Beautiful friends,

As you now know Blissoma is sponsoring the start of a community garden in our urban neighborhood in St. Louis, MO. This community garden is redeveloping a vacant lot that otherwise was a neighborhood problem - a haven for scattered trash and weeds.


We are pleased to show you some of our progress to date on our garden plot. You are our supporters on this journey and without the involvement of our customer base this endeavor would not be possible.
To date this spring your purchases have directly supported more than $400 in cash garden investments including:

- over $100 in organic and heirloom seeds purchased entirely from independent, Monsanto-free seed suppliers

- new hoses to supply water to the garden

- stakes to support the green bean and tomato crops

- manure and other organic soil amendments for the crops

- composting supplies for garden waste so that we can generate organic, nutrient-rich soil through outdoor composting and vermicomposting


Your support has also enabled me to donate more than 360 service hours to the garden from just April to today alone. This does not include the initial plowing and care we did for the starting plot last fall (which would easily drive the total to 500+ hours). While I am out working the garden Frank has been dutifully serving your orders, making products, and answering emails and calls.


The soil was difficult to work due to piles of buried bricks and concrete. Just to break ground for the new 20' x 40' strip that became the tomato rows and melon/pumpkin patch took approximately 2 1/2 weeks of hand digging. The soil is clay and filled with construction rubble so we trucked in and spread more than 5 dump trucks worth of fresh dirt and 3 pickup loads of manure to build freeform raised beds.


So far we have been visited by numerous neighborhood residents as we work. Neighbor children have planted seeds with me and the Envisioning Hyde Park photography project stopped by with about 10 local youth to learn about what we are doing. We plan to launch a local awareness campaign to build involvement as the summer progresses and the "fruits" of our labor become more evident.


You are directly supporting organic awareness and empowerment to a community that was previously a fresh food desert. You are supporting positive action in a place that was known for gang violence, drugs, and decomposing architecture. You are helping us show a largely forgotten community in St. Louis that real change is possible with a dream and hard work. Each time you support Blissoma you support positive values and healthy evolution. You can feel good about your purchase in every way.


We will continue to share progress with you as we "grow". Thank you for all you do. Enjoy the pictures of our beautiful plants! :)

rows in the sunset

leeks about to flower and baby romaine

red cabbage

carrot flower buds

bok choy in bloom

Today I am proud to share with you that Blissoma and my family are participating avidly in the Urban Homesteading movement and spearheading the development of a community garden.
 
Our path began 4 years ago when we began searching for a building to purchase. Our budget was very limited and we needed a great deal of square footage. We were unable to consider real estate in some of the more trendy, populated areas of St. Louis because of these practical restrictions.

Eventually our building search led us to North St. Louis City where we found our current base of operations. Old North St. Louis and Hyde Park have an array of large buildings that were priced within reach for us because the area has largely been considered a dangerous urban ghetto by locals. The attrition of population and decaying architecture has left vast vacant lots interspersed between the remaining buildings.

Some might think of North City as a strange place and often I am commended by casual visitors for my bravery in purchasing property here. I respond that bravery had little to do with it, really, as the area is not nearly as dangerous as people think and had all the resources we desired. The moment that I saw all the empty land I instantaneously envisioned massive gardens on all of them. A blank canvas has delightful appeal to someone that loves to create, and this neighborhood was just that. It was and has been poised for reinvention and many residents have been at work behind the facades of what looks aged and decaying. We are restructuring, refinishing, and recreating.

The first few years here were spent on interior building improvements. I have spearheaded the improvements to the house myself with a marginal amount of outside help and construction work can be all-consuming. The building is essentially a very slow gut rehab with every surface and system in the house needing at least some work and some needing complete replacement.

Last year I reached a juncture where it made sense to take the work outside. So, without official announcement, I decided it was time to begin gardening - finally!


I saw Fresh and Food Inc. last spring and it lit quite a fire. Rather than just being disgusted with our current food infrastructure I decided it was time to do something, and that it was indeed within my power to take action towards change. I am sharing our projects in the hope that others that may be teetering on the edge of action will also be heartened and empowered to act as well. I am a busy entrepreneur, mother, and rehabber, and now organic food gardener. There are sacrifices that I have had to make but the rewards are tremendous and I enjoy the activity as well. It is providing a platform for my daughter to learn about plants, worms, science, and sustainability and furnishing as much delectable produce as we can consume as well as some for the neighbors.
I was working on a very, very tight budget last year, but financial restrictions did not stop me. I salvaged much of what I needed and the small investments of our limited money came back to us completely in food.

