Urban renewal a hot topic in Cape

There has been a lot of talk lately in Cape Girardeau about downtown revitalization. A lot of talk about trying to recapture some of the energy that once built this river town.

Gov. Blunt flew into town to speak about the topic, and Old Town Cape never stops. Urban renewal is hot, and I can see why.

As a newcomer, the riverfront area was one of the first things that captured my imagination. I marveled at how well Main Street's architecture was preserved. The old stone and brick workmanship conjured up images of the days when the city lived and died by river commerce. I could almost see the merchants and steamboat workers of old bustling through the streets.

And coming from St. Louis, the accessibility of the riverfront was something different for me. Up there, the city is sawed off from much of its prime Mississippi real estate by a poorly conceived highway. The warehouses and smokestacks there loom like ghostly reminders of past generations.

But in Cape Girardeau, the river chugs right alongside the historic district with only the necessary floodwall fortifying the town's treasures.

So after my initial excitement I was saddened to realize that the downtown area was still struggling. Downtown, I was told, is an optical illusion: Pretty from a distance and peppered with bars, restaurants and boutiques, but mostly vacant upon closer inspection.

As Blunt and others have pointed out, many cities across the Midwest are struggling with crumbling urban cores.

Progress demands downtown to have an efficiency that its narrow streets, small shop sizes, and aging architecture can't deliver. Strip malls and big box stores are just plain easier and cheaper for customers and suppliers alike. So that's where the money goes.

And homeowners have followed suit. They've left the city center for well-manicured, greener pastures.

Last year zero apartment building permits were issued in Cape Girardeau. The city continues to hear a sucking sound as its population moves to the north and to the west. Neighborhoods are increasingly divided along economic and racial lines.

But so what? Why should we care what happens to downtown? Isn't it just a sign of progress that we no longer live clustered together and stacked on top of one another? Isn't the American dream to get away from those dense ancestral places; to get a parcel of land and spread our wings a little bit?

Maybe. But for some reason even those of us with no memory of a vibrant downtown are nostalgic for it. For us it's tough to watch as uniqueness is replaced by cookie-cutter commerce with the corresponding chain stores, asphalt and right angles.

So we're sentimental and we don't really know why.

For the answer, we might start by visiting the tent pitched behind the Osage Community Centre for Chautauqua. Those people seem to believe that sometimes to hold onto ourselves we need to hold onto our history.

TJ Greaney is a staff reporter for the Southeast Missourian.