IMPROVEMENTS CAN BEE SEEN IN GOOD HOPE AREA

Though far from its former glory, the Good Hope neighborhood is slowly rising above some of its recent problems.

Once a thriving business district, the area in past decades has steadily declined with shops moving out while crime moved in.

But community efforts to combat the problems of the area are having a positive effect.

In October 1994, one of the moral and financial anchors of the neighborhood, the Salvation Army, completed a $1 million capital improvement project with the construction of a new building at 701 Good Hope. The building replaced the former bank the Salvation Army Occupied at the corner of Sprigg and Good Hope.

Among the programs run out of the building is the Cape Girardeau Public Schools' Alternative Education Center. The center is intended to provide troubled teens with a setting different from that found in a traditional school.

With a different setting, it is the school with offer students who have been expelled, put on long term suspension or who are considering dropping out a second chance. Operating in three classrooms, the school focuses on the basics, English, science, social studies and math.

Hoping to lure another substantial capital investment to the area, Good Hope area businessmen are trying to convince the federal government to choose the region as site for a new federal building.

The General Services Administration, the federal agency in charge of construction and site selection, is currently eyeing Cape Girardeau's downtown for potential sites for the new building. However, many feel the site of the old Saint Francis Hospital would be a much more beneficial choice while still suiting the government's needs.

The former hospital, which was last used in the mid-1980s by Southeast Missouri State University for dormitory space, is located on Good Hope and is bounded by Ellis, Pacific and Morgan Oak streets.

The Haarig Area Development Association, the group spearheading the effort, contends that the whole block could be obtained for only about $34,000 while property and demolition costs at a downtown location would be much more expensive.

The site, the group maintains, would also be more easily accessible due to its proximity to several main thoroughfares, William Street to the north, Sprigg Street to the east and the new Highway 74 to the south. The latter road will eventually tie directly into Interstate 55 and extend across a new Mississippi River bridge into Illinois.

A federal building in the neighborhood would encourage new businesses to open in the neighborhood, expediting its revitalization.

A big part of the area's problems have resulted from increae crime -- a problem which the Cape Girardeau Police Department has attacked vigorously.

A program which put officers walking the beat in the area has helped the department build rapport with residents. The trust has proved invaluable to gaining information to tackle crime in the area.

Also, Police Chief Howard "Butch" Boyd said the drug market which once operated openly on Good Hope has been fragmented. While the problem hasn't gone away, it's impact has been less visible.