Today’s blog
Lynn Murphy Mark
A voice from the North
I belong to an organization here in St. Louis called “Women’s Voices Raised for Social Justice”. Its purpose is reflected in its title. We are a group of women, largely middle age to older than that, who pay attention to the state of our city and county where it comes to issues of equality and equity.
One of the biggest initiatives of WVR is providing gun locks whenever there is an opportunity to have a table with information and free gun locks. This is called “Lock it for love”. The mission is to “distribute free gun locks particularly in areas where children are at greatest risk for gun violence.”
At one of these occasions, they met up with a woman, Melissa, who lives in North St. Louis city. She lives in what is known as The Ville. It is an historically black neighborhood in St. Louis City. According to Melissa, it is one of the most dangerous places in town. She said, “You don’t want to live in zip code 63113.” She lives there by necessity because she can afford the rent there, which is destined to go up when her lease is due.
I know all this because WVR asked Melissa if she would be willing to be part of a zoom meeting and talk to us about her living situation. Melissa agreed. She told us that her life is an open book and she doesn’t mind speaking the truth about it. Her reality is very different than mine.
There is gang activity in her neighborhood. One day she saw two boys sawing a chunk out of a telephone pole. She went out, because that’s who she is, and demanded to know what they were doing. They told her they were just marking a spot so people would know where to find them. She later learned that the kids scoped the neighborhood for houses that were empty during the day, identified the block by taking a piece of the pole, and left that sign for the thieves that came later. Home break-ins are a frequent event in The Ville. Here’s a statistic: Nationally, the number of robberies per 100,000 residents is 135.5. In The Ville that number is 437.3.
One day there was an incident between a gang member and a police officer. They were on the sidewalk outside of her bedroom window. The officer was telling the guy to put down the gun. That didn’t happen and soon shots were being exchanged. One of those shots from the officer’s gun went wild and came through her bedroom window, through the wall into the bathroom and lodged in the second wall in the bathroom, right next to where her daughter and grandson were sleeping. Gunshots are part of the ambiance of The Ville. As Melissa said, police are reluctant to serve in The Ville. They don’t want to get shot is her only conclusion.
Her streets are dangerous places. Assault and armed robbery are common events. Another statistic: The national average of assaults per 100,000 people is 282.7. In The Ville that number goes up astronomically to 2,295.9.
Another hallmark of her neighborhood: it is one of two neighborhoods that have the highest number of empty lots and vacant houses. This is dangerous for a couple of reasons. Empty lots invite dumping of trash that contributes to health problems, and vacant houses are sometimes populated by drug users. Both of these circumstances add to the risk of living in The Ville.
Someone asked her if our Missouri governor, Mike Parson, has ever visited in order to see the trials of many of his constituents. First she laughed. Then she said, “We didn’t vote for him, so why would he care?” She doesn’t think much of most politicians since she sees no evidence of any interest on their part. She’s not aware if her state rep and senator have ever been to The Ville. Her US Congress person is Cori Bush, someone else she has never seen.
Melissa is willing to go to Jefferson City and speak directly to her reps. She would have to take a day off of work to do this, and she has no way to get there because her van was recently stolen. One of the results of this meeting is a plan to take Melissa to Jeff City so she can exercise her right as a constituent and speak directly to the people who are supposed to be representing her interests. They should learn a lesson from her lived experience.