Alright, I’ve done my homework. I read up on gentrification. I met some experienced people to get their perspectives and share their stories. I explored/revisited parts of St. Louis that many have come to the conclusion are textbook gentrification examples. I’ve kept this topic in mind when recently visiting cities throughout the U.S.
I didn’t want to weigh in on this topic without putting in some work and trying to be a better thinker and citizen.
I looked at the definition of gentrification and considered a metric to measure it.
I explored an example of urban clearance.
I explored an example of rebuilding a neighborhood after urban clearance.
I spoke to someone who has lived in my neighborhood since the late 1970s.
I spoke to our Community Development Corporation director.
I learned a lot through this personal exploration. In my first entry, I learned trying to decide on a metric for gentrification was a fool’s errand. Even the brightest sociologists, urbanists and statisticians cannot agree on a model or equation. In fact, research from MIT shows that various models contradict themselves in many cases.
This is a largely subjective topic. I’m going with my guts so bear with me, I’m no expert. I’m trying to be open minded and consider all angles. All I’ve got is my personal experience and maybe three or so years of reading about this complex topic. This post will include my personal opinions on Fox Park and its trajectory of change over the last eleven years we’ve called this place home.
I’ve chosen not to use home sales data, rent data and such to prove my point that gentrification in Fox Park is occurring, but is likely not the textbook definition of the term which was coined in 1960s London by a British sociologist and city planner, Ruth Glass.
I learned that if a neighborhood finds private investment at the rate Fox Park has, a Community Development Corporation (CDC) or other non-profit in the affordable housing world needs to be in place to counter the ebbs and flows of the housing market. This seems essential, and a good model for fighting the most negative aspect of gentrification: renters or businesses getting kicked out against their will or means.
I learned an important thing from people who study and organize group discussions & social studies on gentrification: an equation/data analysis is not entirely helpful when opening discussion about gentrification. The data approach in a city like St. Louis which is still losing massive amounts of people, tax base and livable housing units while being more affordable that many other cities can dismiss those who feel negative pressures from rising property values and missing services that the average person needs regardless of what market research and census demographic trends tell us.
That’s a nice way of saying - people who feel screwed over by new money kicking their lifestyle out can get dismissed if you come in strong and hit them with the stark reality of St. Louis housing trends vs. the national averages. Or, that not a lot of businesses are closing or being forced to close due to rising rents and a new clientele wanting only high-end services and offerings.
You can easily dismiss the emotions and life experiences of people who think or feel like the future doesn’t include them with a data argument that says “you have nothing to worry about”.
Examples of social concerns include: “I used to love living here, these were my people, we had a community. But all these new people have made my place X or Y, and now I don’t like it here so much, so I’m outta here.”
Or: “I love the way this place has changed over the years, but I can no longer afford it. I don’t feel comfortable walking into these new businesses/places or I can’t afford the increase in rents due to building improvements, escalating property taxes and market forces raising the cost of living.”
Gentrification is a social issue more than a raw metric that is easily quantifiable in a city like St. Louis. It is a highly subjective term and phenomena. It is open to political interpretation on both sides. It largely boils down to a race and class based discussion. It’s a different conversation in wealthy cities like Seattle, New York or San Francisco.
I had to rethink what I wanted to say about the topic of gentrification in my neighborhood on a couple occasions.
First, I was originally going to include the Generation Z perspective of my kids who were raised here. But I chose not to since 66% of them are minors. But, know that I feel they are the ones I most wanted to hear from and share their perspectives, as they studied gentrification in their high school years, centered around a book called Pride by Ibi Zoboi. They broke into discussion groups to tackle a particular aspect of the story. One of my kids was in the gentrification group, with Brooklyn as the case study. They are lucky to have had this as part of their curriculum, and the opportunity to debate the topic in a mixed race setting. For me, as a suburban kid in the 1980s, gentrification or urban studies was not on anyone’s radar in the Catholic or public schools I attended in a medium-sized Illinois town.
The kids have some great perspective, but as a parent, I felt I should protect them from any potential cruelness and tribalism of the interwebs and of course, my amateur writing and analysis :)
However, young people who grew up here, went to SLPS, lived in integrated neighborhoods and friend groups are the ones who will be leading these discussions in the next few decades.
The Gen Z’ers I’m around have experience and empathy that I admire. My kids have had that experience of mixed income and non-white authority figures, neighbors, coworkers and friends growing up here in Fox Park and attending SLPS and working at local businesses. I certainly did not until moving here and getting into deep exploration of the neighborhoods in our city. I have had to learn these things from scratch. But, I’ll keep the kid’s perspectives to myself for now.
Secondly, I had to rework some opinions and thoughts since the 2020 neighborhood-level census data was just recently published. I was wrong, as I expected a much larger gain of white people in Fox Park, so I had to reevaluate some of my points.
Anyhow, I’ve put in the work and internal contemplation on my own terms so I feel justified to share what I’ve learned through lived experience in Fox Park and St. Louis in general. I hope if you read this post, you feel like thinking about your place, or your definition of gentrification and become a more thoughtful human being and city dweller.
