STL: A Great Home Town

We are getting to one of the favorite times of the year in St. Louis. STL people like to decorate and dress up, and Halloween lets us do both. The tradition makes STL more beautiful and interesting. Go to the lake, and you find St. Louisans with decorated campsites. Drive through STL neighborhoods and you see decorated houses.


When a whole block decorates, it turns the neighborhood into a wonderland. We closed our street for a Halloween night block party. The shots above are from our place.

City In The City

News readers on the Big 550, KTRS, were discussing the recent crime report which puts St. Louis on top as the most dangerous city in the nation. The news people were asking, "Do you feel safe downtown". Most replied "yes".

One caller asked for the news people to give their definition of "downtown". George Woods, the anchor, stated he included the entire city of St. Louis when he thinks of downtown. Others in the studio were debating the defintion. Is it Washington Avenue? Does it include outer neighborhoods? They were pretty vague on city geography.

Downtown is one of 79 offical city neighborhoods, and represents about 5 percent of the city's land area. It's also one of the safest neighborhoods. For a different angle, it would be good to hear interviews with leaders from St. Louis' neighboring communities.

A couple possible questions to ask..."What would happen to the crime rate in the city if it were merged with its adjacent communities? Would that be good move for the region?"

Another List We Could Make

In STL, misleading as we know it is, we receive negative press for being a city with a high crime rate. Here's a different sort of list we could try to make...

Make it and we'd instantly drop from those lists of top ten crime story cities...

2006: A Great STL Year

2006 will go down as one of the best years in St. Louis history.

Visitors to STL Rising will note a recent drop off in posts. The last entry gave a list of possible St. Louis Cardinal accolades. Hesitant it might be bad mojo, I figured better to not change the blog until the Cardinals finished their post-season run.

Better still, after a Cardinals' loss in game 2 in Detroit, Fox 2 in St. Louis did a live remote from a block party, game-watching event in one of our neighbor's back yards. The reporter asked me for an on-air prediction. "Cards in 5" was mine. And it held!

The list of good things happening in STL is starting to boggle the mind. A great example was the ribbon cutting last week in Old North St. Louis at North Market Place Apartments. The event had a quality unique to any ribbon cutting I've ever attended. The success celebrated in Old North represents the culmination of over 30 years' effort by neighborhood residents.

Like Jeff Weaver, the cast-off pitcher salvaged from baseball's trash heap and finding new life in St. Louis, abandoned buildings in Old North are being rehabbed, despite gloomy forecasts of "experts" around the country predicting their demise.

The day the Cardinals won the World Series was the same day a deal was announced for Ballpark Village. And early indications are that even our town's most vocal urban critics are showing love for the plan.

Word on the street is that Target (and Trader Joe's?) are scouting locations in Midtown St. Louis.

Today, news reports say that St. Louis is the most dangerous US City. Tell that to San Diego, New York, and Detroit. I'm sure they would agree.

Strange thing, by all accounts, the 300,000 people enjoying the streets of downtown yesterday were totally at ease!

STL Pride: 2006 Cardinals

As of last nite, the Cardinals are only one win away from another trip to the World Series. A Cards/Tigers series would be a rematch of the 1968 World Series, when the Tigers beat the Cardinals. Baseball legends were born in those days, with players like Bob Gibson, Denny McClain, Mickey Lolich and others starring.

The 2006 Cardinals have a legitimate shot at a year-end honors sweep...consider these possibilites:

MVP: Albert Pujols (or runner up)

Cy Young: Chris Carpenter (or runner up)

Rookie of the Year: Chris Duncan (or runner up)

NL Manager of the Year: Tony LaRussa (should be in the bag)

NL Champs: STL Cardinals (one win away)

World Series Champs: STL Cardinals (five wins away)

Cover of Sports Illustrated, Time Magazines: Cardinals Rookie Bullpen

Comeback Player of the Year: Jeff Weaver (in the bag?)

Post Season Clutch Personality and 2006 Fashion Statement Impresario: Scott Spezio

The Cardinals victory last nite against one of baseball's best, Tom Glavine, was the best yet. Unlikely pitching star Jeff Weaver has been lights out in post season.

The young Cardinals bullpen is showing the heart of the team and the solid leadership and excellent coaching of Tony LaRussa and Dave Duncan form the foundation for the team's success.

Who's up for a Cardinal parade down Market Street, ending at the new ballpark, say in about ten days?

STL Rising: Historic Golf Settings

Being situated along the west bank of the Mississippi River, St. Louis holds the distinction for being first for many things "West of the Mississippi".

Among those many firsts are some great historic golf courses. You find these beautiful old courses located in historic neighborhood settings with mature trees and well manicured grounds. This time of year, if you don't mind occasionally searching for your ball under fall leaves, October is a great time to get out on one of our historic courses.

Built in 1903, Normandie Golf Club has the distinction of being the oldest golf course west of the Mississippi.

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in Feburary of 2005, Norwood Hills Country Club (private) is one of our area's most famous courses.

And this weekend, we're going to try and reserve a tee time to play a great 9-hole, very affordable, public course in University City, now celebrating its 75th year, Ruth Park.

STL Rising: Promoting STL Progress

The theme of this blog has officially changed from "supporting" the continuing progress of St. Louis to "promoting" that progress.

STL Rising: More Taxis For Downtown?

Yesterday I left the house without a jacket, unaware the temperatures were about to plunge. Then around noon, I had an appointment on the other side of downtown. An easy fifteen minute walk, but with just a shirt and no jacket, it'd be a chilly one.

What about more cabs downtown? Yesterday I would have loved to take a cab, but there are hardly any around. And the ones you do see are mostly looking for airport fares. Nothing annoys a cabbie more than getting a short ride fare when he's waiting for a $25 airport fare.

Cabs buzzing around downtown livens the street. Riding in cabs is fun. It's romantic. It's a city experience. Do you think there'd be cabbies interested if they could get a downtown district license?

STL Rising: Uncomplicating Your Life

This late 70s moped is the model I drove during college and back and forth to my job waiting tables. It was a belt-driven, Peugeot 103, 49 cc, 2-stroke. It made about 60 miles per gallon. On a flat road, with the wind at my back, it would get up to 40 mph. I paid $450 for it with about 1000 miles on it, drove it another 10,000 miles, then sold it some years later here in St. Louis for about the same price.


And here's a picture of the first model of car I bought for myself. It was a 1967 Volvo 122S. Mine was stock (picture it without the alloy rims, fog lights, and racing graphic...same color though). I bought it in 1978 and paid $2,200.

Back in those days, I was my own mechanic, body and fender guy. There was a sense of accomplishment, not to mention cost savings, in performing the maintenance ourselves on the cars we drove. Cars today have become so hi-tech that most people never do their own work any more.

Simplifying life, including figuring out ways to get back to basics with transportation, is definitely making more sense every day.

STL Bloggers Rising

When the story of the successful revitalization of STL is written, internet activists will have played a key role. Maybe even a nomination for Jeff Weigand on the U City Walk of Fame?

However, there is heavy lobbying going on in Congress to make the internet a pay-to-play, corporate dominated media.

What that would mean to the free STL bloggers we like to read, I'm not techie enough to know. It doesn't sound good.

Read more about the "Network Neutrality" issue here:

Save The Internet

New Stadium The Rx for Cardinals WS Drought?

The Cards are entering their second round of post-season play this year. So far, they have celebrated twice in their new Busch digs, once for clinching the NL Central, and last nite for winning round one of the playoffs.

Back in the early years of old Busch, the Cardinals dominated the National League. The middle sixties were the last real dynasty years for the Cardinals, just following the opening of their then-new ballpark.

Could this be the year they return to World Series greatness? Maybe all the Cardinals needed was a change in scenery.

Thomas Kempland Glass Plate Photography Collection

Check out this site for great historic views of St. Louis.

Thomas Kempland Glass Plate Photography Collection

Mr. Kempland found these images at a STL yard sale.

Macy's Cleans Up Downtown

What a beautiful sight it was on Olive today in front of the new Macy's.

There was a team of workers with a power washer cleaning off those brand new black awnings on the front of the store.

The awnings haven't been up for maybe a month, and already the management team at Macy's has them on a maintenance schedule.

Way to go, neighbor!

Scoreboard Watching

Around 11:00 yesterday morning, the family team is working the front lawn, core aerating and overseeding. Then in a total surprise, our neighbor walks up to us and offers us two tickets to yesterday's Cardinal game. It would be the biggest game of the year, with the Cardinals having a chance to clinch.

The seats were incredible, 9th row of the field boxes, between home plate and the mound. It was the last day of the season, with the stadium filled to capacity, including standing room areas.

