This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon: Perception often collides with facts when it comes to race. That is especially true in the intertwined story of Kirkwood's redevelopment of its Meacham Park neighborhood and Charles Lee "Cookie" Thornton's deadly assault at City Hall on Feb. 7, 2008.
Thornton, a resident of Meacham Park, was once a leading supporter of the redevelopment in the predominantly African-American neighborhood, but he became disaffected. He killed five city officials and shot Mayor Mike Swoboda, who died later that year. Thornton was killed by police.
Two years later, a perception persists in Meacham Park that Kirkwood officials cheated Thornton -- just as many Meacham Park residents believe they had been cheated -- when the city annexed and then redeveloped their neighborhood. Kirkwood grabbed, some say stole, their land for a big commercial development to fill the city's coffers. It cheated Thornton out of demolition work he had been promised, they say.
Their conclusion: Thornton was angry and could not get justice from City Hall or from the courts to which he appealed. His civil and constitutional rights denied, he took a gun to City Hall to obtain justice. They don't think the killings were justified, but see why he was at the end of his rope.
The Beacon has tried to separate perception from reality, myth from truth by finding the facts that relate to the claims. It filed Freedom of Information Act requests to obtain the city's redevelopment records. It interviewed the leading city and community leaders involved in the redevelopment. It reviewed dozens of records from Thornton's many and futile court fights. And it obtained the records that Franklin S. McCallie, former principal at Kirkwood High School, kept of his unsuccessful attempt in 2003 to mediate the dispute between Thornton and the city.
Here are some key findings:
1. Contrary to allegations that Kirkwood persecuted and discriminated against Thornton, officials made repeated attempts to help him. They tried to help him get demolition work as part of the redevelopment. At least six times, the city offered to forgive tens of thousands of dollars of fines and other claims against Thornton, but he refused to settle. Even his friend McCallie could not persuade him to give up his obsession. Thornton's own family said he was fixated on the legal disputes, which he blamed for forcing him into financial ruin and threatening his marriage.
2. Some false perceptions about Kirkwood's actions originate from a few vocal spokespeople for Meacham Park who toss out volatile allegations without proof. In meetings over the past month alone, speakers have claimed that the city was violating the Missouri constitution in using public funds to build a memorial walk for the slain city officials, that there was no proof that Thornton fired the deadly shots, and that police had intimidated critics of City Hall. They even claimed that the City Hall killings and the 2005 murder of Sgt. William McEntee by Kevin Johnson, a Meacham Park resident, were part of the city's persecution of the neighborhood. There is no evidence to back up these assertions. Yet the assertions are seldom challenged publicly by other Meacham Park leaders, perhaps out of the oft-stated belief that they should not criticize each other or out of a long-held feeling of victimhood.
3. Allegations about the city taking residents' land, imposing predatory loan terms and otherwise shortchanging residents are based on confusion or distortion of facts. Most of those familiar with the redevelopment concede that the commerical real estate developer DESCO did not perform as high a quality of redevelopment as the original developer, OPUS, but Meacham Park residents were instrumental in driving OPUS away.
4. The redevelopment has improved the housing in Meacham Park, increased housing values, attracted some white residents to the predominantly black neighborhood and provided elderly Meacham Park residents with much improved housing on the site of the old Rose Hill School near the neighborhood.
On the other side of the ledger:
Some key claims made by critics are backed by facts.
1. Kirkwood developed a substantially larger portion of Meacham Park for commercial purposes than originally called for in the plan developed at the time the city annexed the neighborhood in 1992. More than half of Meacham Park has been subsumed into commercial development on the west and east. Of the 62 homeowners in the buyout area, about 20 returned.
2. The commercial developments have not provided anywhere near as many jobs for Meacham Park residents as originally projected. An information sheet from the city in 2000 predicted that the redevelopment would offer about 1,100 job opportunities. Another information sheet predicted 600 jobs and promised that Kirkwood "intends to require the developer to ... give residents in the redevelopment area notification of available jobs." Yet the number of jobs that went to neighborhood residents is in the scores, not hundreds.