Is Fox Park gentrified?
Yes, it is my opinion that Fox Park has gentrified over the last decade and is peaking largely due to the hot housing market that has swept the country in recent years. Heck maybe it’s accurate to conclude that Fox Park has gentrified over the last 30 years. Things happen slow in negative growth cities like St. Louis…
I think you almost have to be in denial to say it hasn’t gentrified. For what it’s worth, the vast majority of people I talk to here in the neighborhood, say “oh yeah, Fox Park has gentrified.”
But, it’s not the kind of gentrification you might expect that carries predominantly negative outcomes for the majority or even the most vulnerable: renters. It’s just not that cut and dry here. In fact, Fox Park, due to its incredibly strong support and success of the local Community Development Corporation and activities by other non-profits as well as an inclusive mindset of many residents in the area, it might just be a template for how to rebuild a neighborhood in modern times with an equity lens in place.
Is gentrification negatively affecting people in places like St. Louis that continues to lose population, including Fox Park? Is it a case study for what to do or what not to do to balance affordability with investment when we think about places like North City in the coming decades?
This is what I’ve tried to ask myself each time I think or write about this topic.
Gentrification is a complicated social study, one that has opinions all over the place on its effects. Should it be a top priority to fight gentrification in a city like St. Louis? Should it be added to the list of top priorities and dangers that will hurt our city? I’m not fully convinced.
Per a 2021 Vox article by Jerusalem Demsas:
“Our focus on gentrification might lead people to believe that it is the dominant form of inequality in American cities (our outsized focus on the phenomenon may be due in part to the fact that gentrification scholars, journalists, and consumers of digital media tend to live in gentrifying neighborhoods themselves). But the core rot in American cities is not the gentrifying neighborhoods: It is exclusion, segregation, and concentrated poverty. White, wealthy neighborhoods that have refused class and racial integration have successfully avoided much scrutiny as gentrification has taken center stage in urban political fights. On the other hand, predominantly Black and brown neighborhoods often don’t gentrify due to disinvestment and centuries of racist and classist policies.”
This take is one that must be absorbed for awhile, and let it sink in as you think about the future of places like St. Louis Hills (nearly all white), Tower Grove South (mixed race/income, but likely ground zero for STL gentrification) and Walnut Park East/West (nearly all Black).
One conclusion I do have is that affordable housing needs to be addressed proactively so that it is not up to a single elected official, or connected inside player. It should be city wide policy.
Again, it’s my opinion that Fox Park is gentrified or gentrifying but you might not know it by a quick visit or drive through.
I highly doubt the average American, or even someone from a nearby suburb like Kirkwood, MO, Florissant, MO, Belleville, IL or somewhere outside the region would drive through Fox Park and shrug it off as a gentrified, exclusive, soulless place like I’ve seen in textbook gentrified areas in Denver, Portland, San Diego, New York, Boston and Nashville. Is Fox Park gentrified block to block? No.
But we have seen massive changes in the last five or so years of the eleven we’ve lived here. Younger people, seemingly with higher income and higher education levels are moving here. I think whiter too, and the Census data was just recently summarized by neighborhood. My gut was right, it is getting whiter and more mixed race, but not at the levels I expected based on my walks around the neighborhood.
The numbers are worth sharing for context.
Data source: St. Louis Planning & Urban Design Agency
First and foremost, I’m thrilled that the massive declines in population from 2000-2010 (and before) have slowed. We are still losing people, but not at the rate over the last few decades. The 24% decrease in vacant properties is cause for celebration.
Fox Park is trending toward the level of racial diversity seen in the overall St. Louis population. But, our cost of living, including property tax increases is definitely making it harder to live here for someone on a fixed income or on the lower end of the salary spectrum.
But, will it stay this way or will it continue down a path toward a largely white, all well-to-do residency? Will it become all fancy businesses catering to the gentry?
Know that for some (and I tend to agree) the simple fact that Fox Park went from 32% white in 2010 to 41% in 2020 is enough to say it is a gentrified neighborhood. Black population decreased from 61% in 2010 to 48% in 2020; but, of course, you have to consider the massive increase in people who identify as mixed race.
So maybe it’s not the “if” the neighborhood is gentrifying but “how”.
Are these changes we’ve witnessed destroying a lifestyle for long-time residents? Have the public spaces and investments been made with the new people in mind, the long-time residents or both? Is this place unattainable for someone living the normal American life? Have the businesses become exclusively white and high end, where long time residents or POC would be shunned or made to feel uncomfortable? Are Fox Park places ones you can’t afford on a normal budget?
That is what I’ll discuss herein.
Of course, as in all change, renters are the most prone to displacement due to changing landlords, escalating property taxes and increasing amounts of investment in these century-old buildings that are expensive to maintain.