The Cardinals magic number was down to one. A Cardinal win or a Houston loss would mean another post season trip for the Cardinals, their 6th in 7 seasons.

At game time, according to the right field scoreboard, Atlanta was already beating Houston 2-0.

LaRussa changed his pitching plans for the day, opting to start Anthony Reyes on only three days rest, and saving Carpenter for either the first post-season series, or a decisive one-game playoff situation.

Reyes was wholly ineffective, allowing 4 earned runs, giving way to a 1st inning reliever. Not to worry, though, by this time, Atlanta was up 3-0.

Now it's late in the game, and the Cardinals are down 5-0. But most people are watching the Atlanta-Houston score in the outfield. Atlanta is up 3-1, but Houston is batting and it's taking a life time to finish their half of the 7th inning. Is Houston having a big inning? Why is this 7th taking so long???

Heads keep turning from the action on the field to the scoreboard. The score stays 3-1, but its still the top of the 7th. The 7th goes on, and on. Then finally, the asterisk switches to the bottom of the 7th, with Atlanta batting, still leading 3-1.

Now its the 9th in Atlanta, and the Braves are still up 3-1. Fans in the left field corner at Busch start peforming the "Tomahawk Chop".

If there's a team I detest more than the Houston Astros, it's the Atlanta Braves, and there can't be a more annoying cheer than Atlanta's "Tomahawk Chop". But now, in St. Louis, it's the 9th in Atlanta, and the fans at Busch are standing, all doing the Tomahawk Chop. If Atlanta can "chop" Houston, the Cards win the NL Central.

Then along the right field line, fans start cheering. No sign from the scoreboard yet. Then on the big screen, they show the Houston manager, Phil Garner with a sour-milk look on his face, then they show a ninth inning play, with Houston making an out, then the Cards fans get louder with their Tomahawk Chop, now chanting that horrid "Chop" theme, backed up by the Busch sound system.

Then the score board changes the "9" to an "F" for the Braves/Houston game. Braves win. Cards clinch! Celebration breaks out at Busch.

Beautiful Day on Cherokee

For getting downtown from points in South City, Cherokee is an excellent connection, bridging the stretch from Gravois to Broadway.

Before 8:00 AM, the strip is quiet, with only the occasional group of school age kids gathered at a corner or a rehab contractor unloading equipment from the back of a pickup.

Buildings are in a rapid state of repair. A couple of half-rehabbed ones are available for purchase.

The Lemp Brewery complex is reportedly up for sale, with commercial real estate brokers estimating its value at around $30,000,000. The property was purchased just a few years ago for a tiny fraction of that amount.

Broker-developer types are touting the Lemp complex as a world-class, adaptive reuse development site.

Dumb question...is there a parade on Cherokee? Tiny neighborhood commercial streets can make the best parades.


Think Mardis Gras on Bourbon Street, the Chinese New Year Parade on Grant Avenue in San Francisco (before it was moved to a wide street in the Financial District), and the Hibernian parade in Dogtown down Tamm.

$540,000,000 More or Less...

As part of the original plan for the new Busch Stadium, the St. Louis Cardinals promised to build a $60,000,000, privately financed, "Ballpark Village" next to the new stadium.

The Cardinals have gone back to the drawing board, and come back to the City with a much larger vision for Ballpark Village. The plan they are proposing calls for a ten-fold increase in the size of the project to $600,000,000.

Using big city development cost estimates of $250 per square foot, at $60MM dollars, the project is 240,000 square feet. At $600MM the project is 2,400,000 square feet. Under the expanded project plan, the developer is proposing a project that would alter the skyline of St. Louis, including new towers rivaling the height of the Arch.

The larger project would be financed through a public-private partnership including TIF (Tax Increment Financing). An allocation of the new tax revenues generated by the project would be used to pay for the cost of the project.

So, if you had a choice, which would you rather see? A much smaller scale, fully privately financed project? Or a much larger project, financed through a public private partnership?

STL Rising: Window Restoration

One of the best things about old city houses are all the windows and natural light they let in.

On the other hand, most city homes come with old, wooden windows that vinyl window sales forces would love to see replaced.

Radio ads talk about the savings you will see from replacing your "drafty old wooden windows" with new "low-e", "dual pane", "tilt-in" vinyl windows.

However, lots of older homes don't look very good with shiny new white vinyl windows. On the other hand, it's fair to say that new vinyl windows can be an improvement in a home where there are no windows at all!

Some neighborhoods require certain types of windows, and there are rehab incentive programs that mandate specific historic replacement windows to qualify for certain program incentives.

The real question I'd like to pose, though, is what about those old, original wood windows? You know the kind, the divided glass ones, often covered with ugly aluminum clad storm windowns?

I was speaking with a friend of mine who restores old windows. She likes them best when the storms are removed. And she maintains that an old window, properly painted and sealed, is not much different than a new double-paned window when it comes to energy efficiency. Maybe yes, maybe no.

Then there are the vinyl window advertisers. They talk about energy savings of up to 30% with new vinyl windows.

Our annual energy bill runs around $3,500. 30% of that is about $1,000, give or take.

Our house has 16 windows. (Our last house had even more...it had 20). There is a wide range in price for new installed windows. Let's take a middle of the road price of $500 per window. Complete window replacement in our last house would have cost about $10,000.

In our new home, it would cost about $8,000. However, to use the appropriate historic windows our house deserves, the cost would be closer to $12,000.

Based on these costs, it would take about 8 to 12 years to break even on the cost of energy savings from new window replacement. Most people don't even live in the same house that long.

Recently, a very savvy real estate agent and I were discussing the subject of original versus new windows. His advice? Buyers don't pay much attention to the presence of original wood windows in a house. If anything, they prefer the charm the old windows offer.

He suggests doing kitchen and bath upgrades instead.

Email me if you'd like a referral to the original wood window restoration specialist I referred to at the start of this post.

Is This Heaven?

No, it's Parkway South

This fall, Matt is trying out for a baseball team which plays a more competitive level of ball. The team plays opponents throughout the St. Louis area on great amateur fields. This past weekend, the team ventured west of 270 to play a game at Parkway West High School.

The groundskeeper said most of the upgrades to the facility came through private donations to the public school. For baseball purists, a visit to this wonderfully developed facility will feed your soul.

"Children of Garbage Collectors" Send Message

Our son Matt is in 8th grade, which means now is crunch time when it comes to making a high school decision. And we're no nearer to finalizing the process than we were this time last year.

There are tons of issues to consider. Having listened to others and now living through the experience, we are learning first hand about the whole "where did you go to high school" tradition. It's definitely not the only option, but we are considering a parochial high school.

With thirty to choose from, the St. Louis area, just a middle-sized region, has the greatest number of Catholic high schools in the country. Tuition ranges from about $5,400 to over $14,000 per year.

In St. Louis, there's a lot of high school pride, tradition, and some social stair climbing, when it comes to where you attended high school, where your parents attended, etc.

Yesterday I heard a funny comment about how the students from one of the more affordable high schools in St. Louis trounced the kids at one of the most elite, expensive high schools in athletic competition. Parents from the expensive school were stunned at how the "children of garbage collectors" kicked the butts of their ivy-league bound youngsters.

I wish I could have seen it. I wish Matt could have seen it. Underdogs in St. Louis have a fighting chance. And where they attend high school doesn't have a thing to do with it.

Fourth Quarter Comeback

St. Louis is gaining a national reputation for being a comeback city.

As we enter the fourth quarter of 2006, we all have the opportunity to support the city's resurgence by visiting downtown during this upcoming holiday season.

Some of my favorite childhood memories are from this time of year. Holiday gatherings. Football parties. And downtown shopping trips.

One of my favorites is of the five-story tall Christmas tree they put up each year in the old City of Paris department store in downtown San Francisco. Downtown St. Louis has a similar high-rise Christmas tree in the lobby of the Metropolitan Square building.

This year, let's all be part of the revitalization of St. Louis by renewing the tradition of visiting downtown during the holidays. There are plenty of reasons to do so.

Downtown has more and more stores opening, more restaurants and hotels to visit, and more people on the streets. And we can look forward to the excitement building every year as more downtown projects are completed.

Why not be part of the comeback of downtown St. Louis? Between now and the end of the year, make plans for a visit downtown for some shopping, strolling, romantic dining and even an overnight stay! Maybe even some fireworks on New Years Eve?

STL Rising-Local Clothing Designer and Manufacturer

A friend of mine emailed a note about his sister-in-law, an immigrant from the other side of the world, who has settled with her husband in South City where she makes and sells her own clothing design originals. She markets her products through her website at YULIA-you.com.

