Trump’s push for a border wall a reminder of the walls in our lives

“Something there is that doesn’t love a wall ...”

So opens the famous poem written by Robert Frost in 1914, among whose themes are the barriers between people and communities.

We, as a country, have been engaged in an acrimonious debate over the need for a wall along the border between the United States and Mexico and how to best manage the flow of immigrants and refugees originating from countries south of the border.

I am struck in listening to the arguments both for and against what has been termed Trump’s Wall, how many walls and barriers exist in our own community, some physical but others set by policy and law.

Stone and metal wall

There is a multi-million dollar house on Tippecanoe Road, south of Route 224 that is surrounded by a stone and metal wall. It is high enough to completely block the view of the property within it. It is both attractive and expensive. No one questions the right of property owners to protect their property, but at the same time the wall is sending a clear message.

The Mahoning Valley could be studied as a laboratory of walls and barriers in public spaces, starting with Youngstown State University.

Consider the presidential residence on Wick Avenue. When the former Wick Pollock Inn was remodeled, a fence was erected around the perimeter of the property. Like the wall on Tippecanoe Road, this fence is a visually appealing fence constructed of wrought iron and brick. And it also sends a clear message. With the exception of Stambaugh Stadium and the power plant it is the only building fenced off from the surrounding campus and through which pedestrian access is restricted.

Not all walls in the Valley are physical barriers. Some are the result of historic tradition and laws.

Natural barrier

Mill Creek Park is rightly touted as one of the jewels of the Mahoning Valley. Like the Rio Grande River it is also a natural barrier. The wide expanse of the Park and few cross roads limit east/west movement particularly within the city of Youngstown. This barrier was reinforced by discriminatory real estate practices so that Park separates the largely African-American South Side of Youngstown from the historically white West Side. This pattern of segregation persists to this day.

Communities, particularly in suburbs such as Canfield and Poland, erect barriers to residential entry of low income households by prohibiting or limiting the construction of new multi-family apartment complexes and zoning minimum lot acreage and single-family house square footage for new housing that forces the price of housing beyond the means of lower income households. It is no coincidence that the populations of both Canfield and Poland Townships are almost exclusively white.

Some school districts in the region prohibit enrollment by students from other districts. Others limit external enrollment to either specified or adjacent districts. A few have what is in effect an “open borders” policy allowing anyone to enroll regardless of where they live. Note the parallels to immigration policies.

US-Mexico border

What do these walls, fences and barriers have in common with the proposed wall between the United States and Mexico? First, they all restrict movement of one kind or another. Second, they provide some sort of security from threats real or perceived. Third, different people or groups disagree as to their value and need.

Many other examples could be cited. The fact is that we live lives defined by walls and barriers of one kind or another. As the debate over Trump’s Wall proceeds we should be mindful of this reality and ponder the question posed by Robert Frost over one hundred years ago.

“Before I built a wall I’d ask to know

What I was walling in or walling out

And to whom I was like to give offence”

Thomas Maraffa is professor emeritus of Geography at Youngstown State University.