A drive down the St Louis street changed Melvin White’s life – now his nonprofit Beloved Streets of America is trying to make them thrive despite the odds A drive down Dr Martin Luther King Drive in St Louis changed Melvin White’s life. Roaming the city,he noticed for the first time that the street named after his hero was reduced to dusty lots, makeshift brothels, and the occasional storefront church. Not long before,wild dogs had killed and eaten a fourth-grader in a local park. MLK looked like a set for a post-apocalyptic Will Smith film, while nearby Delmar Boulevard echoed the tastes of Brooklyn hipsters – sidewalk-hogging strollers, and sneaker boutiques,a cafe that serves coffee in chemistry beakers. Melvin, who is black and in his mid-40s, and with an athletic frame and a neatly trimmed beard,spent his early years along MLK. A night-shift postal employee, he heard mailmen were now timorous to deliver mail on the street. Melvin knew that Chris Rock joke – whether you find yourself on MLK, or run! run! run! but he’d never thought approximately it for his childhood neighborhood.
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Source: theguardian.com