Okay, so people don't usually ask me for fashion advice - just ask my thirteen year old - but her designs look good. Now if there was just the right up-and-coming, garment district venue where some serious clothing experts could see her work...

STL Rising: Great Deals on Tacky Art!

So I'm taking it easy watching television, clicking up and down the dial from the new ESPN Monday Night Football double header format to VH1's documentary about the loss of innocence in the 60s psychedlic days. I surf by Bill O'Reilly interviewing Pat Buchannan about strategy in the Middle East and Iraq and stop to listen for a minute.

Buchannan is dressed in a suit, sitting behind a big desk in what supposedly is his office. He's discussing his views about what he believes to be our misguided efforts in the war in Iraq when I notice over his shoulder, on the back wall of his office, a framed piece of art work that looks very familiar...

Now I'm not paying any more attention to the interview, but rather am leaning closer to get a better look at the art work on Buchannan's wall. It looks exactly like a piece we have in our bedroom, frame and all. I walk upstairs and, sure enough, they are identical.

The setting is a scene from what looks to be England during the 1600-1800s, displayed in a rope patterned, gold leaf frame. It's a product marketed widely through Bombay mall stores.

The only thing is, we didn't get ours at a Bombay. In fact, we didn't get it at a store at all! We paid ten bucks for it at a STL yard sale!! Buchannan always struck me as a fiscal conservative. Maybe he sends his people to buy cheap art at STL yard sales too?

STL Rising-What Would You Preserve??

In a region bestowed with so much rich architectural heritage, there is a constant debate over preservation.

While STL Rising is all about the growth and renaissance of St. Louis, we won't be successful in our renaissance if we lose our unique STL identity.

However, sometimes there are tradeoffs which take us forward. The demolition of old Busch into Busch III and Ballpark Village is a good example.

Without Busch III, many believe that downtown STL would have lost the Cardinals. Instead, we are now on the threshold of seeing $1,000,000,000 in new development downtown on the site of old Busch and a massive surface parking lot.

On the other hand, many of us were very saddened to see the demolition of the old Arena. Some advocated for a plan at the site of the "Old Barn" that would have combined new construction with preservation of the landmark sports arena.

This weekend, we enjoyed some local ethnic flavor at the annual Polish Festival in North St. Louis. Just across the back fence from the Polish Falcons picnic area is a severly deteriorated building. Based on many years' returns to the Polish Festival, the forlorn building has stood there mostly unattended to, year after year.

At this year's event, I overheard one of the seasoned patrons of the Festival talking about moving the event to some different location. For me, when it comes to preservation, I care less about the future of the nearly collapsing building behind the Polish Falcon's back fence, than I do about seeing the annual festival remain at its St. Louis Avenue location for generations to come.

In St. Louis, we are an interesting mosaic of differing ideas and perceptions. There may be no other topic that generates so many varied perspectives than the preservation and redevelopment of older sites. What's your take?

Ballpark Village - Tale of The Tape

In baseball, a "tale of the tape" is a popular expression to measure the distance of a monster home run. Soon, the expression could take on added meaning when describing another potential home run in downtown St. Louis: Ballpark Village.

Negotiations are underway to expand the scope of Ballpark Village to a $650,000,000 project. Investing $650,000,000 into eight downtown acres means achieving serious urban densities, and will be another big step in the transformation of our downtown.

If we estimate development costs to run $200 per square foot, Ballpark Village grows to approximately 3.25 million square feet. On 8 acres, that's about 400,000 square feet of new construction per acre.

Combined with new Busch, the total investment on the site of old Busch and its adjacent surface parking lot comes to over $1 billion dollars!

Downtown Runway Rising

Early this Friday morning, workers in front of the downtown Macy's have closed off the 600 block of Olive, and are erecting a stage for some sort of high profile, celebration.

For the past two weeks, construction crews have been working to install sharp new Macy's awnings on the Railway Exchange, replace all the glass and upgrade the interiors of the sidewalk window displays, and remodel the 1st floor space of store interior.

Yesterday, red Macy's stars were painted in the street, and workers were rehearsing for an Olive Street block party.

Just in time for fall, check out downtown for some new retail excitement.

Blog Hangover?

I have followed the work of Toby Weiss in her B.E.L.T blog, seen some of her beautiful photography, and heard her on KDHX discussing the importance of preserving our mid-twentieth century St. Louis architecture. Then last nite, I had the strangest dream.

I am visiting an open house somewhere in St. Louis. The owners are an elderly couple, beyond retirement age. On the outside, it's a simple, fifties vintage, curving building, following the "art moderne" style, except there's no ceramic tile; just stucco walls, simple windows, and a flat roof.

On the inside, the rooms have curvilinear outer walls, with some of the living areas further divided by four-foot tall curving half walls. Even the ceilings having curving lines, especially where they meet the hallways.

However, the most interesting of the 50s vintage, art moderne "features", were the molded plastic, ceiling-mounted, ornamental air conditioning units in the hallways. The units were burgundy in color, featuring a thin-line gold star motif, cold air vents formed in the plastic, and a rounded shape that molded into the ceilings and complemented the rest of the interior design scheme.

Maybe it was something I ate for dinner?

Unsecured I-55 Load Rising

So I am driving along northbound I-55 minding my own business, wondering how much of the original interior of the historic Lemp Brewery is still intact, when I notice a pick up truck in the right hand lane with a heavily loaded bed. It appeared the driver was headed somewhere with a full load of alley castoff items.

Holding down the load was one of those farm-issue galvanized cattle watering basins (about 10 feet in diameter and 3 feet deep) adaptively converted into backyard swimming pools by generations of St. Louisans. The only problem was there was nothing holding down the galvanized pool. In the next moment, a high speed current of wind worked its way under the metal tub, sending the metal pond airborne in the middle of highway traffic.

At fifty-something miles per hour, the tub completed one and a half somersaults through the air, landed on the pavement and skidded to a stop in the middle of a traffic lane. The stunned pickup driver immediately pulled over, presumably in an effort to recover his high flying swimming pool before it cost someone life or limb.

Combined with the number of people driving while on a cell phone, I can't count the number of times I've seen unsecured items blow out of the bed of trucks. After quickly recounting the moments of my (hoped for) half-lived life, I made a note to myself: better stick to the much safer city neighborhood streets!

STL Rising-Total Access

For the past two months we procrastinated about buying tickets to last nite's Steely Dan/Michael McDonald concert at UMB Bank Pavillion. Just a couple of weeks ago, friends from California emailed us about buying tickets. They missed the show there, and were thinking about flying here to see it. St. Louis would be the last stop on the tour.

As of yesterday morning, we had no tickets and the show date had arrived. It's the last minute, and we decide to take the plunge. We drove out to UMB (about 25 minutes from South City), walked up to the box office (no line), and bought three lawn tickets.

We planned on returning to UMB early to get a good place in line for our lawn seats. We arrived at 4:20 PM, and were first in line (nobody camped out). When the gates opened, we made our way to the lawn, and got the perfect front row, center lawn seats.

Across the "depressed section", dividing the lawn from the seating section (about 40 feet away from us), people were paying upwards of $200 per ticket on the secondary market. Our California friends saw tickets for the front few rows selling for $500 online.

But right here in St. Louis, it's still possible to wait until the "day of", buy your tickets at the box office, invest a little time waiting in line, and enjoy an excellent concert with minimal to no hassle.

Accessibility: it's one of the perks to living in the STL.

STL Rising-STL Music

STL is a music town. It's a blues town. Our music scene is not as organized as say Nashville or Austin. But it's here, and it's getting more notice.

Playing the blues sounds great with slide guitar. And slide guitar is easier than it sounds. Almost anyone can do it.

Here's an easy way to start:

Open tuning is the key to easy slide playing.

For a fun and simple slide tuning, try tuning your guitar as follows:

E (standard first string guitar tuning)
C (1/2 step above standard "B" second string)
G (standard third string tuning)
C (1 step below standard "D" fourth string)
G (1 step below standard "A" fifth string)
C (2 steps below standard "E" sixth string)

With your guitar thus tuned, you are playiing an open "C" chord.

When playing with a slide, all your notes will be following an open chord format, so easier harmonies are produced.

Accompany a rhythm musician playing the blues in "C", and in no time you will sound like an old school STL blues side player.

The other secret to playing slide guitar most people don't tell you is this: when playing with the slide or bottle or whatever you're using to "barre" the strings, hold a finger down lightly on the strings behind the slide (toward the tuning head of the guitar).