I am going to do my best to detail and share our activities this year. Given limited time and a choice between planting and blog posting I'll probably be planting, but updates will come as often as I am able.


This last week I seeded our raised bed that we built last spring. The photo above is from last June when we planted it after completion. By fall it was overflowing with plants. I definitely got things too close together but I have problems disposing of seedlings - so hard to get rid of beautiful little live plants just because room is limited! I am told that this year the growth and results should be exponentially better because the soil will have had time to establish the proper ecosystem of micronutrients and flora.

I often hear people say that home gardening is so expensive compared to the yield. My answer is well, yes, it is if you are purchasing all your plants at $4 and $5 each from a big box garden center. Every plant we grew last year I sprouted from seed, making the cost to yield ratio really work in our favor. I am no sprouting expert but I was able to get a successful system down. This enabled us to spend very little, grow an immense variety of plants, try again and again if something happened to a first batch (caterpillars, storms, disease), and choose organic and heirloom varieties that yielded seed for this year, making my seed investment for this year even smaller. I'll probably never have to buy a bell pepper seed again and I've had enough to give to others as well so they can sprout and grow freely.

Our yard is actually quite small, so I have maximized the space by trellising plants up fences, creating a hanging garden on the porch, and putting pots on every square inch of available patio. If you think you don't have enough room for food production you might want to think again, as there are many ways to maximize space and garden creatively.

By contrast we now also have what we call "The Farm" or "The Hundred Acre Farm" in a loving tribute to A.A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh and the Hundred Acre Wood. The Farm is a massive vacant lot across the alley from our backyard. It used to look like this:
Row houses from approximately 1900 stood decaying when we first moved into our house. Then they were torn down....
This picture is a night shot of the bricks stacked in pallets for reuse, and the final building of the 4 yet standing. Here is another view from our backyard of the final building on the day it was knocked down.
It was sad to see these valuable pieces of architectural history disappear. The land sat vacant for the last 2 years with mostly weeds and scattered trash adorning it. My latent ambitions grew and grew. Finally after maximizing my backyard and chattering about my guerrilla farming dreams for months we tilled a patch of the lot last August for fall planting.
We began with just simple crops of spinach, bok choy, kale, and anything we could manage to grow in the limited few months before the cold set in. The soil is mostly clay, new dirt brought in to fill the stone basement foundations of the prior buildings. We brought in several truckloads of compost and manure and laid down approximately 4" in which to grow our first round of crops. We'll be adding more, I'm sure. Everything grew beautifully and we harvested as much as we could eat. Here is a picture of the last bits of produce on the land before we froze hard last fall:
Today I begin preparing the same plot for our early spring crops. I've got many of the same items as last fall to go out as well as new varietals. Beautiful red cabbages, Red Core Chantenay carrots, miniature Romaine lettuce, lots of greens, and the leeks that actually survived the winter and are already growing. I'm excited to start planting so I'll save further news and pictures for another day! The sun will only last so long and there's a lot to do.

I have lots of schemes in my head for flowers, paths, fruit trees, berry bushes and more for this piece of land. I'll be excited to share our progress with you. For now it is time to get growing on our homestead. Have a blessed and beautiful Saturday and we hope you'll get out there and grow something.

I'm here to finish this thing. Let's get it done folks! This is the point where things all start to tie together, where we really begin to see how federal policy, prejudice, and the "Dream" of 2 kids, a car, and a house with a yard contributed to the very sad decline of what once were fine cities in our American landscape.

According to a striking passage in Buzz Bissinger's book A Prayer for the City the Home Owner's Loan Corporation, a program started by President Roosevelt in the New Deal era, created color-coded maps that determined lending practices for home purchases. Starting in 1933 HOLC refinanced mortgages that were in Danger of default because of the Depression. (By the way, sound familiar to today at all? Federal aid to help mortgages from going into default? hmmm... ) According to Bissinger, in the 1920s a mortgage had a life of 5 to 10 years and was then subject to renewal. HOLC extended mortgages to 20 years, much more similar to today's 15 and 30 year mortgages. "But as a precaution, the federal agency established exhaustive appraisal procedures to determine which areas of a city or suburb were more suitable for lending than others." The color-coded maps they created marked areas First, Second, Third, and Fourth grade. First grade areas were virtually free of blacks and foreign-born whites and were well planned parts of a city. These areas received the most funding. Second grade was deemed OK for lending, but at a slightly decreased rate. Third grade areas "were characterized, according to HOLC literature, by 'age, obsolescence, and change of style; expiring restrictions or lack of them; infiltration of a lower grade population...' "  Fourth grade areas were qualified as infiltrated by a large degree of undesirable population and unsuitable for lending.

