Interdependence Proclamation
Posted February 25, 2001; Adopted by the Community Council on March 27, 2001

Interdependence Proclamation Introduction    We, the remaining members of the Forest Park Southeast Community Council, joined by others, proclaim our respect for the democratic principle of allowing the expression of all viewpoints in arriving at decisions affecting the neighborhood. Living by this principle, we believe, requires a respectful recognition of the interdependence of all the people who live, work, and own property in the neighborhood. A short history    A community Advisory Group (CAG) was formed in Forest Park Southeast (FPSE) after the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development made a partnership grant involving the Washington University Medical Center. Experience with the CAG led to a decision to have a more broadly based organization for the continued revitalization of FPSE under the grant and other efforts. Thus, the Community Council was formed with the constitution adopted April 27, 1999. The primary purpose of the Council was to ensure that the community would drive the redevelopment process.    Meanwhile, the late Governor Mel Carnahan launched a community governance project, partly to reform how the state's human services were delivered. That project led to the formation of Area Resources for Community and Human Services (ARCHS) and Regional Housing and Community Development Alliance (RHCDA). ARCHS established the Sustainable Neighborhoods Initiative and FPSE was selected as one of the sustainable neighborhoods.    On the face of things, the Community Council and the Sustainable Neighborhoods Initiative appear to be complementary, with both devoted to democratic, resident-driven neighborhood decisions. The Community Council's constitution declared that the council's purposes included "providing a forum for democratic discussion and decision-making about neighborhood issues and projects" and "promoting active participation in neighborhood decision-making and promoting frequent and effective communication within the neighborhood and between the Community Council and the neighborhood." The documentation for the Sustainable Neighborhoods initiative asserted that it would meet head on such challenges as the "culture of 'backroom power broker decision making'" and that ARCHS was a "regional partnership" with a board of directors that would be "citizen driven and inclusive of the racial, socioeconomic, and cultural make-up of the St. Louis area."    The Community Council has failed, with the causes many. The Council, because it had representatives of various groups, necessarily included parties. This is not surprising because, for example, there were the Hamiltonians and the Jeffersonians at our country's foundation, with the Hamiltonians believing control by traditional, established leaders best served society while the Jeffersonians believed the people were capable of governing themselves.    Broadly considered, there were two parties in the Community Council that named each other "The Elitists" and "The Crazies." Generally, neither party used the name it imposed on the other party with a neighborly intent. More charitably, the two council parties would be described as the Hamiltonians and the Jeffersonians, respectively.    In addition to the council's party division, ARCHS - which is responsible for allocating human services funds - pledged that it would facilitate neighborhood funding only upon the recommendation of the Community Council. Individual members of the council, however, secured funding through ARCHS for youth programs during the summer of 2000. Those programs had not been presented to the Community Council for consideration and review.    Neighborhood action independent of the council continued as the Annie E. Casey Foundation selected a new "leadership team" for the foundation's activities in the neighborhood. The team included current and former members of the Community Council and pointedly excluded the Jeffersonians.    By late 2000, a number of Hamiltonian council members agreed to resign from the council. Some of them planned to continue activities with various committees with the committees acting independently of the Community Council. Again, it appeared that the Jeffersonians were to be excluded from committee leadership. The present situation    With the resignation of more and more members from the Community Council (for many different reasons), the council is unable to muster a quorum and, under the agreed rules in the constitution, is unable to reestablish a quorum by filling vacancies.    Thus the remaining members of the Community Council, mostly Jeffersonians, face the necessity of devising democratic means for making neighborhood decisions. The remaining members recognize that the Community Council process was too complicated for the present and that enterprises proposed for council action exceeded the council's capacity. They deeply regret, however, that greater effort was not made to develop the Community Council's capacity and they regret that the party division was seen as a threat rather than as an opportunity. The future    With determination to preserve efforts to have representative, resident-driven decisions for the FPSE neighborhood, we proclaim that we will: continue the democratic ideals of the Community Council under simplified rules; find ways for neighborly discussions, even when disagreements exist, whether the disagreements are idea-based or personality-based; reach out to all the people of the neighborhood and accommodate ourselves to their concerns; respect and record the views of all, regardless of race, gender, or economic standing; and welcome all, without exception, to participate in the efforts to have decisions made by a neighborhood body that is a fair cross-section of the neighborhood, even when economic status is considered.

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