See the picture above. The guitarist is doing it differently. If her index finger were held down on the strings, "behind" the slide, she would be able to better control the slide effects. To her credit, she's probably lifting and pressing her index finger to gain even more tone variation.

Remaking STL

Point

Counterpoint

If things weren't going on in STL, there wouldn't be so many discussions like these taking place.

Whatever your take on improving St. Louis, there are lots of opportunties to be an active part of it.

Our greatest asset is us.

Open Windows

The cool weather that arrived yesterday gave us the opportunity to open the windows and let fresh air back in the house. It also marks the first sign of fall and the end to our summer heat. A few months ago, I entered the summer driving an older, paid-for, mini-van with no air conditioning.

Our independent mechanic quoted us a $1,000 price to repair the A/C. Rather than sink that kind of money into a vehicle barely worth the cost of repair, I decided to try the summer with no air conditioning. There were a few times when it was real hot. But overall, it wasn't too bad.

A car driving in hot weather with open windows is a sure sign of a vehicle with no air conditioning. When it was hot, I'd look around in trafffic to see how many other cars had their windows open, us drivers suffering the heat together. There were always a few, and sometimes, depending on where I was driving, there would be alot more.

So next year, if the van is still rolling, I'll go again without air conditioning. On the other hand, driving without a heater in the winter, that's a different story. I remember a bizarre incident from about 20 years ago. It happened at a convenience store located on a frontage road to Highway 70 in St. Charles County.

It was nightime and I was driving from St. Louis to Kansas City during a snow storm. I pulled in to the quick shop for a cup of hot coffee. While paying the cashier, a man rushed into the store, covered in snow, wearing goggles and a ski hat. How could he possibly be so snow covered? Was he riding a motorcycle? I stepped outside, and the answer to my question was immediately obvious.

He was driving a car with no windshield. Now, seeing someone drive a car without a windshield is odd enough, but for someone to be driving through a snow storm with no windshield is, well, let's just say we have a word for that type of behaviour in the St. Louis area, and we're not talking about basketball players from Indiana...

STL Rising-Favorite Historic Reads

Life in St. Louis in the 19th century must have been fascinating. It looks like it was a beautiful place.

A great book that takes you back to early St. Louis is called God Sends Sunday by Arna Bontemps. Bontemps is a writer from the Harlem Renaissance.

Any other interesting life and style reads about old St. Louis?

Macklind Rising

Neighborhood dreams are becoming fast reality along Macklind Avenue in the Southampton neighborhood.

Krekeler's grocery store is being remodeled as a neighborhood deli.

The old D and J's Keg is now operating as "The Mack", drawing in a younger, hipper crowd.

The old Major Drycleaners is becoming the "Macklind Perk" coffee house.

Home Eco is an environnmentally conscious store in a remade second hand and video rental outlet.

Business owners have come together to form a Macklind Avenue Business Association.

Southampton has a downtown. Can neighborhood lofts be far behind?

Kudos to CIN

The City of Louis Community Information Network, or "CIN" for short, has created an interactive feature that gives visitors and locals a wonderful directory of the many interesting things to see and do around all parts of the City.

Check out the CIN's list of "Must See" Attractions in St. Louis.

While Mets Pound Mulder...

...New Yorkers Still Have Heart For St. Louis.

If you're reading this from a New York deli, what do you think would be the perfect mix for Ballpark Village?

Isringhausen Must Go

Jason Isringhausen has been a weak link for the Cardinals all season, but last nite's blown save and loss to the Mets takes things to a new low.

Izzy's "batting practice" pitch to Carlos Beltran in the bottom of the ninth, leading to a 2-run, walk off home run, cost the Cardinals the game, and blew an all-star performance by Sir Albert.

Pujols was carrying the team on his back with seven RBIs, including two home runs, one a grand slam. Izzy gave it all away when he grooved that pitch to Beltran.

Cardinal fans deserve better. The new stadium was part of a package supported by St. Louisans to keep the Cardinals competitive and downtown. Cardinal ownership needs to hold up their end of the deal and field a solid closer.

Lizz Wakes Up StL With a Cuban

Ricardo Alarcon, President of the Cuban Parliament, was this morning's featured guest on Lizz Brown's WGNU Wakeup Call program in St. Louis. Alarcon was speaking by telephone from his home in Havana.

Who said STL is a dull place? Cubans on local radio? It's like Russians invading Northern California.

Back in the 1800s, there were St. Louisans travelling to Cuba by boat.

A Better St. Louis

Almost renamed the blog this morning after reading the latest editorial in the STL Business Journal.

The Business Journal editorial was about civil discourse in St. Louis and being a friendlier, more civil place: a Better St. Louis.

I hesitated, thinking that perhaps the idea might continue to feed our negative regional self-esteem.

Last nite, we ate out at themed restaurant, one last hurrah before the back-to-school grind kicks in. The theme of the restaurant involves having an entertaining chef cook at your table. It's a proven restaurant formula repeated throughout the country.

Matt just returned from a 2-week stay in California. While there, he dined at a similar place. Unfortunately, at the California spot, the chef didn't entertain much; in fact, he hardly uttered a word. When the shrimp was done, he put some on your plate, and said, "Shrimp".

His show continued in similar fashion: "Chicken." "Vegetable." Etc.

Last nite in St. Louis, our chef put on a real show. He was relaxed, funny, and in to it. His jokes had good timing; his cooking tricks worked. Plus, the dinner was tasty, the price was moderate, and the service was excellent.

We can be a better St. Louis, but we need to remind ourselves that St. Louis is already pretty darned good, getting better, and a place where you can find 10,000 years of happiness if you try a little.

Sure, we might not all agree that opening a themed, chain restaurant in the City of St. Louis, say at the new Loughborough Commons shopping center, makes us a better St. Louis, but at least we'd have some interesting discussions about it!

Sound Downtown

Someone is turning up the volume on downtown streets.

New restaurants have installed quality outdoor sound systems and are playing recorded music outside their establishments.

Appealing to more senses, the sounds are helping to liven the experience of our downtown.

STL Hot Spot

Immigration increases in Missouri making national news; Hispanics take notice.

South Side of STL

Most of us St. Louisans don't think of ourselves as southerners, but a lot of outsiders do. They must be right.

Explore Old St. Louis, and there's no denying our southern ancestry.

Weber and I-55 Revisited

A few months ago, STL Rising featured the frozen-in-time section of South County near Weber Road and I-55, around Monte Bello Pizza and the old Stupp Brothers Steel Mill.

Somehow (through cyber connections I will never understand), a neighborhood resident found that buried thread and commented from the perspective of one of the locals:

"I have lived right next to Stupp Brothers for 14 years now and I have to tell you that I am going to miss out quiet little neighborhood when we get the buy out letters. The entire time I have lived here the only single thing that has changed is that we no longer hear the horns when Stupp is changing shifts. It is very quiet and peaceful and has been for forever.I think the luckiest day of my life was when I bought this little peace of land.There are not to many people that can say their neighborhood is just as good or better than it was 14 years ago. Well at least not in Lemay. Oh and Monte Bellos is still open but they are on the buy out list also."

The full thread is in this link.

Wine Country Encore

With our belongings loaded into a U-Haul, we pulled out of St. Louis, headed for California, Kerri driving our Toyota, and me following behind in the moving van.

We had an unscheduled longer stay in Abilene, Kansas. Kerri rolled the Toyota in the center median of Highway 70. She was okay, but the car was totaled.

As a young boy, I attended "August Moon Concerts" at the Mondavi Winery in the Napa Valley. One summer during college, I lived in St. Helena, and helped build a winery. In the 60s and 70s, the Napa Valley was the mainstay of the California wine industry, and Sonoma was just getting started. Access was easy, and the area was uncrowded.

By the 80s, much larger crowds started to tour the area, especially the Napa Valley. Wineries started charging for wine tasting. The Napa Valley Wine Train started rolling. Lines of tourists were a common sight, especially on weekends.

In 1989, I started working for a homebuilder based in Sonoma County. Approvals for housing developments were slow to come by, so the company started looking further out for buildable sites - and affordable projects. By this time, in search of affordable housing, Bay Area workers were buying houses in the Central Valley, and making bleary-eyed, 2-3 hour commutes back and forth to work. Fast forward to 2006, and you have to wonder how these commuters are faring with today's gas prices.

Meanwhile, we maintained contact back in St. Louis. We made trips back to visit about every six months. We knew we belonged back there. Then in 1992 Kerri became pregnant. We both wanted our child to grow up in St. Louis, so we started making arrangements to move back.