I’ve broken my thoughts down in three sections:
Resident displacement
Business displacement and exclusivity
Public spaces and community engagement
Resident displacement- rising costs of living
While Fox Park is undergoing gentrification, mainly due to sitting atop a bubble of a hot housing market, I think the Fox Park of today is a better place for the majority than it was a decade ago and even reaching back into the post-industrial days of the mid to late 20th Century when this part of the city became integrated with white/Black people. It’s better for those who chose to stick around, better for those who have moved here recently and better for those who will consider living here in the future.
How hot is the market? It’s white hot, per an article I cut out from the Week magazine (yes, I’m old school with my printed publications):
“Home prices have risen at the fastest rate ever. The median existing-home sales price in May (2021) topped $350K for the first time, said Nicole Friedman in the Wall Street Journal. That figure is nearly 24% higher than a year ago, representing “the biggest year-over-year price increase the National Association of Realtors has recorded in data going back to 1999.” Booming demand has been met with “a slowdown in the pace of home sales” as more buyers balk at the escalating price tags on a dearth of inventory.”
This trend has many effects and displacement can be one of them when property valuations jump at rates not seen before…guess what happens to the rent?
It’s tough out there for a first time home buyer too, but the flip side is those who’ve owned for some time are reaping massive gains…but, that comes with equally massive reevaluations of taxes. And ours have jumped in recent years. While for most of those with a mortgage, these tax increases get rolled into an escrow account, raising your monthly payment…spreading it out. But for those who have outright owned a house for years and maybe on a fixed income, the increased tax comes as a direct, immediate cost.
It is more expensive to find housing in Fox Park today then it was over the last ten years. I have chosen not to share sales prices in the neighborhood, but the recent sales prices on my block have stunned me. Great for us who have been here awhile, great for the people who’ve been here for multiple generations, great for the city’s bottom line, great for the schools that are largely funded by property taxes. Not great if you can’t afford it, but want to live in this part of the city. Not great for market-rate renters who have lived here for years or want to move here.
The increases have translated into a change in the rental landscape.
The constant flow of poorly screened tenants and equally poor landlords has slowed. Vacancy is still an issue, but it’s become less of an issue. People are staying longer in rental properties. The alleys are still lined with constant dumping and trash receptacles that can’t keep up with the constant flow of people trashing buildings and getting kicked out, but it has improved greatly. You see the same people for many months or even years vs. a couple weeks or months.
The landscape of affordable housing is static, if not improved in my 11 years here. This is almost entirely the result of our CDC, DeSales. But others have jumped in with some amazing projects to rehab falling, vacant buildings into affordable housing. The long running mission of DeSales, the largest property owner in our neighborhood, makes Fox Park better positioned to maintain affordable rentals when the market waves come and go. As pointed out in my interview with them, their tenant base is almost entirely Black, so that balances our racial demographics as well, which I think would be even more white if these properties were sold or rented at market rate. DeSales indicated no intention so start unloading property in the neighborhood.
I see way more young people and families in their 20s and 30s. But, I’m conditioned to picture them with an imaginary timer hovering above their heads with the countdown to when they leave for the suburbs or other cities when junior reaches school age.
Let me tell you, St. Louis is a strange place. When young families’ children get to be 5 or so, most leave. I don’t know where they go or why. Many don’t even research or try our schools, which are fine for most people and we now have many choices to fit various needs/desires.
Our schools are fine. Could we use more money (property taxes)? Could we pay our teachers better? Could we have nicer things and buildings? Of course. But, our schools are fine. They will only get better if more people use them and demand a dignified experience for students and parents. That is the only thing that will change our reputation as a city where you can’t raise a family. This is untrue in my experience, but talk to someone in the County for the uninformed, yet loud view of St. Louis and our schools.
I think there is an unspoken racial component, but that is merely my opinion. It’s the way of STL vs. the suburbs. I am already starting to see young families move from my block. I’m conditioned to think this will be an on-going trend. Especially people who grew up in the burbs.
I hope this generation changes course and stays here and raises their kids here. This is the only way to beat back the negative image of city living. Again, the schools are safe and fine, just like most public schools.
So, the gentrification of young white couples moving to Fox Park and St. Louis in general could be a temporary phenomena if they choose to leave in a few years. Time will tell, and I hope I’m wrong about the exodus I’ve experienced over the years, but it is on my mind.
My block and the surrounding streets have seen a much more stable tenant landscape. Our longtime neighbors are largely the same, both Black and white. But some have moved on to different parts of the city or even out of the city. People are aging out into new phases in their lives.
It’s hard to tell why people move, there are so many reasons. Our young Black rental neighbors next to us when we moved here left because he was a County cop and wanted to be closer to work. The landlord sold the house to a young Black comedian who stayed for a few years, but said the scene in St. Louis sucked. He moved to Atlanta. The next buyers where a young white couple from Illinois who had a baby in the last year or so. As I write this, I see a for sale sign in their yard. The imaginary timer is beeping in my head.
Anecdotal for sure, but just one example of how hard it is to understand the reasons neighborhoods change.
