Congratulations to Tom Pickel, former Executive Director of DeSales Community Development, recipient of our 2023 Lifetime Dedication to Community Building Award!
The Lifetime Dedication to Community Building Award recognizes a person who:
Has demonstrated a long-standing commitment to community building work.
Has exhibited leadership, vision, and a commitment to action and results.
Has catalyzed outstanding impact in community building policy, investment, and/or community change.
Has worked to challenge the status quo in the St. Louis region.
Humans of St. Louis storyteller Lindy Drew met with Tom to learn more about the work and love has for St. Louis. Here’s some of what Tom had to say.
I lived in the City of St. Louis all my life. After college, I thought I’d do something to get involved with the development and improvement of the City and realized I didn’t want to work for a public agency long-term or in a big bureaucracy. An opportunity came along at a small CDC and then at DeSales Community Development. Lo and behold, the executive director left and I was appointed to her position. I thought it would be a two-year gig, but that was in the early ’90s, and it was a challenging time for the City and that neighborhood. There was a severe economic recession and in areas like Fox Park and Tower Grove East, which saw improvement in the ’80s, there was a sense of backsliding causing them to lose momentum and progress. That’s when the organization decided to get involved in generating investment in neighborhoods and rehabbing vacant buildings to provide affordable housing. Ten years after that, we formed Fox Grove Management to manage our own properties.
At about that same time, we were approached by the Missouri Botanical Garden to manage the McCree Town Redevelopment Project, which is now Botanical Heights. The management company grew, we got involved in more projects, and in the last decade, we put a new emphasis on programs like youth sports and other activities to support more community building. So I thought I was going to move on to bigger and better things and I did. I just stayed within the same organization. I worked with DeSales for 35 years. I still love the field and I don’t fish or golf, so I’ll find things to keep myself occupied.
What’s an early memory of successful community development work that’s inspired you?
People go to Botanical Heights today to eat at places like Olio and send their kids to City Garden Montessori, but 20 years ago it looked nothing like it does now. It was enlightened self-interest on the part of the Missouri Botanical Garden. They couldn’t just pick up and move. So they said they were going to do something to invest in the area, they raised funds, and they did it. It didn’t happen overnight, but it wouldn’t have happened without an intentional sponsorship on the part of the garden. And there are many other stories like this one as well. People may not remember the name Ralston Purina, but they were behind the LaSalle Park redevelopment starting in the ’70s. Washington University Medical Center Redevelopment Corporation in the West End and later in The Grove, which used to be the Rankin Neighborhood and then the Forest Park Southeast Neighborhood. And that neighborhood languished for a long time. What people regard as this great success of The Grove now with lots of restaurants, businesses, and apartments wouldn’t have happened unless WashU and their redevelopment corporation said, ‘We’re gonna invest, raise capital to improve these areas, and make it happen.
I thought you might ask why I wanted to meet here. For most of my life, I’ve lived within a block of Forest Park. I’m in the park multiple days per week and this building has some fondness for me and my brothers and sisters because we remember coming here on hot summer evenings. For a time, there was an ice cream stand here, we’d watch the sun go down, and the fountain at the foot of the hill would change colors at night. I was so fascinated as a child, like, ‘How does that happen?’ The park was this big adventure land. Sometimes after dinner, we’d cross Skinker and try to find an intact wooden golf tee. But if we found a golf ball, that was such a treasure. Then, as I got older, I’d explore with friends on our bikes. If we made it all the way over here to this side, we were really far from home! Our mother passed away in 1987 and our dad in 1997. So we sold the house west of Skinker and used the proceeds from part of it to make a contribution to Forest Park Forever. We have a little insignia on a donor board near here in memory of our parents. Another reason, more than anything, is that this park is a world-class asset for the city. It’s consistently rated one of the top urban parks in the country and we ought to appreciate that. But it wasn’t always that way. Back in the ’60s, ’70s, and early ’80s, Forest Park was rough. The streets were full of potholes, buildings like this had deteriorated, and there just hadn’t been the investment. Well, Forest Park Forever was founded as a nonprofit, dedicated to raising hundreds of thousands of dollars to make the park what it is today and provide an endowment for ongoing maintenance. That’s why there are 10,000 people in the park today. But we need to keep investing in our city and our assets like Forest Park.
📷| Sara Levin - Picture of “DeSales’ Success+Succession” Event with DeSales and Fox Grove Management Staff
Have you had any recent good memories that stand out from the park?