In Feburary 1993, we arrived on our return move to St. Louis. A day later, we became first time homeowners, closing on a story-and-a-half bungalo in the City of St. Louis. In March, Matt was born, and the same couple who had invited us into their Dutchtown two-family seven years prior would be his godparents.

Riding the Reverse Wave

From the gold miners of 1849 through the farm workers of the recent past, California has been a destination for migrants seeking opportunity for generations. In the middle part of the twentieth century, population growth in California was largely fueled by the abundance of affordable housing, jobs, and mild weather.

However, sometime around 1980, things started to change. Incomes were not keeping up with housing prices. Traffic was becoming a daily grind. Efforts to produce affordable housing were opposed by no growth interests and environmentalists. Younger Californians were caught in the middle. A new trend started. Young, educated Californians started leaving the state.

Most of them didn't move too far. They headed for Oregon, Washington or Nevada, then Idaho and Montana. But mostly, they stayed west. Often, when they arrived in their communities, they were not welcomed and met with resentment. Locals were concerned that the incoming Californians would drive up local housing prices and "Californicate" their states and towns.

It was the summer of 1986 when we made our out-migration from California. We moved beyond the western US all the way to St. Louis. When we arrived, many locals here could not understand why anyone would leave California for St. Louis. It seemed no one moved to St. Louis by choice.

Kerri accepted the job transfer with Citicorp, and I figured I'd find work in a real estate field. In a few weeks, I was hired by a small title company in Clayton abstracting real estate titles.

We rented an apartment in unincorporated St. Louis County near Olive and 270. Life in St. Louis was a constant adventure for us. We spent our free time exploring. After a while, we would know our way around St. Louis better than most locals.

We made frequent trips into the city. We attended Cardinal and Blues games whenever we could. We heard about free admissions to many St. Louis attractions, and took advantage of the offers as much as possible. We loved the compact nature of St. Louis and the wide availability of cultural opportunities.

We were constantly amazed at the kindness and humility of St. Louisans. We studied old neighborhoods and back roads. We made many friends and developed ties in the community.

With our bearings set in St. Louis, we started to explore further away areas. We visited nearby historic small towns in all directions. Then we travelled to all the major regional destinations within half day's drive of St. Louis. A few times, we drove all the way to the East Coast. We were loving the proximity our new St. Louis address had to the rest of the country.

We had lived in St. Louis from 1986 through 1989 when a real estate developer back in California made me an offer to good to refuse. We decided to choose finances and proximity to family as the reasons to leave St. Louis and return to California. The return to California would become a brief three-year intermission in the lives we had begun in St. Louis.

The return trip west did not begin uneventfully. Kerri was not happy to leave St. Louis. We both had mixed feelings about leaving. Like the father figure from the film, "Meet Me in St. Louis", who plans to move his family from St. Louis to New York in pursuit of a better career opporunity, for a few years, I too would be known as "The Criminal".

Meeting Jack Buck On the Radio

California is the most populated US state that doesn't pick up the night time signal of KMOX's 50,000 watt broadcasts. A big part of the reason is that the Rocky Mountains act like a giant wall dividing California from the rest of the country. So, back in the days before satellite or internet radio, Californians were among the only people living in the United States who never got to listen to Cardinal baseball.

Instead, we had "West Coast Baseball", and for most of us, that meant the Giants and Dodgers. For me, growing up in the northern half of the state, it meant the Giants. Sure, we had the Oakland A's, a team that gave us multiple world championships, including the dynasty years of the early 70s. But the A's could never win the hearts of Northern Californians. Their loyalty was with the Giants.

Unfortunately for California, the storied Giants left most of their magic back in New York. In the forty-plus years since their move west, they've never won a World Series. And besides all the losing seasons, being a Giants fan was just plain tough duty for a baseball fan.

Many games drew less than three thousand spectators. Conditions at Candlestick Park, or the "Stick" as we called it, were horrid for baseball: nasty cold and windy. Hardcore fans wrapped themselves in blankets and down parkas for night games, when Giants management came out with a new gimmick: awarding medals to those fans who would stick it out until the end of an extra-inning night game. They called the medals the "Croix Du Candlestick", and I earned a few of those.

Looking back, I wonder how many home runs Willie Mays might have hit had he not played hundreds of games in front of meager audiences in the frigid conditions at the 'Stick.

Even with little success to celebrate, Giants fans were loyal baseball fans. And since we didn't much care for the A's, and couldn't stand the Dodgers, for baseball excellence, we looked east. And for National League fans, that would often mean the St. Louis Cardinals.

Now back to that spring visit in 1986 to St. Louis. We Californians only seldom heard the voice of Jack Buck, and then usually only on national CBS broadcasts of football games. We're riding in the car with our new St. Louis friends showing us around. The husband, a guy about my age, reaches for the radio. He makes a comment about this radio station, KMOX, and how it is the radio station in St. Louis. He made the point about it being the home station for the Cardinals. He went on and on about how great KMOX was, and I'm thinking, "All this fuss over a local radio station? This seems a little strange".

He clicked on the radio. A Cardinal game was in progress. Then we heard the gravelly voice of Jack Buck announcing the game. With him was a screwy sidekick who seemed more interested in his frosty Budweiser than the proceedings on the field. I asked our host about Jack Buck being the announcer for the Cardinals. Noting just the slightest touch of smugness (something I would learn later to be a trait seldom exhibited by St. Louisans for anything having to do with this town), he smiled, and confirmed that, indeed, Mr. Buck was the regular daily announcer for Cardinal baseball.

Baseball was made for radio. And Jack Buck had the perfect baseball voice. I sat in the car and listened. I thought about how nice it must be to listen to that voice year after year announcing baseball.

That weekend we started some traditions. Our new friends showed us around St. Louis. They took us to Grant's Farm and Rigazzi's. We drove downtown and visited the Arch and got a glimpse of Busch Stadium. We ate toasted ravioli and drank from Frozen Fish Bowls. At the end of the visit, our new St. Louis friend gave me one his prized possessions: a red golf-cap, with a Rigazzi's logo.

A couple of days later we were back on a plane headed home to Northern California, seriously thinking about the idea of leaving everything we knew and moving to the Midwest. Our family and friends would think we must be nuts.

1986: From Contra Costa to STL

Kerri and I were married in 1985 and lived twenty miles northeast of San Francisco in the bayside community of Martinez. By then, I had lived in the Bay Area for about twenty-five years.

I graduated from Cal State Hayward about a year earlier, and was working as a waiter at a private golf and country club. I had been working at the club for about three years, when one day, completely out of the blue, one of the club's principal owners asked me about my career plans. I told him how I was interviewing for various finance and management positions. About a week later, he called to offer me an interview to work as his assistant in his family's real estate development business. I got the job.

The position taught me about real estate. It's where I had my first opportunity to represent citizen groups in their development efforts. These citizens were long time landowners, and the work was geared toward developing their historic farm lands from pristine greenspace and "view shed" areas into high-end suburban housing developments.

We were having successes with our development plans. Over the objections of environmentalists, we succeeded in securing government approvals to expand the urban boundary and the ultimate service area for domestic water supplies. Next, we were successful in securing general plan amendments, increasing the housing development potential of the area from agricultural, 1oo-acre minimum lot sizes, to densities allowing up to one housing unit acre. This change increased the number of homes that could be built within our development area from 20 to 2000 units. Today, the area is built out with multi-million dollar executive homes.

As things turned out, I wouldn't be around for any of the land sales or home construction. About a year after being hired, my boss was killed in a car accident in Mendocino County. As his assistant, my job was no longer necessary, and after another couple of months, I was let go. By then, Kerri and I had been married for about six months, and Kerri was working in the commercial leasing department of Citicorp, in nearby Concord, California.

As my job was ending, Citicorp was in the process of centralizing its leasing operations to St. Louis. At the Concord office, Kerri was on the phone every day closing commercial leasing transactions with her counterparts in Missouri. When word came down of Citicorp's plans to shut down its Northern California operations, Kerri started hearing about job opportunities in St. Louis.

A friendly STL person encouraged us to visit. She invited us to stay at her place with her husband and their year-old daughter. We could stay in the unfurnished, upstairs apartment of the two-family they rented in South St. Louis.

Before we were married, Kerri was living in the Central Valley river town of Sacramento. The late San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen once called Sacramento the "Midwest of California". Kerri figured St. Louis and Sacramento would be a lot alike: two old river and transportation towns. I thought about St. Louis in terms of Delta Blues music and the St. Louis Cardinals.