Landlords and building owners are finally putting money into many of the poorly maintained properties. On our block, including the street we share an alley with, you see tuck pointing, new roofs, windows, modern HVAC, car ports, etc. being installed. Some of these properties, were literally falling onto the adjacent properties with collapsed parapets, etc. This of course means rising valuation, property taxes and eventually rents. This is how it works…unless there is a non-profit or city-wide policy to control rents. We are fortunate to have our CDC. But there is no city-wide policy to control rents.
There are other examples that fall into the exact definition of gentrification. My wife talked to one neighbor who was upset about having to move because she couldn’t afford her rising rent. The owner fixed the parapet and got a new roof installed. The rent went up. She had to leave. If it matters to you, she was Black. The tenant who replaced her is also Black. And again, these examples I’m sharing are anecdotal, but are true to our experience. This is a micro-example of the exact definition of gentrification. It is happening. How much? I don’t know. But make no mistake, rents are rising. Some can handle the increase, some can’t. St. Louis still trends way below the National average on rents, but I do not want to dismiss the feeling of getting kicked out. That hurts no matter who you are or where you are in your life. It is disruptive, expensive and potentially life changing.
It’s my intent to not make light of this example.
Displacement is complicated, there are so many social and economic factors in each case of a Black resident flipping to a white resident or vice versa. There are complex issues around home investment and maintenance as well. For instance, our current home is a converted single family residence from a two-family. The people who rehabbed it a few years before we were here bought the building after it had been vacant for eleven years. No one was immediately displaced by the guy who bought and rehabbed it. Disinvestment took care of keeping people out of this particular home, not residents getting kicked out for a new rehab. No one was renting it for eleven years.
So how have these changes affected us as residents?
I’m of the opinion that there is a much higher level of dignified living conditions and less violent crime and domestic abuse that was rampant when we first moved here. This is probably due to better owners, landlords and tenant availability.
The commonly known gangs (properly named in “The Divided City” by Alan Mallach) that sold drugs here, shot guns on the regular and sought to intimidate people has subsided. The gang mentioned in Mallach’s book is named after the block that we chose to move our young family to in 2010, so I felt it.
The domestic violence and child abuse on our block is almost non-existent, at least from the street. I’m not certain what pressures were put on the drug dealers and child abusers that lived down the way. I’m not sure who was instrumental in getting these properties under control, but these guys moving on was the single most effective action in making my street a dignified vs. violent and at times scary place to live.
The intense amount of misogyny and female abuse by bad boyfriends/men that used to be nearly a daily struggle of “do we call the cops or not” has subsided. The rampant child abuse and neglect that haunts us still to this day has largely disappeared.
Out of site out of mind, you say? Not at all. The shit we’ve seen here struck us to our core. It has made us engage with neighbors differently, engage with the police differently, think differently, vote differently, live differently and raise our children differently.
I don’t make these statements lightly and these opinions I’m sharing here come with much reflection.
Racially speaking, Fox Park is getting whiter and younger. My walks around the neighborhood are my main source of information. But, through all the change, which sometimes feels “overnight”, I see people getting along with little combative or dismissiveness for one race or another. Everyone seems to get along. I don’t think you move here if you are racist or an intolerant jerk. I know my block is that way today, and the people I socialize with say the same. It’s a nice place to live. People largely get along. Today, my Black neighbors are great, my white neighbors are great and for that, I have found some added peace in my life as a resident, father, husband and city lover. Please know I’m not dismissing Asians or Hispanics, but there is not a lot of diversity in Fox Park, it is largely binary: Black and white.
I hear no malicious intent by new comers or white people to get rid of Black people or Black businesses here. There are problem properties that have been targeted over the years, for sure. Dumping and crime are on people’s minds, but these things don’t always fall on racial lines. It has been a matter of dignity and a place of kindness and concern for better living conditions for all involved. But then again, I don’t follow Facebook or Nextdoor discussions on race/crime.
But today, it is a pretty nice place to live. It is integrated both racial and economically. Sure it still has a lot of vacancy and it has sporadic crime and such. But every city deals with these issues.
Will Fox Park stay about 50-50 Black-white, or will it become more like Shaw or Tower Grove South? Will more apartments and multifamily properties be converted to single family homes? I think more apartments will likely come our way, but time will tell.
Business Landscape
One of the clear negatives of gentrification is removing businesses that long time residents depended on or cherished, or white washing of the business landscape. Think old standbys that were neighborhood places being forced out by rising rents to make way for trendy new businesses catering to the wealthy, the new residents-only or the latest trend.
I’ve seen the Central West End change a lot in my time living here. I walk around the neighborhood today questioning “where are the neighborhood spots?” I think: if I moved here, where would I feel comfortable? It’s not immediate to me in that neighborhood that my common guy needs would be met.
