Stories of Sprigg: Street is a microcosm of Cape Girardeau

Driven from stifling heat inside, families gather on front porches in South Cape. Neighbors wave or shout pleasantries across yards. Becky Stinnett watches two of her grandchildren play with a squirming puppy as traffic whizzes by on Sprigg Street.

In one breath, Stinnett dismisses the area. "People ain't got nothin' down here. Just [stuff] in their yards," she says, with the flick of a hand. She talks about abandoned buildings, overgrown lawns, prostitutes who walk the streets.

But seconds later, she's praising the friendliness of her neighbors and the community they have formed.

"People here know people. We get a bad name because we live on the south side. ... But when someone's needed, someone's always there," she says.

The juxtaposition of contrasts highlights the core of Sprigg Street: It is a street of extremes.

From rich to poor, old to new and black to white, almost every aspect of humanity can be found along Sprigg Street. In the 3.7 miles it stretches from Lexington Avenue to Southern Expressway, a passer-by will find a microcosm of the city.

Arguably, no other street in Cape Girardeau embodies the culture or community of the city so succinctly or exemplifies the issues or problems the city faces. While it may not be the oldest or most traveled, many residents consider it the most telling. "It's a pretty amazing thoroughfare. You've got the country, the city. It goes from upper class to lower class. There's both old and young. There's some homes, apartments here; it's got Towers [college dormitories]. There's a little bit of everything," said Shelley Byas, who lives in the 1400 block of North Sprigg Street.

Besides Kingshighway, Sprigg Street is the only major north-south artery spanning residential neighborhoods, Southeast Missouri State University and a business district.

Over the next three days, the Southeast Missourian will chronicle the lives of people who live and work on Sprigg Street.

A 15-minute drive

Demographic differences are most extreme in the northernmost and southernmost sections of Sprigg Street.

Starting at the intersection of Sprigg Street and Lexington Avenue, the terrain is open and much of the area is developing or has room for growth. Between Lexington Avenue and Bertling Street, 94.8 percent of the population is white, the median household income is $33,438, and nearly half of the people older than 25 have a college degree, according to the 2000 Census. About 13 percent of the population lives below the poverty line.

Farther south, a fire station is on the right, followed by Blanchard Elementary, Cape Girardeau's newest elementary school. Past Bertling Street, a driver passes the Show Me Center, a sports and entertainment complex recently visited by country singer Carrie Underwood. Apartments and fast-food restaurants dominate around Southeast Missouri State University.

Near the downtown area, businesses dot the landscape, an area businesspeople say has changed the most. Evidence of extremes becomes more apparent here.

A map divides Sprigg Street at Independence Street, although many residents now consider Highway 74 to be the new divider, saying its construction pushed poverty south. In the eight residential blocks south of the highway, the percent of people living below the poverty level, 30 percent, is exactly double that of the city's average. From Highway 74 to Linden Street, the median household income is $23,750. From Linden Street south, it falls to $12,857.

The area has a larger minority presence than elsewhere in the city; 33 percent of the residents are black, compared to 9.5 percent citywide, according to the 2000 Census.

"It's diversified here, but it's not blended in real well," said student Dan Kirchhoff.

The culture along Sprigg Street shows another divide: In the middle of Sprigg Street sits St. Mary Cathedral School. Its church, established in 1868, is considered by many residents to be a stabilizing force in the area. Formerly, only two blocks away was the Cape Club Complex, an "alternative club" that reviewers boasted had "strong drinks and a good drag show most nights." The space is currently up for lease.

North Sprigg: wealthier families, college students

Kirchhoff, 21, lives in the apartment complex Village on the Green, on Sprigg Street's north side. Like his neighbor Adam Dotson, he lives there to be within walking distance of class at Southeast.

Their building consists mainly of college students, and Kirchhoff describes the area as "pretty quiet, pretty laid-back." The "cops only get called a few times a semester," mostly to break up parties, he said.

His apartment shows carryovers of his days living in the Sigma Nu fraternity house across the street: a life-size inflatable alligator bearing a beer logo hangs from his living room ceiling. Country music videos play on his TV.

Some of his friends left for the summer, but the junior from Arnold, Mo., stayed to take classes and to work. The only job he could find was one at UPS, from 4 to 8:30 a.m. His parents are "financially stable," and he knows he can rely on them if necessary, he said.

Kirchhoff is aware of segregation and "boundaries" along the street. "The road definitely has some less attractive parts. Not necessarily a slum or a ghetto, but it definitely has borders that go with income," he said. There is little interaction between the two groups of people, he said.