We were both open to checking out the place, so we booked a flight and headed to St. Louis. It was a beautiful spring day when we arrived at Lambert Field, and drove in a rental car to the address of a small brick building on Winnebago, just east of the Sears store on South Grand. We didn't know it then, but this weekend trip over twenty years ago would be the start of our lives in St. Louis.

Best Of: More Views

Getting from the Arch grounds to this vantage point is a lousy trip (you pass the same spot we found some shattered car hardware that turned into an interesting piece of wall decoration), but hazarding the walk get's you to one of the best money shots of downtown STL.

Piasa Meditation

The human body has amazing power to cope with stress. If you're tired of the hot weather, look at the picture above, and think of cooler times to come.

It's a brisk 20 degrees outside; the trees have dropped their leaves; the holiday season has ended; things are quiet; kids are hunkered down in the middle of their school year; and eagle watching rides are shared on our scenic back roads.

Grows in Full Sun

Summer view from Market Street with median plantings full grown.

"Right Here in St. Louis"

This saying, made memorable in the film Meet Me In St. Louis, is appropos of so many things.

It comes to mind whenever we experience another "St. Louis moment". StL moments are those unexpected, random acts of neighborly kindness between neighbors or total strangers.

They are also moments in time in special places, like a train ride at the Zoo, a neighborhood parade or block party, or when open fall windows echo cheers up and down the block after a late September Cardinal home run.

It's neighbors checking on neighbbors when the power is out. And it's the ensuing neighborhood gatherings out on the sidewalk, sharing an iced-down cold one.

It's right here, in STL.

Counting Home Runs and the Heat Index

July 31 in STL. It's hot. There's no question. Talk about January 1 in STL, and chances are, it's cold. Life goes on, and depending on your point of view, it's pretty good.

On January 1, it might be snow, ice, and with the wind chill, it could feel like 20 below. And if there's a snow bank of 1 inch, kids and adults are having fun, sliding down hills and drinking hot chocolate.

Presently, the national news is reporting about the heat in STL. They'd have you believing we're all melting into greasy smears on the pavement. Not so much.

Today, I survived in our non-air-conditioned, ten year old mini-van. And from over at the asphalted, neighborhood schoolyard, I received reports about a lively, multi-inning'd, multiple home run game of fuzz ball. With wooden bats.

The heat index was around 115, and the players tallied 20-something homers into the neighbor's back yard.

Old St. Louis Rising

At the northeast corner of 11th and Locust, there's a sad-looking, apparently vacant, stuccoed-over, 3 or 4 story corner commercial building.

At even intervals on the ground level, you can see the building's original cast iron columns showing through the stucco walls.

Unrecognizable as it is, this must be one of the oldest downtown STL buildings still standing.

Best Of: City Views

St. Louis is filled with many interesting sights and vantage points. Here's one:

With the prep football season only weeks away, the best place to watch a Bishop Dubourg football game is from the wine garden at the rear of the Pitted Olive restaurant on Hampton. It's also where they grow some of the fresh herbs for their delicious offerings.

Team Photo Day

The 2006 youth baseball season is winding down. After Sunday's game, the players and coaches on Matt's CYC team stood for their annual team picture. The regular season schedules for both of Matt's teams is complete. Talk now is about end of season tournaments, fall ball, and "next year".

For some of the kids, "next year" will probably mean no organized baseball. Every year it's the same. The kids decide whether they want to keep going. The typical drop off rate is about a third. Each year, the level of competition dramatically increases, and lots of players have a hard time keeping up. The pitching gets much better; the fastball is heavier and it moves more.

In the last game, our guys played a team that was made up mostly of first time players. The opposition only managed two hits in the entire game. The church sponsor of the other team had to recruit players all the way down to fifth grade to field a team.

Baseball is at about the bottom of kids sports interests these days. Combine the overall lack of interest with the difficulty of mastering the sport, and it's no wonder the big losses of players from year to year.

A few of the kids from the church team showed real promise. Solid basic skills, dedicated coaches, and a tough competitive spirit. Hopefully we'll see them again.

For our guys, it's hard to tell. There's a core of serious, hard working players. We figure some won't return. The off season brings the opportunity to evaluate the good and bad of this past season, work on weaknesses, and wonder how many "next years" in baseball some of these young ballplayers might have.

Why STL Rising?

Because we are rising from decades of abandonment and decay, that left ruined buildings like this one...

...to a city that is being rebuilt block by block. It's a place of possibilities, that has room for believers and doers. Naysayers are being proven wrong on a daily basis.

Columbia Bottoms

This place is sort of a mystery. It's the name of the large flood plain across from St. Louis that lies between the Mississippi River and the bluffs to the east.

The area is dotted with small town places and rich farmland. It's right next to downtown St. Louis. There are opportunties for development and redevelopment.

The Confluence Greenway project includes much of the area. Some of the riverfront is old, abandoned industrial. There are great views of downtown.

Crossing the Mississippi can be a pain for commuters, but if you know the shortcuts (Eads and MLK Bridges), you do alright.

It's also home to the world's tallest fountain. If you look closely, you can see the reservoir for it at the bottom left of the image above.

Around noontime, the fountain shoots a column of water over 300 feet in the air. At the free Hootie and the Blowfish concert on the 4th of July, the fountain was going the whole time.

Riding Against Traffic

For the past few weeks, my route to the office has been changed to drop off kids at a summer school program near Forest Park. As a result, I'm getting on eastbound Highway 40 at Kingshighway.

Three times now, I've passed bicycle riders heading westbound on the shoulder of eastbound Highway 40. I've seen them in the vicinity of Market Street/Bernard and Vandenventer.

As odd as it is to see these wrong-way bike riders during rush hour, the cyclists appear totally at ease.

In some states, there are rules that if a highway is the shortest route between two points, you can ride your bike on the interstate, but always with the flow of traffic.

Typically you see highway bike riders in rural areas where alternate routes are not available. That's not the case in the city of STL. We have literally thousands of alternate routes.

If you're on east bound Highway 40 in STL, keep an eye out for these highway bike riders.

Warning: MoBot Koi Attempting to Swallow Babies and Small Farm Animals

Just kidding, but you've got to admit, in such a beautiful place, the sight of all those gaping fish mouths is a little incongruent.

Shaw's Garden in STL is one of the most beautiful places on earth. But take a group of little ones, and their favorite thing to do is feed the fish in the Japanese Garden at the far back corner of the Garden.

To get there, they must first walk through Shaw's entire garden wonder. You don't suppose he planned it that way, do you?

Walsh Street Landing Strip?

That's a shot of our backyard. Note the smokehouse-inspired garage. I often wonder what those circa-1932 builders were thinking building such a small garage when most cars those days were the size of navy gunboats.

The vegetation is teeming with Missouri wildlife. Our hound-mix has made it her job to clear the yard of these native species. Last nite, around 1:15 AM, she made noises indicating it was time to flush the wildlife out of the yard.

There is a Target-issue gazebo on the patio. The mosquito netting makes it a nice , insect-free place to relax. As the dog patrols for rabbits, mice, birds, squirrels, and possum, I sometimes try to get a little sleep on one of the lounge chairs under the gazebo.

I must have dozed for about an hour. When I awoke, the dog was beside me on her own lounge chair, the yard now apparently free from the invading horde. Presently, there was a low roar overhead. I quickly unzipped the mosquito netting, and leaped out of the gazebo for a look skyward.

The sound was increasing. Then above our house, no more than a couple thousand feet in the air, a full-size airliner was cruising by very slowly. I've never seen a large plane fly so low over our neighborhood before. It was about 2:20 AM. Could it be with such late nite flights, pilots have permission to fly their planes at much lower altitudes?

It was a like a scene out of Close Encounters. It didn't bother the dog at all, nor any of the other neighbors. Every one else was probably asleep.

Outdoor Air Conditioning

Over the past twelve years, I've been an occasional pedestrian walking along Locust Street in downtown STL. For most of those years, the walks would be lonely ones, down empty sidewalks, past empty buildings. Today, there is a noticeable difference in the feel of the street.

The new sidewalk cafe at the Old Court House was filled to capacity. Heavy equipment was operating in the early phases of the $80,000,000 Syndicate Trust rehabilitation. A twenty (maybe thirty)-something couple crossed the street at 10th and Locust, where the lady asks the gentleman, "and what's happening here?", nodding toward one of the corner buildings. He began describing the beginnings of another adaptive reuse development.

And from the long list of unsolved city mysteries, even when our STL weather is steaming hot, out from a metal grate in front of the US Bank Locust branch (across from the Lashley Baer law firm), pedestrians enjoy a steady blast of free cold air from some unknown source beneath the sidewalk.

