BUCKING THE SYSTEM: COMMUNITY SPIRIT GROWS FROM IMPROVEMENT PROGRAMS

When residents renew their interest in their surroundings, they become active. With time that activity can develop into a strong commitment to take care of each other.

Have you ever noticed that when one person begins an improvement project, others around him tend to take up similar projects? This seems to be especially true when the project involves something visible like physical fitness or yard landscaping.

That's why I applaud the efforts of May Greene Community Pride, an organization formed by Cape Girardeau city councilmen Melvin Gateley and Tom Neumeyer. This organization is taking a stand to protect and preserve the community located in an area bounded by West End Boulevard on the west, William Street on the north, the Southern Expressway on the south and the Mississippi River on the east.

Group members are even now formulating a plan to revitalize their community by highlighting the positive aspects of the area, such as attractive gardens, houses and yards, and taking note of property which needs improvement of things such as overgrown yards, abandoned automobiles, missing house numbers and street signs.

They're active and they seem to be motivated, which is what a project of this scope needs. When residents renew their interest in their surroundings, they tend to become active, and with time, that activity can develop into a strong commitment to take care of each other.

Having left and later returned to the south side, I can attest to the necessity of what this group hopes to accomplish in a very personal way. My first home in Cape Girardeau was a rental house on the south end of town. When Patrick and I moved in, we were taken with the many trees and neat yards on our street. The mixed-race neighborhood was quiet and many of the residents were older people who had owned their homes for many years.

I have so many neat memories about that neighborhood, like sharing a part of my day with people who, like me, migrated to the front porch each evening after work. Or like checking on each other after a power outage or rough storm to make sure everything and everybody was OK.

I also liked the 12-year-old self-named "man next door" who mowed our lawn every week and the kindly gentleman who shoveled our sidewalks each time it snowed and then disappeared before payment or even thanks could be offered.

Unfortunately, that neighborhood began to degenerate in the time we lived there, and I didn't do a thing to stop it. Some of the older residents died, and the people who moved in weren't as concerned with maintaining the appearance of their homes. The roof on the vacant house next door caved in, and while on lunch break one day Patrick and I watched as it became a haven for crack addicts.

We moved soon afterwards, to a duplex in Cape Girardeau's northeast end of town. We had become apartment dwellers, but it didn't take me long to realize I hated it. The walls were thin, the children were everywhere and cars that would never again see even 10 miles per hour sat up on blocks in spaces I wanted to park in.

Neighbors didn't watch out for you -- in fact, I spent most of my time watching out for them. I missed the south side, and despite all the negative hype surrounding it, I wanted to go back there.

So I did, and I know that was the right decision. Again I'm in a mixed-race, elderly neighborhood, and there are a lot of younger families like mine moving in.

This time I'm not going to give in or be a part of the atrophy of my neighborhood. Although I'm a renter rather than an owner, and whether I turn out to be the plant killer or the plant lady, I'm going to listen to try to improve the appearance of my home. If I can, I'll work with our new organization to help make my neighborhood a better place.

After all, that's my home. It's my responsibility what I make of it.

~Tamara Zellars Buck is a staff writer for the Southeast Missourian.