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. …

[PapaBear3625]

I honestly don't know why they seem to pick the worst street in town for Martin Luther King Street. Why not a beautiful street with historic homes or the river walk street or something better. I don't know why they pick the worst roads to name.

Because having a street named MLK anywhere NEAR your property will reduce your house price by a significant amount.

Because the ONLY people who want a MLK street in their neighborhood are blacks, and therefore having a MLK street signals that this is a predominantly black area. How many predominantly black areas which are prosperous and safe have you personally walked through?

[ilovesarah2012]

I’ve never seen any.

[PapaBear3625]

I do remember asking Grandma who was Martin Luther King when I was that age, she just called him an agitator and a communist. I'm a Glenn Beck listener but I think Beck idolizes him too much, I guess because before I would drink the Kool-Aid, I want to know more about MLKjr, you know, like the equivalent of kicking the tires, looking under the hood, the frame underneath and so on to use a car analogy. MLKjr did say a lot of right things and so on, but still there is a side of me that is skeptical on him when I've read articles where he dissed Barry Goldwater and advocated wealth redistribution.

MLK was the Nelson Mandela of his day. Read up on Mandela and necklacing, and then compare and contrast how he is glorified today.

[southern rock]

Yes, seeing a mural generally means, “get the hell outta here, now!!

[PapaBear3625]

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?

The way your car's remote works is by transmitting a code, which your car receives and interprets as a signal to open the trunk. There's a different code to open the doors.

There's only a finite number of codes. If you go down a street hitting your remote, sooner or later you will pass a car with the same code as yours. The chance of a remote's having the same trunk code AND the same door code is vanishingly small, though.

[Recompennation]

MLK Boulevards:
Bars over the windows and doors. Obama’s picture in the window proudly on display. It’s a trust thing, robbing hood...who?

[BfloGuy]

Why not a beautiful street with historic homes or the river walk street or something better. I don't know why they pick the worst roads to name.

Let's be honest here.

If you lived on, oh, I don't know, "Canterbury Lane" and the city told you it was to be renamed "Martin Luther King Boulevard", would you or your neighbors accept that lightly?

[Nowhere Man]

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

I know. I'm just disturbed at the idolization Glenn Beck has for King. I dunno, maybe in this case, he got bitten by the PC bug of "thou shalt not diss Martin Luther King Jr." MLKjr did talk the talk but he did not quite walk the walk.

[Nowhere Man]

MLK was the Nelson Mandela of his day. Read up on Mandela and necklacing, and then compare and contrast how he is glorified today.

I know. I like Glenn Beck a lot but I'm disturbed how he can idolize MLKjr. Heck, Beck said good things about Mandela too. I'd have to go with grandma, mom and my senses and still see them as being agitators.

[Chode]

i don;t know where you live, but... on old trick is to take your battery and replace it with a dead one knowing you will replace it, then they replace the one they took for the new one

[MamaB]

I have only lived here since July, 2012 and it is a safe area. The police will be patrolling this circle more. This has really scared me because of other stuff going on.

[Chode]

stay safe...

[Fiji Hill]

They also renamed Lenox Avenue after Malcolm Little.

So they will have to change the words of the hit song Puttin' on the Ritz!

Have you seen the well-to-do
Upon Lenox Avenue
On that famous thoroughfare
With their noses in the air...

[Fiji Hill]

If not for the Koreans and their shops the area would be even worse.

I used to live in North University Park, not too far away from Santa Barbara Ave. and Leimert Park. There were no Korean shopkeepers in Leimert Park in those days, so the area may have actually improved.

Back in the 1940's, many USC professors lived in Leimert Park.