Mid-Sprigg: changes and vacancies

After 50 years in business, Joe Lorberg has seen businesses come and go along Sprigg Street. He rattles off a list of companies that haven't survived: a former barbershop, a drugstore, a bank, a grocery. Some were replaced by other businesses, others sit vacant.

"There's a few good places around, but a lot of stuff could stand to be torn down and replaced," Lorberg said.

Like the neighborhoods, businesses along Sprigg Street vary significantly. Some cater to the college crowd. Others are long established service businesses, such as barbershops and a funeral parlor. The street also passes some of Cape Girardeau's most important industries, including rock quarries and cement plants on the city's south side.

Lorberg operates Lorberg Home Electronics, 215 S. Sprigg St., which itself has changed from a store to a repair shop, as chain discounters entered town and drove mom-and-pop stores out of business.

He's been working in the family business since the mid-1950s, when he graduated high school. Computers, TVs, microwaves, printers and radios are in stacks in his store, some 5 feet tall. A narrow pathway leads through the broken equipment to a back room, where Lorberg makes his repairs.

After his family sold a funeral home in their name, Lorberg moved with his brother and mother to Jackson "to be in a better neighborhood and everything."

He's considered moving the business there also, but rent is too high.

The area has "all kinds of people. Maybe some are desirable, some aren't," he said. But he has never had a problem with violence or robbery.

South Sprigg: 'Generational poverty'

As Becky Stinnett watched her grandchildren, her husband, Frank, talked to police. Outside his office in the 1000 block of South Sprigg Street, the landlord made another plea to have a larger police presence in the area.

"We don't feel we're being protected down here," he said afterward.

A police scanner runs monotonously in his office, and he has another one at home.

In the past year, the police handled 600 warrant arrests, received 231 reports of property damage, burglary or theft, and responded to 42 assaults. On the north side, Cape Girardeau police handled 27 warrant arrests, 186 property crimes and thefts and 21 assaults during 2007. Yet the same amount of resources is given to both patrol zones.

"Each patrol zone has its own unique characteristics," said Sgt. Barry Hovis, spokesman for the police department.

Hovis said the patrol encompassing the north part of Sprigg Street included campus living, so university police handled many of those calls, which tended to involve more property crimes, whereas drug busts and assaults may be concentrated more heavily at times in the zone south of Independence Street.

Stinnett's daughter, Felicia, feels residents have to "protect themselves vigilante-style."

"I've had prostitutes tell my daughters to move while they're riding their bikes," she said. She said police make drug busts but "they never take it off the street. It moves, is pushed around, but it winds up back here," she said.

Other residents recounted incidents of shootouts, children hit by cars or fights that broke out on school buses.

But a sense of community protects families, residents said. They told stories of watching out for each other, baking a cake for an ill neighbor, forming search parties for missing dogs and barbecuing on weekends.

"The people in this neighborhood are the most compassionate in the whole city," said Becky Holloway, who lives in the 800 block of South Sprigg Street.

The area has one of the highest densities of social service offerings, including the Family Resource Center, the Salvation Army and the state health department.

Nevertheless, Holloway said children's exposure to violence and their low-income status has long-term effects, including on their school achievement. Children on the north side of Sprigg Street attend Blanchard Elementary, where 58.4 percent of students were proficient or advanced in communication arts in 2007; in math, 53.5 percent were.

Jefferson Elementary, where south-side children attend, has struggled with state test scores. In communication arts and math, only 24.7 percent and 29.9 percent, respectively, were proficient or advanced.

Holloway does not blame the teachers or the school for the lagging test results. Rather, she blames a lack of parental involvement, poverty and a lack of resources, a theory supported by countless research studies.

Residents on the south side say they have been particularly hard hit by a slowing economy and rising gas prices. Rudy Adams, who lives in the 1100 block of South Sprigg Street, relies on public transportation to get to work but has to take a cab home because she gets off late. Buses end routes at 6 p.m., and taxis are considerably more expensive.

Holloway wishes there were more things in the area for children to do that didn't require transportation. She says she doesn't always feel welcome in other parts of the city. "The new water park is going to be the furthest away from our neighborhood. It's not going to help our kids with transportation issues and things like that," she said.

She thinks part of the reason she doesn't feel welcome all places is because her family is mixed; she is white, her husband is black.

"In Cape Girardeau, it's not always been the best thing. We're not always accepted. We get a lot of looks. Some of the restaurants our family goes into, you can almost hear a pin drop as soon as we walk in the door. But it is 2008, and people are changing, slowly," she said.

lbavolek@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123

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