When a place becomes a place for visitors or tourists or new money or new residents it has a certain feel. There are some areas that get my gentrification spidey-senses tingling but as of today, my neighborhood is not one of them. This exact trajectory will be one on our minds as our kids move out and we chose to downsize. But gladly, there are many other neighborhoods that retain the “built for us”, homey, St. Louis vibe.
I’ll also say the drastic generational turnover and normal change that cities experience dictate the feel for maybe just a single generation or two at most. It is not entirely accurate to call it gentrification, especially if it was a white working class neighborhood turning to a white collar or college-educated residency. This has happened all over South City. The old factory worker hoosier bars with smoke filled, Bud guzzling, greasy $2 hamburger grills next to the bar, cursing and shooting the shit clientele, rock and roll and real country music on the speaker…gone. Nearly all gone that is, I know of a few places that still have that vibe. Those places were on nearly every corner in the 1990s when we moved here. Those folks have died or moved to Jeff Co, the suburbs in the County or St. Charles.
Natural change is constantly occurring as tastes and generations change.
What I long for in Fox Park is the “normal places” that I have to drive to other parts of the city to find. I go to South City when I want to just sit and watch a big Blues or Cards game, drink a bucket of Busch beer, invite a few friends and cheer out loud and whoop it up. A place where you see all kinds of neighbors. This vibe is non-existent here. It would be a massive improvement to have a tasteful sports bar or tavern where you could just walk in and feel comfortable and not be so trendy that televisions and sports are considered uncool or low-brow. I’d love to shoot pool or play pinball in my neighborhood. These places don’t exist.
Gentrification? Maybe, but it’s not like these places were here and are now gone. At least not in the last decade or two, maybe three.
So how about Fox Park businesses today? I’ve already come to the conclusion that it is gentrifying. Does that mean our retail and businesses have become white washed and built only for the new comers?
No, and this is why generalizations can be misleading. But many will disagree with me, and that is what makes this a fascinating topic to think about and discuss.
It’s worth taking a look at the old, the new and the changes.
In my time living here, most of the oldest businesses that were here prior to us are still in operation. Some have closed shop, but there are not signs of gentrification forcing them out…the buildings remain vacant…they aged out or went under.
A few examples of the older businesses that were here a decade ago and still are include Trader Bob’s Tattoo, which claims to be St. Louis’ oldest tattoo shop. Kim Van Chinese on Gravois has been around for years, and is a place where you can still get a St. Paul sandwich…an un-ironic, original version to boot.
The Way Out Club where we used to go when we first moved here is now closed. The owners struggled through the pandemic and decided for health reasons to shut it down. It was open for 27 years, and was a unique neighborhood place. It was not forced out by gentrification factors.
In fact, I don’t thing anything was forced out. There was little to nothing here when we bought a home in 2010.
These places are not being replaced by yoga studios, barber shops that cost $40, Apple stores, urban outfitters or Pelaton showrooms. Not going to happen in my lifetime. This is happening in other cities, like Portland where we visited this year. Not here. I’m glad, frankly. But the idea of walking to get my MacBook fixed is a non-realistic dream reserved for the burbs in this market.
What some people really want to talk about though, is Black businesses. Are they being pushed out or forced to close due to gentrification. I’m no expert, but my walk-by survey of the neighborhood shows places that are Black run including a barber shop on California and Shenadoah, a hair salon at Ohio and Russell, a daycare at California and Sidney and a smoothie shop on Sidney. They are all still in operation or opened just recently.
These will be good places to watch over the next ten years to see where the neighborhood is headed.
For now, no change that I’m aware of from the man on the street perspective. Maybe they are seeing rising rents, but as of publishing, these are still alive and open.
You have to dig deep and go back many decades to when displacement could be considered as a factor of gentrification. I’m thinking of an IGA that used to be at California and Shenandoah. From neighbor stories from folks who were around in the 70s and 80s, it was the place to sell/buy drugs. Someone was murdered there and it became a problem property. It was targeted for closure due to its effect on the neighborhood. It was razed and became an expansion of Fox Park (the park). It is now a general use field used for youth sports and much more.
But that was decades ago.
Textbook gentrification is services for renters and normal life stuff, working-person bars and restaurants, corner markets having their lease terminated, rent raised or new owner kicking them out. Think a laundromat, daycare or corner market with diapers, prepared food, snacks, etc. that are replaced by expensive restaurants, yoga studios, or bars that cater to the gentry with high end, expensive food and services. A place where your average working person could get a cold Busch, a Bud Ice or a gin and tonic being replaced by a place with $12 drinks and Tame Impala or Frank Ocean in heavy rotation.
Think of a place that you do not feel welcome. Or that would make you feel unwelcome.
In the general sense, I feel that gentrification is sometimes being used to describe the opposite of decline. That is not what I am using as the metric. I’m sticking with the dictionary definition. The term has become fashionable to use in a general sense for “bougie”. You can gentrify a $6 ham sandwich with artisanal bread, aioli and capers and bump it to $12. You can gentrify ketchup with a bit of cinnamon, curry or honey vs. corn syrup. That’s not what I’m talking about here. But know, that is where the term is headed in modern society. I hear it used like this all the time…in my own circles.
