Urban streets named for MLK still struggle

Associated Press ^ | Jan 19, 2014 12:41 PM EST | Alan Scher Zagier

[Olog-hai]

A walk down the 6-mile city street named for the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. yields plenty of images that would surely unsettle the civil rights leader: shuttered storefronts, open-air drug markets and a glut of pawn shops, quickie check-cashing providers and liquor stores.

The urban decay along Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in St. Louis can be found in other major American cities, from Houston and Milwaukee to the nation’s capital.

“It’s a national problem,” said Melvin White, a 46-year-old postal worker in St. Louis and founder of a 3-year-old nonprofit group that is trying to restore King’s legacy on asphalt. “Dr. King would be turning over in his grave.”

Nearly three decades into the observance of Monday’s federal holiday, the continuing decline of the most visible symbols of King’s work has White and others calling for a renewed commitment to the more than 900 streets nationwide named in the Atlanta native’s honor. …

[Organic Panic]

That’s what Owebama’s “Promise Zones” are all about.

[Gay State Conservative]

There are many streets named after trees and Presidents in this nation.There are also more than a few named after MLK.I'd bet the clothes on my back that,per capita,there are more welfare parasites,hookers,gang bangers and junkies living on the MLKs than on any other named street.

[EEGator]

There is a nice mile on MLK in Gainesville,FL.

[Jack Hydrazine]

It’s a start!

[left that other site]

Here in the Pompano Area, Coconut Creek Parkway is lovely until it crosses Powerline and becomes MLK. It’s weird what even one street’s difference can make.

Is it the name of the street that did it? Or was the street renamed for the demographics?

[Georgia Girl 2]

“The urban decay along Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in St. Louis can be found in other major American cities, from Houston and Milwaukee to the nation’s capital.”

The one in Atlanta is no walk in the park either.

[PallMal]

I wonder what the names of these streets were before they were changed to MLK drive, boulevard, etc.?

I bet that the "activists" wanted to change the name of the street from some "dead white guy slaveholder" to MLK, so as to give the people "pride".

So what has this newly found "pride" gained them?

[ilovesarah2012]

LOL but some truth to that. Raze them and start all over.

[MamaB]

This is ot but I have seen posts about locking car doors. Boy, do I have a story for you. I have been sick so I was sitting in a recliner yesterday near a front window. I heard a truck on the street and looked out the window. I watched the driver open my trunk from inside his truck. I made a police report mainly to see if this had been reported. Neither he not my Honda serviceman even knew it was possible. Why and how did someone open a trunk instead of the doors? I would find it had to believe except I saw the trunk open. Any ideas? I do not have to worry about my car growing runners because the battery is deader than a nail. The dealer is coming out tomorrow to tow it. What makes it even odder is my car battery was fine Thursday when I went to the dr.

[Mr. K]

you want to find some of the worst slums in the country?

Start around any MLK boulevard

[Salamander]

They forgot the hoop.

[T-Bird45]

Like most Grandmas, yours was wise and knew what she was talking about.

[wolfpat]

It’s fortunate that civil authorities have developed a foolproof way of warning white people to stay away. They put the initials MLK on the street signs.

Not necessarily. Every drug addict knows that's where to go to get whatever you need.

[Mich Patriot]

Yep, unfortunately I’ve been down each of the MLK’s you mentioned. Shitholes all indeed.

[Theodore R.]

Does anyone know of an MLK Street anywhere that is nice and uplifting? Surely there are a couple.

[ExCTCitizen]

Hillsborough County’s ML King bvld goes thru rural areas. In Tampa the street is ok and outside it is busy.

[arthurus]

MLK Boulevard here was in the category chronicled in the story when it was named. It has improved its appearance tremendously since then. How that was accomplished was that the two lane street was replaced by a 4 lane artery and the widening took out all the shuttered store fronts and Candy Corner and such. The property along MLK is now valuable business property. Some of the local denizens of Glenwood, the affected neighborhood, have actually prospered and the narco trade has moved back into the deeper reaches of the neighborhood and out to the Beach.

The only dangerous feature of MLK is the traffic lights that don't change after 2300 hours when there is very little traffic and the cop that sits of the side waiting for someone to get frustrated and run the light or turn out of a straight ahead lane. My daughter got such a ticket. She said she was afraid of the neighborhood so after 10 minutes she went and immediately got the blue flashing light. I told her if she gets in that situation again to just sit there, that she is safe because there is a policeman watching her.

[ErnBatavia]

designated the northern bypass I-244, as the MLK Memorial Expressway

How'd you like to run the local Hampton Inn, and have that designated change show up in travelers' guidebooks? Arrgh.

[ExCTCitizen]

Not really, in Ybor City (part of Tampa) there is a mural of chickens and in the town of Plant City, there a mural of whites and a train.

[5Madman2]

Oddly, I traveled the MLK street in San Francisco.

It was through a park, actually quite beautiful in the daytime.

Not sure what happened at night