Neighborhood Stabilization Officer success story

For exactly three years I’ve been walking from my home near the corner of Taylor and Gibson Avenues in Forest Park Southeast north to the medical center and the Central West End. It’s an unremarkable walk, not particularly a pedestrian friendly (broken sidewalks, broken glass, lack of curb cuts) route, but one very short section always made my walk worse. I had thought of taking matters into my own hands numerous times, but home renovations, work and now a baby had always taken priority. And besides, I didn’t want to commit myself to cleaning this patch with any regularity.

So I finally called Neighborhood Stabilization Officer (NSO) Luke Reven. The land and sidewalk are property of the state, but inaccessible to crews working along I-64. The St. Louis College of Health Careers maintains the portion to the south but had always neglected this area. I guess they figured it wasn’t technically theirs so they shouldn’t care! Well, one E-mail from the NSO to the College and voila! The area has been cleared of litter, the grass cut and emerging tree-weeds beaten back.

I’d like to send out a big thank you to Luke and the College. Little actions like this are absolutely required to make the neighborhood and city a better place to live.

{before: the southwest corner of the Taylor Avenue bridge}

{before: the weeds would die back in winter and then grow across the sidewalk in summer}

{after}