St. Louis needs many, many more people to walk the streets. I know it's cliche by now, but Jane Jacobs' eyes on the street theory is so intrumental here. St. Louisans need to tough it out and walk their streets to take control over them.



Developing a pedestrian culture won't be easy in a city so well built for cars (and one whose transit service has been cut so gratuitously from its heyday). Yet Tower Grove South would be an excellent demonstration neighborhood for improving the pedestrian experience in St. Louis.



One way to reduce these incidents would be for a neighborhood organization or other group to hold a series of "walking" events throughout the neighborhood.



These include pub crawls, house and garden tours, history or architecture tours that are regularly scheduled, etc.



Forest Park Southeast has developed a walking path that would be an excellent idea to emulate in Tower Grove South. Just by placing signage around the neighborhood and indicating mile markers, residents are encouraged to use the route and therefore increase the safety on the selected route (if it's actually used--this might require regular programming at first before people feel perfectly safe).



The newly minted Dutchtown West Neighborhood Association actually did a walk-through of their entire area to search for problem properties, nuisance violations, etc. They then reported these to the city. Both the act of walking the neighborhood to scout out these problems and reporting them is a good way to show would-be criminals that there are eyes and feet on the streets and that these people are in charge.



A New Orleans nonprofit named Silence is Violence sponsors neighborhood walks whose purpose is simply to meander around the neighborhood and demonstrate that people are vigilant and care about their neighborhoods.



The only way to take back the sidewalks of St. Louis is to walk them...all the time. Ditch the cars whenever possible and encourage others to do the same. It will become contagious.