Most St. Louisans have driven Skinker between Highway 40 and Delmar, but it continues on for several more miles and changes its name to Kienlen Avenue, skirting the border of the city and county.
What is surprising is the large number of relatively recent, if certainly bombed-out apartment complexes lining the street.
The area, long rural throughout St. Louis's history, has a distinctive suburban quality to it. It doesn't seem like a great place to live without a car, but it seems many of the residents rely on public transit.
There is still a lot of activity, as this seafood restaurant in a former Church's Chicken(?) attests. It might not always be pretty, but it is certainly still alive.
I drive down Page to Kienlen to the Loop on my way to work all the time.
ReplyDeleteI love the gnarled trees, which I tried unsuccessfully to photograph. It's hard to get enough context without also getting powerlines, passing cars, etc.
We should adopt the term borderlands more widely for this area, good word.
Delete