"The Block" - The 1200 Block of West Washington St

In this episode, you will hear stories behind why the 1200 block of W. Washington street in South Bend, IN was nicknamed, "The Block." The area around the intersection of Washington & Walnut Streets was a thriving neighborhood & business district, but it started to started to change in the 1960s. Citizens called it a skid row, a dumping ground with abandoned buildings, drugs, robberies, prostitutes, and gambling. It is now a calm residential street & other than a few storefronts & buildings that survived, you would have NO clue what used to stand here.  It’s a fantastic success story of revitalization that our city & the South Bend Heritage Foundation should forever be applauded for.

Retired South Bend Police Lieutenant Sam Walsh (think Crime Stoppers) joins me and shares his memories of patrolling "The Block" in the 1970s as a uniformed officer as well as undercover. Jim Bankowski also joins me & shares his memories of his grandparents’ & then parents’ tavern, Nyikos, which stood right in the belly of "The Block" on the corner of Washington & Walnut.

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