Blog

By Rance Thomas

It’s  time for us to be reminded once again of how fortunate we are to live and raise our families in a community such as North St. Louis County. It is so easy to be distracted and allured to other areas believing that there are better places and areas in which to live. We need to just remind ourselves of the old adage “the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.” It is so easy to believe this until we actually get on the other side.

Of course, everything is not perfect in any area. There are always advantages and disadvantages everywhere. I remember that when I was in the U.S Air Force stationed in Camarillo, Cal., near Oxnard which was a great place to live, but I thought that I wanted to live elsewhere. When they closed the Air Force Base in 1969, they I was  transferred to Scott Air Force Base. I wanted to stay some place in California, but the military had other ideas, I spent the next three years at Scott Air Force Base, in Belleville, IL. This was one of the best things that ever happened to me.

Upon retirement, I lived in Bethalto, IL for 18 months while earning my Master Degree at SIUE. Upon completion of my degree and obtaining employment at Lewis & Clark Community College in Godfrey, IL, I began looking for housing in an integrated community and a permanent residence. In 1973, there was little integrated housing in the Alton and Lewis & Clark Community areas; therefore, I looked at housing in North St. Louis County. I finally settled in a house in unincorporated North St. Louis County where I have been living for 40 years.

During those 40 years, I have seen many changes especially in the growth in housing, businesses, population, and a change in the demographics. In spite of these changes, it is still one of the best places to live, work, and raise a family. This is true in spite of the tragic situation with several of our school districts, Riverview Gardens and Normandy.

We still have some of the finest schools in the St. Louis Metropolitan Area. For example, Hazelwood, Ferguson-Florissant, and Pattonville School Districts. For those wan private schools, we also have some of the finest in the St. Louis Metropolitan Area as well, including Trinity Catholic High School, Lutheran North High School, North County Christian High School, etc. These schools offer students excellent education at affordable fees. In fact, Trinity Catholic High School underwent an accreditation review a few weeks ago and received the highest possible rating.

Students from Trinity High School receive millions of dollars in scholarship funds to attend college after graduation, and they are accepted at some of the  nation’s finest colleges and universities. This is also true for Hazelwood and Ferguson-Florissant graduates. A number of these receive some of the most prestigious awards in the country. One of the wonderful things about North County that makes is such a wonderful place to live is that the community comes together to work on issues that are important to the community. Of course, there are more spacious places and perhaps bigger and some newer homes in other parts of the area, but the big advantage of North County is that organizations and residents come together to work to resolve problems that exist.

Therefore, I call upon residents and organizations to continue their cooperation and collaboration in dealing with concerns that may still be with us.

Frankly, there is no other place I would rather live. Since I am no longer in the Air Force, I do not have to be concerned about being moved involuntarily, thank goodness. (Rance Thomas, Phd, is president  of the community church organization, North County Churches Uniting for Racial Harmony and Justice.