Bissinger goes on to analyze that based on the HOLC's assesments Philadelphia was at a considerable disadvantage (and we can transfer this thinking to St. Louis as well, as it has many similar characteristics to Philadelphia). Older housing stock and mixed black and immigrant populations were deemed undesirable. Bissinger states that of the 13 neighborhoods in Philadelphia that received the first grade designation, none had any black population. Less than 5 % of Philadelphia as a whole received the desirable Green first-grade color. The vast majority of the remainder of the city was deemed Fourth Grade. Buildings were deemed as deteriorating and Negros, Jews and other foreign working-class Americans were classified as unsuitable to receive lending.

Conversely the Suburban areas were deemed as first and second grade because of undeveloped land for expansion and ethnic and racial purity.

The Federal Government in the 1930's had adopted a new model of government intervention and stabilization of the private sector. Previous the the Depression the economy was primarily treated as Laissez-Faire, but as that model was suffering and banks were failing there was room and need for the government to step in and stabilize the economy. According to Kristin Crossney and David Bartelt in their paper The Legacy of the Home Owners Loan Corporation, the HOLC's primary function at the time of its inception was refinance of troubled mortages, not new purchase loans. Construction was also stalled due to the Depression, and was further inhibited in the early 40's by the concentration on the war effort. Crossney and Bartelt assert that the access of private individuals to these HOLC maps was limited, and that investment behavior in practice did not always match up directly with these maps. But the climate of the lending and social environment is pretty clear from the negative, divisive language that was simply a part of the American landscape at that time.

It should surprise no one that our country has had racial integration problems. Anyone that has seen Gangs of New York has a pretty clear picture of how immigrants were treated in the middle 19th century. Surprise!  By the 1930s much of that bias against immigrants had still not disappeared, and, Surprise! we seem to still be having some problems with immigration today. Otherwise I don't think we'd be hearing discussions of a fence to mark the Texas/Mexico border.

Back to the 1940s.... by the end of WWII a lot of population of the USA was squeezed into aging city housing that hadn't received proper maintenance in years. With the completion of the war and return of the troops from abroad, families began to grow, there was a housing shortage, and the economy shifted to bring in a new prosperity. The GI Bill was signed into effect in 1944 and allowed veterans to access housing and provided education benefits. Instead of redevelopment and investment in the city landscape, the lending was slanted towards new construction in the suburbs. According to Barbara Kelly in her paper The Houses of Levittown in the Context of Postwar American Culture , the federal government deemed rewarding veterans for their service through housing and economic advantage essential to a transition to the peacetime economy. Otherwise veterans would become discontent and cause political problems. About the decisions the federal government made in relation to this issue, Kelly writes "When the debate was over, the directions of the housing programs was clear. Veterans housing regulated by the FHA and funded through the Veterans Administration, would be built in the form of the American Dream; a vine-covered cottage set on a small plot in a suburban setting." Home ownership was equated with strong social structure and a cornerstone remedy of societal ills.

The traditional city model had kept workers close to their places of employment. Without a car, ease of transportation to work meant long distance commutes were just not possible for most working and middle class families. The new prosperity and growth of the middle class also meant the purchase and use of automobiles, creating a new mobility. Living in the suburbs and driving further to work was no longer a problem.

Who did the GI Bill benefit? Well, largely white males and their spouses. As I discussed before, if my numbers are correct and only 6.25% of the entire military service was black, lending through the VA went mostly to whites. The access to education and housing helped the white working class step up and move out of their crowded urban surroundings. So that left less-educated, lower income blacks and "undesirable" immigrant populations in the cities in housing stock that already needed work. It also caused the tax base to shift elsewhere. Sound like a recipe for urban success??

Indeed, the status provided by the suburban cottage and the life it created was reinforced by the government, builders, and companies producing consumer goods. It was the very hallmark of social stability, and was even thought of as a cure for Communism! Certainly a real estate owner would have too much to do to keep his property tidy to be joining radical political parties. Suburban life kept citizens busy, gave them a source of pride, and was basically used as a form of social control.