3. City officials maintained that Kirkwood doesn't have a race problem even as they were involved in a mediation of racial issues under U.S. Justice Department auspices. The mediation agreement, approved last month by the City Council, promises an improved Human Rights Commission and better police relations with Meacham Park. But it offers no commitment to increase the number of black employees in city government, the police department, the schools or neighborhood stores. Two of 118 teachers at Kirkwood High School are black, as are three of the city's 58 police officers.
4. Top city officials refused to go along with the recommendation of the city's top redevelopment official to address social as well as economic problems in Meacham Park to bring it into the mainstream of Kirkwood life. As a result, it remains a largely socially and economically isolated neighborhood, cut off from Kirkwood's more affluent areas.
Less than three months before the city hall shootings, Josh Smith, a Coro fellow, wrote a prescient, now chilling conclusion to a report on the success of the redevelopment. He noted that the bonds for the tax increment financing that paid redevelopment expenses would be retired in 2008.
Then he added, "Anxieties about the relationship between the Meacham Park neighborhood and the rest of Kirkwood, however, are not expected to be retired next year. Residents from all parts of Kirkwood report that Meacham Park, 15 years after its annexation, still does not feel a part of the larger community. At the time of annexation, no one hoped that these feelings would have persisted as long as they have. It remains to be seen how and when Kirkwood will be able to bridge this divide."
Rosalind Williams, the former Kirkwood director of planning and development who oversaw the project, said her biggest regret is that the city didn't do a better job of addressing the isolation and the social problems in the Meacham Park neighborhood. Williams now is planning director in Ferguson.
"Kirkwood didn't see itself as dealing with social issues," she said. "I wanted to have a large advisory committee with social and economic development specialists because there were other issues. The city didn't think that was their role."
Still, Williams, who is African American, thinks the project was a success. "Physically, yes, I think it was a great success as a redevelopment plan. It met all of the objectives. ... Meacham was half empty when we started. I do worry, though, about whether it was a systemic change given the isolation, culture and perceptions.
"It's kind of a caged phenomenon. Even when the door is open, you never go out."
This week's meeting of the Meacham Park Neighborhood Improvement Association demonstrated that persistent myths and poor communications continue to haunt the relationship between City Hall and the community. Association leaders called the meeting to announce a neighborhood coalition to oppose the mediation agreement worked out under the supervision of the Justice Department's Community Relations Service.
Community residents complained repeatedly that the mediation teams from the city and community had not investigated complaints they had provided in April of 2008. As it turns out, the arm of the Justice Department that mediated the talks -- the Community Relations Service -- does not have the power of "investigation or enforcement," according to Justice Department spokeswoman Becky Monroe. It is simply a "peacemaker." The city and community mediation teams could have chosen to investigate claims, but the Justice Department could not prompt them, she said.
Yet none of these facts was available to the Meacham Park community Monday as its leaders called for multiple inquiries.
Meacham Park leaders also contributed to the factual vacuum. Bob Williams, a photographer and member of the group, claimed there was no proof that Thornton had killed the city officials and that the murders never have been investigated. Janie von Kaenel, the group's public relations officer, reiterated after the meeting her frequent claim that police intimidate Meacham Park leaders, but gave no examples of police threats.
Harriet Patton, president of the group, said after the meeting that she did not challenge claims such as Williams' "because I let it be their opinion. He's been saying that at every meeting. It's his opinion and I have to allow that."
The reporting team, from the School of Journalism at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, includes William H. Freivogel, director of the school and a regular Beacon contributor; Jaclyn Brenning, a reporter-in-residence;
Kirkwood’s Journey
This article is part of a series on Kirkwoodians' efforts to understand how race affects their city and what role it might have played in the City Hall shootings two years ago. Read more stories about Kirkwood's Journey . The series is part of the Beacon's Race, Frankly project.
