Rekindling neighborhood pride

Old Town Cape wants to fashion land-use plan for development of the Good Hope neighborhood.

When Tim Arbeiter walks along Good Hope Street, he sees more than run-down houses, well-worn business buildings and vacant lots. He sees future development in one of the city's oldest neighborhoods.

Arbeiter heads up Old Town Cape, a redevelopment organization that promotes downtown renovation and now wants to fashion a land-use plan for the Good Hope or Haarig district.

The area runs from Highway 74 north to Independence Street and from Sprigg Street to the Mississippi River.

Tim Arbeiter, executive director of Old Town Cape, discussed redevelopment plans for the Good Hope area where vacant lots are common in the 400 block.

Old Town Cape officials envision residential and commercial development. With proper planning, the area could become home to artists and art galleries, Arbeiter said.

The city could pattern the development after what has occurred in Paducah, Ky., he said. "Paducah allows an artist to have a gallery and living space all in one building," said Arbeiter.

New homes and condominiums could be built.

There's also opportunity for commercial development, he said.

Establishment of a local historic district could help promote restoration of older buildings, Arbeiter said.

Established by German settlers, the area was a flourishing neighborhood of mercantile shops, professional offices, taverns, rooming houses and homes by the late 1800s.

A century later, the Good Hope neighborhood was an eyesore. Drug deals were commonplace. Trash cluttered empty lots.

The Taste Lounge at 402 Good Hope, located in a building that for decades was a gathering place for blacks, first as a soul-food restaurant and later as a nightclub. It later became a magnet for trouble. Two murders and a near-riot occurred near the nightclub over the course of a decade.

The Taste closed for good after a fatal shooting outside the club on Jan. 1, 2004. In June, property owner Michael Pryor razed the building.

In recent years, Cape Girardeau police have cracked down on crime in the neighborhood with increased patrolling and arrests.

Arbeiter sees better times ahead for the area, sparked by some major construction projects that already are well underway and the recent erection of the new Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge that towers over the city's downtown.

Southeast Missouri State University's River Campus is under construction on Morgan Oak Street. The new federal courthouse is taking shape six blocks away on Independence Street.

Both projects will be completed within two years.

Arbeiter said those developments and the planned extension of Fountain Street as a new entrance to the city's downtown will fuel more development in a neighborhood that's home to some 4,600 people.

But Old Town Cape officials don't want haphazard development. They say it's important to develop a land-use plan that will manage growth and provide suitable buffer zones between commercial and residential development.

The Good Hope neighborhood is within walking distance of the city's riverfront. "You can walk four minutes and be downtown," said Arbeiter, who believes that could draw new residents who want to live within walking distance of shops and restaurants.

Arbeiter wants to start drawing up a land-use plan within the next two months.

Old Town Cape wants to involve Haarig property owners in the planning process from the start. The group may hire an urban planner to help craft a land-use plan.

Ultimately, the city's planning and zoning commission may look at rezoning the entire Old Town Cape area, stretching from West End Boulevard to the Mississippi River.

Planning and Zoning chairman Skip Smallwood welcomes a land-use plan for the Haarig area. But he said that's just one section of the larger Old Town Cape area which extends as far west as West End Boulevard.

Smallwood wants a comprehensive zoning plan for the entire area.

The planning commission, he said, may look at "blanket zoning," rezoning the entire Haarig neighborhood and other neighborhoods within the Old Town Cape district.

But that would take some detailed planning, Smallwood said.

Residents like Dolly Schlue want to see the old homes preserved. "I don't want more businesses in the area. I think this is much too pretty an area," said Schlue, who lives in a 127-year-old house in the 300 block of Good Hope Street.

"I have lived here for 78 years. I was born in this home," she said.

Schlue's glad Old Town Cape and city officials have taken an interest in the neighborhood. Redevelopment of her neighborhood has been ignored for too long, she said.

She sees Southeast Missouri State University's developing River Campus as a catalyst for residential development. "I am sure there will be more housing going up," she said.

Scott Blank, who owns Bi-State convenience stores in Cape Girardeau, said a land-use plan would help assure both quality commercial and residential growth in the Haarig neighborhood.

"I think it is a step in the entire broad plan of downtown redevelopment," said Blank.

One of the Bi-State stations is on Morgan Oak Street. He also owns a grassy, vacant lot behind that convenience store.

Blank, who serves on an Old Town Cape committee, wants to see more residential development in the area. That in turn would be good for business, he said.

Blank sees the possibility of developing first-floor shops with residential units on the second floor.

"I would like to see a city market go in downtown," he said. That could draw customers just as the historic Soulard farmers market has in St. Louis, Blank said.

"Ultimately everybody wants the same thing," he said. "You want to better Cape Girardeau."

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123