Actually, I didn’t want a retirement party. But I thought, ‘You know, 35 years and a change of leadership… That doesn’t happen very often.’ So I came up with a theme for what we called ‘Success and Succession’ to talk about DeSales as an organization, what it’s been able to achieve, and also mark the change in leadership. So we had a luncheon with our staff and about 160 friends of the organization and people who supported us along the way.
It’s really hard to build something up, but easy to tear it down. Can you tell me about a time when this was true for you?
In the early ’90s, we did a strategic plan and realized in the process that we needed to get involved in housing development to restart that pipeline of investment coming into neighborhoods. We identified the Low Income Housing Tax Credit, which was not widely used at that time, to raise capital and got involved in the affordable housing business. Well, at that time, there was a board member who was very influential on the team and adamantly opposed us getting involved in housing development. He thought that was something the private sector should do. But, more of the board saw it my way, so to his credit, he came to me one day and said, ‘Tom, you’re taking this organization in a direction I don’t agree with. But I don’t want to stand in your way. I’m going to step down.’ I didn’t always get along with the guy, but I gave him credit for that. And that experience played into my thinking as I approached a turn in leadership.
I came to the conclusion that when it was time for me to hang it up, Becky Reinhart’s the person. Having her already on the team expedited the decision. The board named her as my successor and we have utter confidence in her. Well, I told all of them that I didn’t want anybody working in my shadow, because I’ve seen it. Like, if I was on the board, questions would come up, discussions would come up, everybody would have their say, and then they’d all turn to me like, ‘What does Tom think about this?’ I don’t want to be that guy. So I’ll be helpful in any way I can. But the future is theirs, it’s not mine.
Crime, whether real or perceived, it’s an issue that we just can’t dismiss. I’ve got the perspective of seeing what’s been done when it comes to investing in St. Louis and progress is possible. This city has so much going for it. We’re sitting in the middle of one of the biggest assets we have, and there are a lot of others. A lot of native St. Louisans are pretty cynical about the City and the metropolitan area. That’s why I especially love working with people who come here from out of town because they get it. St. Louis has the bones of a bigger city and the convenience and appeal of a mid-size city. It’s easy to get around and there are so many cultural events and institutions to enjoy. Decline is not inevitable. This experience shows that if you’ve got the opportunity, means, and will to get something done and solve problems, it can be done. So I don’t have a lot of patience for native St. Louisans who are down on the City. To newcomers, I like to share my favorite description of St. Louis and that is that it’s the westernmost eastern city and the easternmost western city. It’s the southernmost northern city and the northernmost southern city. And I think that’s true culturally, architecturally, socially, and racially. For good or for bad, it’s all of it.
Of all the hurdles you’ve come up against in your work, what is the most important lesson you’ve learned?
When I think of my first boss who hired me out of college, he ran the St. Louis Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority and was a real leader in the field at the time. During my first week on the job, he took me out to lunch and said, ‘Tom, the first thing you have to learn in this business is patience. Nothing happens quickly.’ And that is certainly true because in community development we’re trying to do hard stuff. If it was easy and people were making the money, everybody would be doing it. So it’s challenging. It takes a lot of money, resources, and getting people to work together on a common goal. And it takes raising capital and getting projects built. It’s a long-term commitment. I’m more of a tactical, as opposed to a strategic, planner. In an area like Fox Park 30 years ago, it wasn’t hard to determine where the toughest blocks and most vacant buildings were. You didn’t need to do a study to figure out where to put the money. What’s a little more challenging for me is putting the financing together and all the layers of capital needed to do a project. We can come up with the vision and negotiate to acquire property. Real estate is a people business. Meeting the owners and getting them to play ball with us is what’s the most exciting to me. And then putting the plan together to have an impact. Twenty years ago in Fox Park, you wouldn’t have seen a mom walking her child in a stroller down the sidewalk. But over time, you now see bikers and runners and people walking all the time. On weekday mornings, the little kids from SouthSide Early Childhood Center take a walk down Russell Blvd. and they all hold on to this rope as they walk with their teachers. If my spirits ever need a boost, seeing that does it.
What’s a ripple effect you’re proud to leave in the community development realm?
Communication among groups and between groups from the south city and the north city that didn’t happen 30 years ago. That’s one of the reasons I’m proud to have helped start Community Builders Network. To facilitate communication and information sharing and mutual aid. I’m proud at DeSales that we began a relationship with Northside Community Housing to manage their properties. I’ve always regarded it as more of a collaboration between two like-minded organizations with similar missions rather than a conventional manager relationship. And that wouldn’t have happened 30 years ago. We’re certainly not past that in the City, but we're more on our way to having a harmonious, mutually respectful community development sector to serve the St. Louis region.
- Tom Pickel, former Executive Director of DeSales Community Development
