Cold War Neighbors

It doesn't have to be this way, but it has been this way before and it feels like we are there again. They want what they want and it legally belongs to them, not to us.  But we want something too.  We are tired of seeing our neighborhood eroded.  Contrary to what some people believe...what you see around where you live is important and as a society we mostly agree that property rights do not trump all other rights.  That is how we got laws like zoning laws that limit, to some degree, what you can do with your own property.  It's why you can't mow your lawn at midnight, or throw your trash out into the alley or let sewage spill onto your neighbor's property.   I'm not saying this current disagreement that the neighborhood, and others are having with St. Mary's and the Lafayette Diocese are the same as any of that, but I am pointing out that not wanting your sight line spoiled or changed is a valid feeling to have. The feelings of those who don't want the house destroyed are as valid as the feelings the Church has about wanting to remove the house.

In a prior post I described some societal and demographic changes as part of why church and the neighborhood association (and others)  seem to be in a sort of "cold war" now and for the last 20 or 30 years.  I think there is more to the story, something more personal and I think there is blame enough to go around.

It might have started about the time St. Mary's was doing some major restoration work an also planning to add a large fellowship hall to the west side of the Cathedral.  The building committee hired an architectural firm for the building project and they came up with a design that appeared to all of us to be horribly wrong...it tried to meld a sort of modern feel to the front of the church.  It looked like (on the drawings and plans that two opposite styles were fighting for control of the facade of the building.

There was an uproar from those who did not like the proposal...enough so that a  new facade design was adopted that everyone mostly agreed on.  Of course that resulted in some delays and probably additional design costs for St. Mary's.  I'm certain some folks thought of the plan change as a "victory" over the big, pushy church, while others thought of it as a loss to a random bunch stuck up nosey neighbors in other words that whole episode amounted to a zero-sum game that set the tone for the next quarter century.

 The next big skirmish in our ongoing cold war happened when the  Munger house and the Walgamuth house were slated to be town down. Just as soon as the notices were tacked to the fronts of the houses neighbors went into action trying to find a solution, other than demolition. Those two houses were important historic lynchpins for that part of the neighborhood.  Both highly visible and in good solid condition.  This time no one from the church had bothered to talk to the neighborhood before they applied for demolition permits What the leadership at St. Mary's church were telling was that they needed to remove those houses in order to give the children at St. Mary's school a "real" playground.  It was being done "for the children" because playing on the large asphalt parking lot just wasn't any fun, although students there had been playing on that lot for at least a couple of generations. The Walgamuth home had been one of the two oldest homes built in the neighborhood, possibly even predating the erection of the church. 

The whole disagreement could not have come at a worse time.  Bishop Doherty had been appointed to the Lafayette Diocese and arrived in town during the thick of  the debates.  On the day of his Ordination when there were hundreds of parishioners and clergy from many parts of the country in attendance.  Some neighbors made large signs promoting the preservation of the two houses.  I don't recall what any of the signs said, but they had been posted in a very public location near the church.  I heard, but can't confirm, that flyers were placed on many of the cars parked in their parking lots or parked near the Church on Columbia and South Streets.

I have no trouble understanding why Bishop Doherty would have been sore at the people of St. Mary's neighborhood. Is he still sore at us?  We lost that skirmish and lost two fine old homes and many of us were angry also.  For a long time that anger was renewed each time we drove or walked past those now vacant lots.  But, there was more disappointment and anger to come after it became known that the REAL REASON the church wanted to vacate those lots was for future school expansion and had nothing to do with a "playground".  We had been lied to and today those lots remain vacant.

About two years ago St. Mary's neighborhood did get invited to the unveiling of the master plan St. Mary's hopes to carry out over the next few years.  They pointed proudly at 1014 South and announced that they would be restoring that one as the new rectory after the old rectory was torn down....two years passed, the old rectory was torn down and all of a sudden we see the "intent to demolish" legal notice on the front of the building that they had promised would be turned into the new rectory.  From our point of view we have been lied to,  twice,  by the same people.  At what point do you consider something to be a habit? I would note that when the historic rectory was demolished last year there was no pushback from the neighborhood because we knew they would be moving to the house on South Street.

Probably the most hurtful of all is that all of this negative activity in our neighborhood happens without so much as a second thought about any of us who live here, and then they seem surprised and hurt that we are not happy.  As the cartoon says...it needn't be this way.  Talking is always more productive than silence and right now all I'm hearing is a lot of silence. Was the timing their latest "intent to demolish" random, or did they choose holiday time on purpose, knowing it will be difficult for any opposition to get much traction during the Christmas Holiday season?

Can the clock be reset on this relationship between a church and those of us who live around the church?  That remains to be seen but it is my Christmas wish...that St. Mary's would become a part of our neighborhood, instead of apart from the neighborhood.  Wouldn't it be really great if St. Mary's church became a partner with and an advocate for the neighborhood?  Just a daydream?