Hanover Street

For many Cape Girardeans, the confrontation between police officers and residents of South Hanover Street on the Fourth of July represents a festering problem for which there doesn't appear to be any easy solution.

Like the situation that existed in the Good Hope Street area a few years ago, South Hanover has become a neighborhood where the seamier side of life has established a hold that presents serious problems for police and for law-abiding citizens in and around the area.

Most critics of the Hanover situation look to the police and city officials to take appropriate action. But this appears to be more than a neighborhood overrun by a criminal element. There are social and economic factors involved, and there doesn't seem to be much attention being paid to them.

Law-abiding residents of the area are frustrated by what is happening to their neighborhood ever since it became the primary gathering place for hundreds of people at all hours of the night. Those who now fear for their own safety rely primarily on the police department, but should also have access to other responsible organizations for assistance.

Churches, government-funded agencies, civic clubs and social organizations have an opportunity to exert a major influence on the future of Hanover Street, but for the moment their attention is being directed elsewhere.

It will take a concerted effort, one in which residents of the area see the need for changing attitudes about why it is that Hanover Street has become a haven for drug deals, brawls, all-night carousing and prostitution.

Arresting those who break the law is an obvious course of action on Hanover Street. But the area also could benefit by having the community rally around those who want to feel safe again in their own neighborhood.