Today, as I walked around Downtown, all the busses I saw flashed the message:
ROSA PARKS DAY
The small, mobile memorial was touching--rather than a name left on some unread stone in some mossy corner of the city, the words moved along major arteries all through St. Louis, quietly jarring daydreaming bus-riders, pedestrians, and motorists from their drifting thoughts. I hope that having those words on city busses, which are normally a largely ignored part of the daily city scenery, helped remind people who saw the busses that simple, everyday places and services we take for granted were not accessible to everyone in the very recent past. And really, they're still not accessible to everyone--simple things like having access to reliable transportation, a good school, a good job, safe housing, and medical care continue to be special priveleges in our city, our state, and our society.
We still live in a city where the North and South Sides are very different, and Delmar remains a blurry-but-undeniable color line between less and more vanquished parts of town.
________
ROSA PARKS DAY
The small, mobile memorial was touching--rather than a name left on some unread stone in some mossy corner of the city, the words moved along major arteries all through St. Louis, quietly jarring daydreaming bus-riders, pedestrians, and motorists from their drifting thoughts. I hope that having those words on city busses, which are normally a largely ignored part of the daily city scenery, helped remind people who saw the busses that simple, everyday places and services we take for granted were not accessible to everyone in the very recent past. And really, they're still not accessible to everyone--simple things like having access to reliable transportation, a good school, a good job, safe housing, and medical care continue to be special priveleges in our city, our state, and our society.
We still live in a city where the North and South Sides are very different, and Delmar remains a blurry-but-undeniable color line between less and more vanquished parts of town.
________
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3 comments:
Delmar may be a line between vacant and dense, but no longer a color line. East of Kingshighway live more transit-dependents, or households without automobiles. And east of Kingshighway, more African-Americans now live south of Delmar.
Delmar still functions as a color line between areas where city services are fully implemented (green) and areas where they will not be until speculative homebuilders unveil their projects (red).
Thanks for your thoughts - and the link!
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