When we moved here, there were little to no businesses. Tanner B’s at Nebraska and Shenandoah was already closed when we moved here. I learned from some long haulers that this was the perfect place for the neighborhood. I heard stories that it was quality, relatively affordable and you’d see almost entirely neighborhood people there. We never experienced this place. And in our time here, a dubious owner opened a couple places called Bodegas and later Fox Park Grille; I know at least one of these was Black owned. Sadly, they did not last long; I won’t get into the details but it was a trainwreck. I have some experiences of local politicians drinking with some known scoundrels and strippers trying to learn how to be a waitress on the fly. It was charming/interesting in its own way, but was not built to last.
It’s been vacant ever since…for years. It could be something great, but it isn’t. It is empty, underutilized. Keep your eye on long vacant places like this if you want to see where the neighborhood is headed over the next decade.
But again, the long standing businesses, a daycare, a barber shop, a beauty shop, Kim Van, tattoo place, mobile phone store, 7-11, check cashing joints are all still here.
There are new businesses and non-profits that require some context, as a drive-by may not do justice.
A shuttered Taco Bell turned drive-up ATM at Russell and Jefferson is now the SouthSide Early Childhood Center. The property went from a suburban trashy vibe to a landscaped, urban building with a respectable mission. A drive by with little context could make one see gentrification when you remember what this corner looked like years ago. The effect has been the opposite. Working from home for a year, I’ve been able to see how my neighborhood has changed during the work day.
The early childhood center teachers walk these darling little ones in a procession down my sidewalk on sunny days. They stop and say hi to my crazy barking dogs. It is heartwarming to see. This would have been impossible and awkward for the teachers and the little ones when the dealers were clowning and doing what they do down the block.
Change yes, gentrification maybe. But in my opinion positive for all involved.
The former Fox Bros manufacturing area around Victor and Ohio was long shuttered, but was recently purchased by Rung For Women. Rung has built an amazing campus with gardens, greenhouses and landscaped, new sidewalks. Gentrification? You could drive by and come to that conclusion for sure. Read a little about them, and you might change your tune. But, the drive by could lead to someone saying: “gentrification”. Urban gardening is a touchstone of gentrification in the modern parlance. Rung is expanding their operation, and I think we’re all better for it. They have embedded in our community, and are supporting us and uplifting us. They even took our park festival to new levels, here are few shots of the setup.
A coffee shop/cafe called Shameless Grounds opened briefly in the Koken Art Gallery, but moved to Benton Park a short time later. A former barber shop chair factory becoming vacant and then an art gallery is another touchstone of gentrification. Ever been to Koken? Gentrification is not what pops in my head having attended events there. If you think it is, we will likely have to agree to disagree. But without context, it certainly can seem that way.
Lona’s Lil Eats opened in a formerly unoccupied storefront turned apartment. To me, this is the heart of our neighborhood, and the most positive for-profit addition we’ve seen. Many will say gentrification and I accept that. But, the owners and manager are genuinely amazing people. A family member works there and is treated with dignity, respect and kindness. It is a fantastic place to work, eat, support and enjoy. I love it so much. The price point is higher than McDonalds, but not unreasonable for repeat visits and well in line with what you’ll pay at any sit down indie restaurant, especially one that is this delicious.
This place is the one that makes me want to stay and flex on Fox Park, but there is another…
Coffee Stamp is in a former (long shuttered) auto repair/tire shop building on South Jefferson. Coffee shops are another touchstone for textbook gentrification. I am a coffee drinker, and love places to meet people and talk about stuff that I touch upon on this blog. Not having places to do that in your neighborhood sucks. Now I can walk somewhere for excellent coffee and feel completely welcome to going upstairs and interview or just chat with someone for an hour or longer. You might read that as “white guy loves it”, but what about us (the long time residents)? I get it. Yet in my opinion, no one would be made to feel uncomfortable here, unless of course they are being an asshole or doing something no business would tolerate. Go by there sometime and look at who is drinking coffee here, especially on a Saturday morning. It feels pretty right for us all.
Let’s also get into the new-ish restaurants that have opened that are higher cuisine, higher priced. This is where the conversation gets interesting.
Lucky Accomplice replaced a non-for-profit furniture operation called Navigate, and before that was a music club called the Factory. The building was a long shuttered auto dealership.
Lucky Accomplice serves high-end, artful culinary food. I call this a date night place. I’ve been there once for a special occasion. It was incredible food, the kind someone in my shoes can only afford once or twice a year. But I can tell you, this place is special. We sat outside along Jefferson Avenue. The low-dignity behavior of our local driver community kept me on high pucker even though I was eating some amazing, special food. The word gentrification was far from my mind as I watched, hoping my fellow diners didn’t get taken out by the idiots and hateful drivers driving at speed in excess of 50 MPH, blowing red lights.
