South Park, Houston

South Park is a broad post-World War II development in the south-central area of Houston, Texas, a few miles south of MacGregor Park (from which it gets its name) and directly south of the 610 Loop. According to the 2000 Census, the community has a population of 22,282. 81% of the South Park population is predominately African American, compared to 25% for the city as a whole. Houston's Martin Luther King Boulevard runs through the area. Reflecting its postwar origins, many streets in South Park are named after World War II battle sites and persons. In the 1980s and 1990s crime became a key issue for South Park. Katharine Shilcutt of the Houston Press said "South Park is an overgrown garden these days, its soil only able to be tilled by the most determined or the most desperate. It shows no sign that it will grow again any time in the near future."

South Park, a post-World War II development, had mostly middle class White American families during the 1950s and early 1960s. Many of the homebuyers were veterans of World War II, and streets were named after battles and people that the homebuyers knew from personal experience. When South Park served as a suburb, lawns were neatly trimmed and area children traveled to places by bicycle.

The 610 Loop opened in the 1960s. Katharine Shilcutt of the Houston Press stated that some residents believed that the opening of 610 marked the beginning of South Park's decline. Ralph Gonzales, a former resident quoted by Shilcutt, said that the opening of 610 caused traffic to increase in the area and allowed residents of other sections of the city to more easily reach South Park.

Shilcutt added that the forced integration of Jones High School and nearby Sterling High School hastened demographic changes; White families began to move to newer suburbs, such as Pasadena and Pearland. Dave Straughan, a former sergeant of the Houston Police Department's robbery division who served his rookie beat in South Park, said that several factors caused South Park to decline as a neighborhood; by the 1970s crime was beginning to increase.

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