential pickets for a variety of reasons in the past decade. They include:

As in Brookfield, anti-abortion protesters here have picketed the homes of doctors who performed abortions. And, in October 1984, about 25 protesters gathered at the home of St. Louis County Circuit Judge Robert Lee Campbell in Webster Groves.

The demonstrators carried banners comparing the judge to Pontius Pilate and accusing him of ”choosing law over conscience.” Campbell had just sentenced 13 protesters to jail for blocking the entrance of an abortion clinic in Bridgeton in violation of his court order. Campbell had told the defendants he personally opposed abortion but was critical of their protest methods.

When Schoemehl closed Homer G. Phillips Hospital on the North Side several years ago, he found himself the object of a New Year’s Day picket at his house, during which Rep. Charles Q. Troupe, D-St. Louis, presented the mayor with a casket.

Last year, homeowners and tenants from the Shaw neighborhood picketed the homes of absentee landlords who live in Ballwin and Ladue to protest property conditions in the city neighborhood.

In January, a women’s group picketed at the home of St. Louis County Circuit Judge William M. Corrigan in Ballwin. The women contended that Corrigan had been too lenient in the sentencing of a former prison guard convicted of causing his wife’s death.

In St. Louis, the homes of Michael Jones, director of the city Housing Authority, and William Duffe, the city’s personnel director, have been picket ed over layoffs.

In the late 1970s, union firefighters frequently picketed the home of then-mayor Joseph W. Mooney of University City in an effort to gain recognition for their union.

The frequent pickets at Mooney’s home led the University City Council to pass an ordinance that says it is unlawful for someone to picket at a residence.

”Now we know there are at least two cities in the United States (Brookfield and University City) with the ordinance on the books,” quipped Frank G. Ollendorff, the city manager. On a more serious note, Ollendorff said there was only one incident ”three or four years ago” when the city was asked to use the ordinance.

Ollendorff recalled the incident involved a school official but the ”people dispersed so we never had to use it.”

Natalie Rullkoetter, executive director of the St. Louis County Municipal League, said she knew of no other municipality in the county having such an ordinance. She said that in light of the Supreme Court ruling, she had ”a feeling it is something they will want to consider.”

There are no such ordinances for unincorporated areas of St. Louis County or in the city of St. Louis, said County Counselor Thomas J. Wehrle and City Counselor James J. Wilson. Such ordinances would require legislation by the County Council and the Board of Aldermen, respectively.

Tim Dreske, a director of anti-abortion activists here, said: ”My feeling is this: The courts have always held that streets and sidewalks are public forums. I think the ruling is inconsistent with past rulings.”

Dreske said he could see some municipalities using the ruling ”against us or other people.” He said he feared that such ordinances could be enacted for the solely to protect corporate officials and politicians.

Joyce Armstrong says the ruling ”has a strong chilling effect on the First Amendment.” Armstrong is director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Easter Missouri. The national organization had filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case supporting the anti-abortion protesters.

Armstrong cited so-called ”golden bedspring” awards and picketing by the Shaw neighborhood as an activity that could be prohibited. ”These slum landlords have no businesses or offices,” she said. ”Peacefully picketing their homes is the only recourse these groups have to get their message across.”

Muzzling free speech was the concern of the dissenting justices Tuesday.

Joined by Justice Thurgood Marshall, Justice William J. Brennan Jr. wrote that the government could regulate intrusive abuses without prohibiting residential picketing in its entirety. Brennan suggested regulating ”the number of residential picketers, the hours during which a residential picket may take place or the noise level of such a picket.”

In a separate dissent, Justice John Paul Stevens said: ”The scope of the ordinance gives the town officials too much discretion in making enforcement decisions.”

The majority opinion was also aware of the enforcement problems. O’Connor wrote: ”General marching through residential neighborhoods or even walking a route in front of an entire block of houses is not prohibited by this ordinance.

”Accordingly, we construe the ban to be a limited one; only focused picketing taking place solely in front of a particular residence is prohibited.”