People who want to be negative about life roll their eyes at places like this. Gentrification is ruining our neighborhoods they’ll say. Who are they building this for? In my mind, I ask: should a tony neighborhood like Central West End, or a wealthy suburb like Clayton, MO or some other small town in the wealthy burbs be the only ones to offer high end stuff? I say we can have both and should welcome these kinds of places even if they are not the stroll in have a club sandwich and drink type of place.
We can have nice things, and I’d prefer them within walking distance to a place I call home even if only a small minority of Fox Parker’s can afford. Let us be seen by as many people as possible! And if people from Webster Groves think its “edgy” or “scary” or “gritty”, let us take a bit of their money and time and say thank you for visiting. It employs local people and brings taxes to the table as well. Better us than Clayton, no?
South Jefferson sidewalk including Lucky Accomplice and Coffee Stamp
There are other examples of higher-end offerings. A former restaurant called the Purple Martin was opened by longtime neighborhood residents in a long shuttered property at Shenandoah and California. They’re goal was to make it a neighborhood place. It went through several iterations before eventually closing. It didn’t stay vacant for long and was replaced by Little Fox.
Another “date night” place offering fantastic food. They took a vacant property across the street that was a former filling station and opened an outdoor seasonal seating and bar area. My wife and I shared our anniversary dinner here and the food was fantastic and the owners are kind. It was fun to walk home instead of having to drive somewhere for a special night. The restaurant employs my neighbor across the alley who has worked in the food industry for decades. This same kind neighbor brought us grilled alligator on a stick to our Thanksgiving celebration one year. These old time residents who I love are finding employment steps from their homes. That makes me happy.
There is a relatively new smoothie shop in a former factory building on Sidney that was not occupied by a retail business in my time here. I hope to reach out to the owner for a story on their business. Stay tuned.
These are textbook gentrification examples, but I beg you to consider are we better with or without them? I am in the better with camp. Even if I can only afford to go there a few times a year.
More affordable businesses would be highly welcomed here. Trust me.
A former chop shop/cash auto repair shop existed on Shenandoah near Jefferson. It recently sold and is said to become a cultivated mushroom place. These plans are still in the works and anything can happen, but these are signs of change. I wouldn’t be surprised if a marijuana dispensary finds Fox Park. Who knows, times will tell where the neighborhood goes.
I can only speak to some of these places, but their owners are fantastic, kind people. Some are of non-white races, so there is that aspect of it too. Fox Park is welcoming. Fox Park can have it both ways, but will it stay like this? Time will tell.
Cell phone stores, 7-11, McDonalds, many check cashing joints, a co-working space, a daycare, QT, chop shops and above board auto repair and auto body shops exist. They are what they are, and are in my opinion “needed”. I don’t see them going anywhere.
But keep your eye on these places for more evidence of gentrification. But will they be forced out due to rising rents or just aging out of the business? Hard to tell, but important to watch to gauge the trajectory of the neighborhood over the next ten years.
Public spaces - Built for the gentry or the broader neighborhood?
As readers of this website might know, I’ve visited and blogged on all 79 St. Louis neighborhoods and all 108 St. Louis parks. A key learning of this copious exploration was that public spaces, including parks and streets, are a reflection of the people in the neighborhood and the elected officials presiding over them and controlling the Ward funds.
You can visit a park to see who is there, how the space is used and what is important to those in the immediate area. The neighborhood culture is on display. It is fascinating and rung true time after time.
The most obvious public space in Fox Park, even though we have several well-used community gardens, is Fox Park (the park). Our park has changed immensely in our eleven years here. Today, you see people from a wide swath of society enjoying the park in way more positive or dignified ways.
I detailed these changes, struggles and successes back in 2013 when I was involved with the Parks Committee. But, I’ll detail some of the changes that have taken place to highlight the change and give some context. I’ve been told by some that the park has been sterilized or gentrified and that surprises me a bit. I don’t argue with them, because people are entitled to their opinions and feelings. But the people who I heard say this didn’t live here when the park was a much different, at times violent and unwelcoming place.
But I get what they are saying. There are no longer regular street parties on Victor. The dealers are not set up in the park. Less neighbors are saying “no way would I let my kids go to the park”. And a lot has been improved, and much public money was spent and many grants were written and procured. But is it textbook gentrification? Was the intent or result a place that caters to the gentry, the new comers and not the long haulers or less represented residents?
I’ll share my two cents on how this played out and you can be the judge of whether the park is gentrified. Or, better yet, what we could have done or can do better. Please message me or leave a comment if you have constructive criticism or suggestions. At some point in my life, I’d like to get back to helping out in the park.
In my years here, the park has added a basketball court, a children’s splash pad, a dog park and the sports fields were re-seeded and have added youth leagues organized in part by our CDC and others. There are trees and landscaping. There are functioning bathrooms in the ballfield structures. The chain link fence designed to keep the neighbors out of the ballfield were removed.
How did all this happen? How was it prioritized? Two main things: we had a masterplan that was designed well before we moved here and this was our roadmap to what the neighborhood wanted. It was created through a community effort based on feedback of what was needed or desired.