The Eagle Has Landed

Thirty-five years ago, when Neil Armstrong and his Apollo mission safely landed on the moon, the phrase "The Eagle Has Landed" came to signify a turning point in American history. About this same time, the dark and lonely streets of downtown St. Louis could have been compared to a similar empty space.

Washington Avenue has come miles since the days of the early nineties when vacant buildings could be had for $.50 - $1.00 per square foot. Before the Missouri historic rehabilitation tax credit, there was no future for the glorious stock of historic downtown loft buildings.

The transformation of the Bogen Lofts at the corner of Tucker and Washington stands as testament to the renaissance of one of the region's hottest neighborhoods and one of our nation's most exciting downtown revitalization success stories.

12th Street Relic Rising

In front of the new King Louis Square neighborhood on the city's near south side, construction crews are removing the pavement down the center of 12th Street, making way for what appears to be another of the city's new attractive landscaped medians.

With the old pavement being removed by a depth of about 9 inches, workers are exposing the old streetcar tracks that once served south city. Head south from downtown on 12th Street (Tucker) toward Soulard to catch a rare glimpse of a (temporarily) visible relic of old St. Louis.

Reply: Scholar Shop. $5.

Compliment: Nice Tie!

Can't beat the place. Two locations: Webster and Clayton.

Talk about designer brands at discount prices. Tommy Hilfiger tie, $50-$60 department store price, $5.00 at the Scholar Shop.

Check them out. All proceeds fund grants and low cost loans for STL area college students.

Charm and the Anniversary of the Interestate Highway System

There was a story on the news today about the 50th anniversary of the Interstate Highway system.

One person interviewed reported how while the Interstate Highway system may have become the preferred mode of transporation in the US, it certainly does not offer travelers the "charm" experienced on road trips in earlier decades.

If it's charm you seek, consider St. Louis.

Back Streets of Affton

After visiting one of Affton's most popular local businesses, we took an interesting side trip through some of the back streets of our historic suburban neighbor, situated just along the southern bank of the River Des Peres.

There we discovered many well-maintained homes, mostly frame, some brick with studded stonework; quiet, tree lined streets; a hidden away neighborhood park; rolling hills; and even one house with a healthy mid-summer vegetable garden in the front yard, replete with multiple rows of corn standing about four feet high.

We look forward with much anticipation to our next visit to the interesting back streets of our charming STL County neighbor.

Secret Weapon = .500

Talk about being evenly matched...

At the start of the year, we set up two practice games at Tower Grove Park between Dorn's Pirates and our South Sox. The teams split the two games. Then in early season action, the Pirates beat our Sox in a close one, twelve to ten.

The Pirates and the South Sox had a rematch this past Saturday. Both teams entered the game with identical 4-win, 5-loss, and 1-tie records. A win would bring one team to the .500 mark, and drop the other to 2-games below .500. However, as the South Sox entered this pivotal game, we had a new, pint-sized, secret weapon on our side.

"Playing up" in youth sports means you're playing with kids older than you. All of the guys on our team are seventh graders starting eighth grade in the fall. You can see it in them: they're becoming young men. A couple have bested me in height this year(good for them), and Matt is getting close.

When mid-summer hits, it can be a challenge fielding a full team. Summer ativities wreak havoc on little league rosters. For this game, four of our regulars were out of town, and one was sidelined with a sore elbow.

We needed a substitute player. The boys had just the kid: little "C". Some knew him from alley Wiffle Ball. "C" would be playing up, being a sixth grader going into seventh. And he'd be looking up too. At around four feet three, and weighing 70 pounds, he would be by far the smallest player on the field. But in baseball, big size isn't much of an advantage; and, sometimes being smaller can pay dividends.

Being the new kid, we batted "C" at the bottom of the order. When he came up, the other team must have wondered where we found the littlest Sock. I enjoyed watching the expression on the faces of the opposing pitchers as they tried to find "C's" tiny strike zone.

In his first at-bat, the Pirate's pitcher worked "C" to a two-strike count. But "C" bore down, and drilled a line drive past the picther right up the box. Leading off from first, you could tell that "C" was a ballplayer. Taking his lead, he dropped his hands down between his legs, the ends of his fingers twitching. His baserunning savvy was raising immediate concern on the other team. For the day, "C" made it safely on base three for three times, scoring two runs.

In our last at bat, we were down by one run. "C" helped keep things going, working the pitcher for a walk and coming around to score. At the end of our half of the final inning, we were up by three, but down to none of our regular pitchers. After "C" scored his run, I asked him if he wanted to come in to pitch. He didn't need any convincing. He grabbed a ball and started warming up.

About this time, one of the parents from our team came up and asked, "who is the new guy?" I smiled and said he was friends with some of the boys. When our half of the inning ended, "C" took the mound, trying to secure the victory. I was wondering what the guys in the other dugout must have been thinking.

"C" got the first batter to pop out. The next guy up was safe on an error. On the next play, one of our infielders recorded the second out on a fielder's choice. The next batter made first on a clean single. With two on and two out and the tying run at the plate, "C" went into his motion. The batter swung and grounded the ball up the middle. Cooly, "C" fielded it. I heard one of the other dads in the dugout say, "that should do it". "C" turned to first, set himself, and made a perfect throw over to Johnny Boom-Boom at first. Game over. Sox win!

With three games left to play, the Sox improved their record to five wins, five losses, and one tie.

Back in the dugout, after the traditional post-game handshakes with the other team, one of our guys asks, "can we get 'C' on our team for next year?".

Next year. Already talking about next year. That's a good thing.

The Grove

Yesterday, after getting detoured and momentarily lost around Compton and Market, I made a wrong turn trying to enter westbound highway 40, and ended up near the upcoming "RBar" in the Forest Park Southeast neighborhood. Nowadays, the name "Forest Park Southeast" is quickly giving way to "The Grove".

How this name change occured will go down as one of the little differences in the renaissance of the neighborhood located roughly between Vandeventer, Kingshighway, and Highway 40.

Grove. It might have started with the Manchester strip that runs east and west, connecting the north and south sides of the neighborhood. Grove. It's root may come from "Adams Grove", one of the four individual neighborhoods that were grouped together under the name "Forest Park Southeast".

Grove. Add a letter and it spells "groove", fitting for the area's new status as a hip STL night spot.

Years ago, when the ground work was being laid to convert vacant Washington Avenue warehouses into loft apartments and condominiums, realtor Sarah Bakewell was a leader on the Housing Committee of the Downtown St. Louis Partnership.

So maybe it's a sign of more good things to come that today along Manchester in the Grove, in a newly renovated historic commercial building, there is a brand new Bakewell real estate office.

Bare Spots-Filled!

This past weekend I had the opportunity to visit one of those high dollar coastal communities. Exiting the crowded airline terminal to meet my ride, I was concerned he might never find me, let alone find a place to stop for a minute to pick me up. Cars and passengers were criss crossing everywhere. It was a crowded, disorganized C-F, if you know what I mean...

Over the weekend, we drove through some of the area's signature open spaces. I noticed how some of these once-pristine area are being plowed under to make way for new multi-million dollar housing developments. Earth movers are making deep cuts in the hillsides, probably to prepare underground drainage systems to prevent future landsliding.

Retruning home after the weekend, flying into St. Louis, our flight path took us right over our city neighborhood and then made a swing over downtown. There were clear views of the city streets, shopping centers, parks, and downtown's landmarks. Clearly recognizable were the bright red tile roofs of our parish buiildings. We touched down at Lambert a couple of minutes later. As we flew over Dellwood and Kinloch, my seatmate was astonished at the height of the trees in the neighborhoods.

Twenty minutes earlier, my ride had arrived at Lambert. She pulled into the 5 minute curbside loading zone and there were no other cars waiting. The nice security lady granted her permission to wait as long as it would take for me to deplane and retrieve my luggage. She waited undisturbed for over thirty minutes.

Driving home, we travelled the neighborhood streets, crossing through Forest Park and then into South City. We grabbed a quick meal on the Hill, and then headed home. That's when I could see that eighty percent of the previous bare spots in the front lawn were now filled with tall growing grass. The previous barespot challenge has been reduced to a barely noticeable twenty percent of remaining tough ground.

This week, a trip to the Botanical Garden for one of their low cost pH soil tests could hold the key to winning this mini-turf war.

2006 Seedlings Rising!

One of the wonderful features of our old block is the mature street trees that cool the neighborhood by at least ten degrees on hot summer days.

One of the downsides of all the shade is the delicate process involved in getting the lawn to grow. In the past two years, we've removed a flower bed and ornamental tree which obstructed views up and down the block, redone the front lawn twice, and tried to get a full, lush lawn.

