WEB EXTRA: New American Neighborhoods/Enclaves

The urban identity of St. Louis and its surrounding counties has been shaped in many respects by the skills, culture and political leanings of immigrants over the centuries. These new Americans had a particular impact on city neighborhoods from the Italian influences of “The Hill”, The Irish settlers of “Dogtown” or the German heritage of Benton Park.

Although the Gateway City can’t boast the charms of large ethnic neighborhoods like San Francisco’s “Chinatown” or New York’s “Little Italy,” the rich tradition of the immigrant enclave continues, most recently with the growing number of new American arrivals over the past decade.

“You just don’t get the kind of enclaves you get on the coasts in major port areas,” said Ann Rynearson, Senior Vice President for Culture and Community for the International Institute of St. Louis. “Except for the Bosnians in recent years, we don’t have a huge flow of one group arriving in a relatively short period of time.”

In the late 1980s, the Gravois Road area around Bevo Mill was seeing a sharp downhill slide due to residents either moving to the county or dying of old age. Abandoned storefronts and for sale signs stood in marked contrast to the once thriving neighborhood. That is until the influx of Bosnian immigrants in the 1990s turned things around.

“They are major homeowners,” explained Rynearson. “They really like to own their own homes so as soon as they possibly could they started buying houses, and those who didn’t buy houses lived in the large number of apartment buildings in that area.”

The Bevo Mill neighborhood is now flourishing. Gone are the empty store fronts as new businesses and restaurants continue to open. The nearby Oak Hill School boasts a predominately Bosnian student body and the neighborhood feels very much like the archetypal immigrant enclaves of the 20th century.

“It is possible, particularly for the older people in the Bosnian community, to live there and never speak any English, whereas all the other ethnic groups really need to be able to speak a little English—in the store, in the post office, and in the bank because they are not in a true enclave.”

Unlike the Bosnian community, other recent immigrant groups are more evenly spread throughout the city and county but in somewhat concentrated numbers. According to Rynearson, Hispanic, Chinese and Indian immigrants are among the fastest growing populations.

“What you get here is ethnicity by commute,” explained Rynearson. “Which means that there are institutions, there are stores, there are restaurants, there are ethnic clubs—but they just aren’t all in the same neighborhood or the same street…”

“There are several Chinese Christian churches,” Rynearson continued. “There’s the Chinese cultural center and lots of Chinese stores on Olive. There’s the beautiful Hindu temple by Queeny Park which is very near the Islamic Center.”

Still, for many immigrant families there is a struggle to hold on to their common language and culture while assimilating into the greater American fabric. In particular, work is going on among immigrant children to preserve their heritage by getting them into the arts. Chinese Americans have very active classes in schools teaching not only their language and writing, but cultural dancing and art.

In addition to the cultural benefits that new Americans bring to the area, they have a growing political impact being felt not only in St. Louis, but throughout the entire state of Missouri.

“If we had been speaking ten years ago I would have said they were very, very Republican,” offered Rynearson. “But the one thing the Bush administration has done is turned them around. So they are becoming increasingly Democratic. They went very heavily for Charlie Dooley in the County.”

The International Institute helps refugees and immigrants gain independence by teaching English, finding jobs, and providing adjustment services to overcome language and cultural barriers. Each summer the organization hosts the annual Festival of Nations in Tower Grove Park. On May 3 the Institute will co-host a scaled down version of International Folk fest with the St. Louis Public Library. The event is underwritten by the Regional Arts Commission and will take place at the Central Library downtown with seminars on tracing family genealogy abroad, in addition to cultural arts, crafts and storytelling.