When I was on the park committee, there was a glaring lack of representation from our Black neighbors. We tried, but it proved hard. At the time, our alderperson was a Black woman, and I had a conversation with her about this lack of input from Black neighbors. She recommended a door to door canvassing to get feedback that is current and more inclusive for people who don’t feel welcomed, don’t know about, or don’t prioritize organized neighborhood meetings.
So we walked door to door and got feedback to revisit the desires of the neighbors around the park. My overwhelming memory was that safety was top priority, followed by quality kid activities and amenities that parents could send their kids to and feel like they are safe.
The masterplan and the door to door survey informed our actions.
Timing was right as well. We had an amazing group of people with low ego and high work ethic. The leader of the group at the time was a fantastic motivator and leader. She became a dear friend, one who’s intuition I trust. And even when we disagreed, we had “everyone’s” best interests in mind. We are friends to this day. We also had a newly elected alderwoman who genuinely cared and jumped in to help from the city side. We had advocacy, we had a team.
Much was done, but much pushback occurred when the park started to become active from those who wanted to party hard and sell drugs and f shit up. Things were destroyed, things were stolen, things were disrupted. You can read all about it in that 2103 post. This was likely a reaction to “gentrification”. Not being at the table when change is occurring around you. But something had to give. We put thought into it, considered the voices of those around us and moved on it.
I am proud of the place the park has become. I am still a bit haunted on how we could have better engaged with the neighbors. At the end of the day, we tried our best.
That said, I see all kinds of activity and the park is a place that represents our current level of diversity.
It is a place you can find dignified peace and activities. Folks, it didn’t used to be that way.
When it is all said and done, I think adding an extremely expensive basketball court, maintenance of a splash pad (which was procured with grant money written by the alderwoman), tuckpointing and bathrooms in the park pavilions, trash cans and trees were a good use of ward funds that benefit the entirety of the neighborhood. Know that we engaged with local charities for the trees and plants, so they deserve much credit for partnering with us.
Other public investments have been made in the way of streets. I’m not sure how it happened as I don’t attend neighborhood meetings these days, but we now have speed humps and a traffic roundabout in the neighborhood. There are also newer street lights with the energy efficient bulbs that are much brighter and provide better pedestrian safety at night.
These are the biggest changes I’ve witnessed as far as public monies and spaces.
Traffic calming and park spaces that offer options based on community input seems equitable.
I’ve read criticism, mostly on Twitter, that only the gentrified neighborhoods get these types of things. This doesn’t match my experience, exploring and reading about the city. Frankly, a relationship with the alderperson, and the desires of that elected official to listen to the residents to help them guide where ward funds are spent is the biggest factor. All wards have these funds. All citizens can influence the alderman (or try). Not all are created/elected equally, however.
But, I think if you are involved in neighborhood stuff, which I hope to revisit at some time in my life, it is essential to listen to those who feel underrepresented and try to bring their concerns to the table when decisions are made. Whether they choose to be there or not does not matter, you have to put in the work to get the feedback. It’s not always easy, but that is what I would want a good neighbor or leader to do.
So, in conclusion, Fox Park is gentrified. And it happened fast. I hope I’ve balanced my perspective herein and gave a fair shake to both sides of the gentrification debate: does it help the majority or harm the majority? Of course with any change there are some who gain and some who feel left out.
This will be an ongoing challenge for the near north neighborhoods and parts of South St. Louis like Benton Park West, Gravois Park, Carondelet, Dutchtown, etc. in the coming decades. Early partnership with non-profits focused on retaining affordable housing and electing alderpersons and others who care enough to ensure the long time neighbors are seated at the development table is a key to inclusive investment and improvement and change.
Also, I was hesitant to post this series. I was worried that the social media hawks would find a sentence, a word, a vibe to try and turn people against me, or the body of work I’ve shared here since 2008. I don’t want to fear that kind of stuff because I’m trying to be a true narrator of my experiences as someone who first and foremost loves it here in St. Louis…but it happens. Please know my heart is centered on what I think is good for us all: my family, my neighbors, my neighborhood and my city. I know I can be a better thinker and writer and blogger…I’m open to help and feedback that is from a place of caring or intelligence.
If you take issue with anything I’ve said here, please feel free to contact me and we can meet and talk. Last thing I want is to be thought of speaking for Black people, renters, or how they may or may not feel about St. Louis. I am not trying to minimize the effects that gentrification can have on one’s life or try to make it sound like gentrification is the answer to turning back crime and disinvestment. I want to understand the issues of gentrification on my own terms, readings and experiences. I felt my neighborhood and in-person conversations were a righteous proving ground for learning about how to portray my writing about it…that’s the route I took anyway.
Thanks to those who took the time to meet and talk to me throughout this goal of mine. And of course, thanks to my wife Shannon who edited and proofread this on several occasions and affords me the time to pursue this stuff.
Cheers, Mark