From my family I hear that the neighborhood here in North St. Louis "began to change" and that many of the families living here didn't really want to move, but couldn't stand to be the only good families left in a deteriorating neighborhood. While they were simply cogs in the machinery of an entire society of skewed values it doesn't change the fact that White Flight basically demolished city revenue bases and became a self-fulfilling prophecy. Cities were seen as dirty, run-down, and full of undesirable populations. That is exactly what they have become and remain in the eyes of suburbia. Lack of reinvestment from the federal government and private individuals caused the beginning of a downward spiral that is still in progress in many places. In the St. Louis area the proliferation of suburban housing in outward areas such as St. Charles and Wentzville (as much as 1 1/2 hours from downtown by highway) has only been slowed recently by the collapse of the housing market. This is now one of the first times in the past several decades that bulldozed, construction-ready areas are just sitting idle.

We are on the verge of seeing just how far this American Dream and suburban expansion can be pushed. With gas prices projected to rise to $4 and $5 a gallon by summer this may be the first time the automobile culture generated in the 1940s may just be about to change direction. According to the national news from just the other day use of public transit is back up to levels it hasn't seen since the 1950s. Suburbia is about to see just how much it is willing to pay to retain the house and yard it prizes so highly. I'm sure we are all anxiously awaiting to see how the economy fares over the next year. Best of luck to us all.

Personally I'm excited to be part of the movement to revitalize my local urban neighborhood. I hope more people will do the same and contribute to theirs. It is not really about being charitable. It is about looking at the health of our entire communities and realizing that our society is only as good as its weakest members. While just one person can't change an entire city or an entire country, we each have a say. I intend to be proud of the interactions I have with members of my community that are different from myself. It only makes all of us better. 

Until next time as our local KDHX DJ Papa Ray says, "Do good in your neighborhood."

WWII, the legendary juggernaut of a war that set the stage for America life as we know it. What would the American dream be without this in our past? How many movies, books, and personal stories can there be? Well, if one counted just the Americans that served in the military, approximately 16 million stories would emerge, less the 400,000 people that were killed in combat.

WWII drove the American economy into the boom of the 1950s, where the good life was possible and a piece could be had by all (theoretically). But the beneficiaries of this boom were largely white, and the structure of the economy skewed development in ways that would prove to exaggerate class distinctions and continue the great divide between black and white in our society.

Approximately 2.5 million black Americans registered for the service during WWII but only about 1 million actually served in combat. Even those that did serve were confined to fully segregated units. Many were relegated to service and support missions rather than actual combat. The Marine Corps initially refused to accept any black servicepeople at all. In 1942 based on mounting casualties in the Pacific and pressure from civil rights groups, they relented but mostly kept black recruits in non-combat jobs as well. The combat battalions did distinguish themselves well in battle, and fought as bravely and well as any white counterparts.

At home the war economy and civil situation was a unique time in American history. Small towns boomed under the influence of wartime industry, the country was drawn together by collective sacrifice and spirit, and yet these collective energies were denied to many minorities. Japanese Americans were sent to camps, giving up posessions, businesses, and homes. African Americans were still beset by Jim Crow laws, and were even denied employment in war industries despite laws that made that discrimination illegal.

In 1941 President Roosevelt signed into law Executive order 8802 which outlawed discrimination in war industries and provided recourse and a Fair Employment Practic es Commission to investigate complaints. But companies such as the Alabama Dry Dock and Shipbuilding Company in Mobile even went so far as to discontinue its mechanics apprenticeship program when blacks were prepared to enroll. According to the Ken Burns movie "The War" and their website, major fighting broke out at ADDSCO in Mobile in 1943 when a group of black workers was promoted to welding positions. Thousands of white workers turned on the black men who had been promoted, after rumors flew that many more black workers were on the way and that they would be working alongside the women employees. After the riot the black workers did return, and more were brought on to skilled positions, but they were forced to work in 4 separate shipways, and were never promoted to the position of foreman. In the remainder of the business blacks were kept to the unskilled positions they had held before the 8802 was issued.

So looking at the above factors, the benefits of the war economy were denied to most minorities. Good paying war industry jobs and benefits to service people were disproportionately awarded to the white population. Certainly it was great news for white women, who were finally allowed industry positions they would have never gotten if the men had been there to fill them. But blacks and other minorities were systematically shut out, maintaining the status quo and keeping blacks in menial labor jobs. If we look at just the blacks drafted into the army we have 1,000,000 out of 16,000,000 total. The US Census Bureau reports a total population of 131,669,275 for the entire country in 1940. 12,865,518 of these were black people. These numbers indicate that 11.3% of the white and other populations served in the military, while only 7% of the black population served. Only 6.25% of the entire military service was black.

According to "The War" website based on the Ken Burns documentary, "By the end of the war more than half of all industrial production in the world would take place in the United States." The economy was booming, the Depression was effectively disposed of, and once the war ended the stage was set for tremendous growth. But that growth would benefit only certain groups, and certain areas.

