a nice lil' column

i'm not a huge fan of this columnist, but i like what he has to say about my 'hood, St. Paul's East Side...East Side, Represent!

Neighborhood snobs slander East Side — again

JOE SOUCHERAY

A lot of people in St. Paul are snobs when it comes to the East Side. The south, the west and the north come out all right, although the North End does occasionally experience the turned-up nose.

Just for the sake of conversation, let's go with specific compass designations. The west side of St. Paul is Highland Park, Mac-Groveland, Merriam Park, King's Maplewood, out that way. Man, oh man, they never get the snob treatment. That is west. Stand in the middle of town with a compass and you will see that west is west.

The south side of town is across the Robert or Wabasha or High bridges and up Ohio Street and through Cherokee Park and in there. Very nice. Hardly ever suffers from snobbism.

The North End is out Rice Street or Dale or Lexington or Snelling, whatever gets you north. Yes, once in a while you get somebody who hasn't driven outside of a six-block perimeter in the past 40 years and they level snobby charges against the north side that reveal an ignorance similar to the charges suffered by the East Side.

The East Side is east, of that there is no doubt, but about 90 percent of the snobs who rip the East Side don't even know what they mean, or where. Do they mean Dayton's Bluff? Dayton's Bluff was certainly good enough last year when some big paddlewheel boat steamed into town and people lined the bluffs of Dayton's Bluff with their cameras, and I don't recall anybody getting mugged or anything of the sort.

Do they mean Phalen? I guess Phalen is OK when you need ice to build a Winter Carnival palace. Wendy Anderson comes out of Phalen, as did the late Herb Brooks.

There's Hazel Park and Hayden Heights and Maryland-Arcade, Upper Payne and Lower Payne, Johnson Parkway. In other words, it's just like every other chunk of St. Paul, where you have Mac-Groveland, Crocus Hill and Lex-Ham. The East Side of St. Paul is a vast geographical area east of Interstate 35E that runs from about Larpenteur on the north all the way out to McKnight and then down to Battle Creek.

When officer Gerald Vick was killed last week, I heard the snobs in full chorus.

"Oh, the East Side. That figures.''

No, it doesn't figure. Vick was murdered near Erick's Bar on East Seventh Street. I defy anybody to tell me that they could have predicted that by the neighborhood. Erick's is a neighborhood bar with the classic neon beer signs in a big smoked-glass picture window that overlooks the street. Down the block is the old Viaduct Inn, which is getting new life and good reviews in the newspapers for its menu.

Officer James Sackett was murdered in 1970 on Hague Avenue near Victoria. That about falls into the definition of Cathedral Hill. Back then there was a big difference. We had not yet become neighborhoodists. They didn't have the little fleur-de-lis-shaped street signs back then that said "Historic Cathedral Hill.'' There was no Restoration Hardware selling brass address plates.

These days everybody is so pleased as punch to live in the city and avoid suburban commuting that we have become neighborhoodists who assign a neighborhood name to parcels of real estate no more than a block long.

"Where do you live?''

"Um, we live in the Milton-Chatsworth neighborhood.''

No you don't. You live in St. Paul.

All I'm asking is that the snobs grant the same considerations to the East Side, where there are just as many neighborhoods and neighborhoodists as any other part of St. Paul. And, just like any other location in St. Paul, there are pockets of trouble and stretches of housing in decline on the East Side.

It is interesting to note that around Erick's Bar it is called East Seventh Street. On the other end of town, where there are pockets of trouble and stretches of housing in decline, but more active neighborhoodists, it is called Fort Road.
Joe Soucheray can be reached at jsoucheray@pioneerpress.com