Next week I'll be delving a bit into the GI Bill, the Home Owners Loan Corporation, the automobile culture, and postwar government policies in relationship to housing. Complicated stuff, and I'm betting I won't post until Monday afternoon again. This sort of writing just doesn't take place so well at 11 pm on a Sunday night. ;) I'm a lot more likely to get my facts straight and write intelligibly if I'm not falling asleep at the laptop. 

I've come back to tackle some of the stories of St. Louis in the early 19th century.  This is a huge topic.  Scholars write their thesis papers on issues I'll just begin to confront.  I've investigated numerous sources for substantiation.  The problem of urban decay is complex, and certainly not something that anyone can attribute to any one group or action.  But one does begin to wonder how the cities of Europe have remained vibrant in their centers, while American cities have fallen apart.  What differences in policies and attitudes have created this reality?

In 1910 the population of St. Louis was 687,029 and it was the 4th largest city in the United States.  The early period of the 20th century was characterized by substantial growth, construction, and business innovation.  Our city was home to a diverse range of industries and according to the River Web's site documenting the history of Missisippi towns, we were the largest producers of beer, shoes, stoves and wagons.  We also had a substantial textile industry as the "garment district" along Washington Avenue denotes.  Anheuser Busch is one of the beer businesses that remains in the St. Louis area and is a substantial contributor to the industry of the southern riverfront.  Next to the AB brewery is the old Lemp Brewery, now largely vacant and deteriorated, which around 1870 was even larger than AB. 

By 1920 St. Louis had slipped to 6th place in city size by population.  The city had gained an additional  ~100,000 residents, but had not annexed any additional area, sticking instead to the already defined city borders as voters defeated a 1926 proposition that would have included all of St. Louis County.  Building and growth continued within the city borders, with new apartment and hotels being constructed in the Central West End, grand homes along Lindell Blvd (bordering Forest Park where the 1904 World's Fair was held), and theaters like the Fox, which still stands in Grand Center. 

With the onset of the Depression St. Louis faced a situation of relative economic stagnation, large scale unemployment, and a halt to most building activity much like the rest of the nation.  Diversified industries helped the city weather these difficult times.

  

The aviation industry did well here, with Lindbergh's "Spirit of St. Louis" plane representing enthusiasm for flight in this area.  WWII brought wartime and aviation industry to St. Louis in a big way with the establishment of McDonnell Douglas, one of the area's largest employers.

Hyde Park was established as previously mentioned in other posts as the city of Bremen.  German natives migrated to the area in the 1840s, and the city of Bremen was made official in 1850.  In 1856 the city was annexed by the city of St. Louis, ending its independent existence.  It had substantial industry and commercial activity at the time.  Cattle were driven along Bremen street up from the river to the Union Stockyard slaughterhouse, one of the larger businesses in the neighborhood.

Most of the housing stock in Hyde Park was built prior to 1900.  This area is characterized by 2 and 3 story brick buildings with a mix of single family, row houses, and two family buildings.  The residents of this area were middle class folk with larger families.  Artisans, merchants, and industrial employees all called this area home.  The German mason/artisan influence on the building and stonework is very evident in the surviving buildings, which have beautiful decorative details.  Limestone rock foundations characterize most of the buildings as well, laid tightly and withstanding the following century well.

So that brings us at least up to World War II.....  up til that time St. Louis was still a healthy, thriving metropolis.  Though its standing nationally had slipped from 4th largest to 8th largest, the city was going strong.  The variety of factors that would coalesce in the late 1930s and 1940s would help set the stage for the 60 years of problem and decline that would follow.  

St. Louis is far from alone in its struggle.  Philadelphia is another city that was in dire circumstances due to urban decay that culminated in the 80s and 90s.  This is the very interesting fodder for a book by Buzz Bissinger called "A Prayer for the City", published in 1997.  I'm just a portion of a way through this book, but am finding it fascinating and well-written.  It is a nearly 400 page work of journalism where Bissinger shadowed mayor Ed Rendell through his entire term in office as mayor of Philadelphia.  I highly recommend it if you wish to get more in depth with the subject of urban decay and those who are just crazy and passionate enough to try and do something about it.

Next week I'll write a bit more about the happenings in post WWII St. Louis and America as a whole.  Basically I just hope to shed some light on this tangled issue, and provide information that might spark you to learn more.  I certainly don't have all the answers, but as I drive by rotting buildings that still contain an elegance that surpasses the best of surburban development, I can't help but wonder WHY?  So as I learn more, I am sharing it with you.