Still, we have bare spots. I've made making them green a personal quest. Like generations before me, it's been a typically determined, partially obsessive, south city lawn care struggle.

Last weekend, we repaired the ground and planted a "playground" variety seed. Today, an army of bright green seedlings is rising from the barespots. They are in that needle-thin, vulnerable phase.

The question is, will they survive the pending summer onslaught of trampling kids feet, and tossed down bicycles? The odds are not good...

A Perfect St. Louis Year

Right now, our alley is bursting in a colorful show of multiple varieties of day lillies in full bloom. They look like a miniature fireworks display, all at waist level. Drive the alley between Loran and Walsh, Clifton and Hampton for the next couple of weeks to see the show. It's a tribute to the former owners of the place...they did good gardening. We're just the maintenance crew.

To find the lillies, look for the yard with a tiny garage numbered "5864". You'll recognize it as the one that looks more like a Bevo neighborhood smokehouse than a place to park a car. How those early 1930s builders ever thought someone could park a car in the tiny brick building is a mystery. Maybe they always thought of it as more of a garden house. Bring scissors and a copy of this post, and feel free to take a few of the lillies home with you to decorate your place.

One of the neat things about St. Louis is the tradition of decorating houses. St. Louis people are so into decorating their personal space, you can even tell there's a St. Louis family when you're on vacation-they're the ones who start out by decorating their campsites. It's great.

Egg Trees in Spring. Patriotic decorations at the Fourth of July. Halloween and fall harvest displays. And then at Christmas it's a total house and yard decorating extravaganza. Maybe some of the tradition is owing to the tradition of Catholicism in St. Louis. We are very into physical displays of our spiritual identity.

So last nite, while under our Target-issue gazebo and gazing out into the wildlife habitate and lush foliage in the backyard, we thought of the perfect way to usher out the looming dog days of summer and send an early invite to our glorious fall weather. We're going to start our yard decorating rite a month early.

As soon as we pass the peak of summer heat, sometime around August 20, we will decorate the perimiter of the back yard with strings of twinkling white lights. The yard decorations will progress with more seasonal flow toward Christmas. Then, sometime after Thanksgiving, in addition to the decorations on the street-facing side of the house, we will put up multi-colored lighting on the trees and structures facing out to the alley neighbors.

Old, fat guys hurting "hip" scooter image?

Sporting those sleek, Italian designs, and enjoying a history of being popular with the young set, scooters have always seemed pretty fun and cool.

Lately, however, there has been a notable increase in the number of older, balder, fat guys riding scooters around the city.

Could this spell trouble to the burgeoning scooter business?

Reopen the Caves!

In the ongoing quest to raise St. Louis up to maximum possible coolness status, let's start a civic initiative to reopen the caves near Lemp and Highway 55 as a new-or very old- underground beer garden and music venue. New Years Eve in the Cave! Party down! Waaay down!!

St. Louis Opens Annual "Sweat Fete" Season

It's that time of year again, where in church parking lots and neighborhood streets friends and neighbors gather to sweat, consume mass quantities of A-B products, and have an old-fashioned, neighborly good time. It's block party, neighborhood festival, and parish picnic season.

Last nite was the Our Lady of Sorrows picnic, held on Bishop DuBourg High School's parking lot. This Saturday is the parish picnic for St. Gabriel's church. St. Stephen's always has a good one (anyone know the date?). The Polish Falcons sponsor a big party at their St. Louis Avenue home-always fun with good music and food.

These St. Louis traditions are among our city's best. Be sure to check them out, bring your friends and families, and enjoy the special charm and character of our neighborhoods.

City Schools To Teach Social Skills

Summer School in the city of St. Louis begins today for 14,000 city kids. Today's morning news reported that city school's chief Creg Williams will be emphasizing the teaching of social skills and improved study habits.

The radio news readers had different takes on the issue. One gave William's approach a "thumbs up", while the other had a more mixed response, believing that emphasis in school should be on academic subjects, not social skills. With such high enrollment, maybe the parents agree with the superintendent's plan.

Kids learn from adults all around them, both the good and the bad. Given that they spend so much of their time in school, doesn't it make sense to use the school setting to help develop their social skills?

Lefty Mystique

Baseball chemistry is a fragile thing. It's an unpredictable mix of the internal workings of each player's confidence, skill, team dynamics, and the unfolding situation of each game's events.

Our team is blessed with a variety of players with different personalities and talent levels. One of them in particular is a high-spirited, natural athlete, talented in all sports, but unsure of his baseball potential. For baseball, he has another weapon: he's a lefty.

We had heard stories about how he pitched beautifully as a 9 and 10 year old. But after one especially bad outing, his confidence was shaken. He gave up pitching and a lot of people wondered if he'd ever try it again. It would be up to him to make that decision.

We've always played him in center field, where he runs like a gazelle, anchoring the outfield. At the plate, he's consistently a .500 hitter. We've wanted to work him into the pitching rotation, but would never put him in until he decided he was ready for it. This year, he's slowly been coming around to the idea.

The other day, I asked his dad to talk with him about starting for us last nite. Early reports were positive; he said he wanted to pitch. But then when I saw Matt, he said how our young lefty had changed his mind, and how he didn't want to pitch anymore, and that his stomach hurt. The situation had changed into a game time decision.

When our young prospect arrived at the game, he had an anxious look on his face, and he was turning three shades of pale. Fifteen minutes before game time, he walked up to me, and he said he wanted to pitch. That's what we wanted to hear. We gave him the ball, and he took the mound for the first time in over three years.

The kid was awesome. His competitive nature came through, and he led the team to its best win in 2 seasons. He pitched five solid innings (the max at this age), allowing only one earned run, and walking none. The few times he trailed in the count, you could see the intensity build in him. Consistently, he battled back, throwing strikes and getting outs. And the defense played solid behind him.

The team won 5-2 in only one hour and thirty minutes, a lightning paced game for 12 and 13 year olds. At the halfway point in the season, the team's record stands an even 3 wins, 3 losses, and 1 tie.

More important, with 7 games to play, team chemistry is building, the boys know they can play solid ball, and they have discovered a new leader. The second half of the season just got a lot more interesting.

Millenium Rotates More Than Its Dining Room!

Acknowledging the PR-assist from its newest neighbor, Busch III, workers at the Millenium hotel have just finished realigning the letters of the sign on the outside of the building to provide a full view of the word, "M-I-L-L-E-N-I-U-M" from inside the stadium.

Harleys, Busch beer, and the 700 Club

After winding our way through the Illinois country side, we found ourselves in the quaint southwestern Illinois town of Okawville, home to the Original Okawville Springs Hotel and Bath House.

We had heard of this place for years, but had never been. We walked the front steps of the 100 year old hotel, up to the covered wraparound porch, and went inside the lobby.

The friendly staff gave us a guided tour of the place, including the bath house, the massage area, and one of the restored guestrooms in the original hotel. Less than an hour away on Interstate 64, mark this place on the "to-do" list for short getaways from St. Louis.

Having never visited a professional massage studio, or taken a mineral bath, the whole scene was very interesting. I was especially curious about the healing powers of mineral water. My skeptical nature was being tested. The tour guide invited me to dip my hand into the swirling mineral waters.

It didn't feel anything like our fine St. Louis city tap water. Instead, it had a smooth, silky feel. Very soft. No question, it would be a luxurious treat to bathe in these waters. Someday.

We were too early for dinner, and too hungry and thirsty to start driving back to St. Louis, so we walked across the street to a corner bar across from the spa. Outside, a row of Harleys was parked in front.

Inside, the place was spotless clean, friendly, with ice cold beer and bar food. There were two televisions above the bar, one tuned to Cardinal baseball, the other to the "700 Club". We took two seats at the end of the bar, ordered a couple of beers, a chicken tender plate, and a fried shrimp basket. The food was served in generous portions. Total bill, lunch for two (including 2 beers apiece): $14.

Snow Cones Rising

All over town, snow cone stands are rising out of storage from behind old corner gas stations and down in parish hall basements.

Oh, and in case you're wondering, St. Louis ranks 9th on Google Trends for the term "snow cone".

Nike Town STL?

Well, not quite...but with all the multi-story wall posters rising on the sides of downtown STL buildings undergoing loft conversions, it still is pretty impressive!

Does anyone else have the sense that we are quickly becoming a trendy hot spot?

Cherokee Rising

Amazing things are happening along Cherokee Street in South City, especially the long dormant stretch between Jefferson and Gravois.

Yesterday, I took a detour from my regular Gravois-route to downtown, taking the trip across the State Streets along the historic Cherokee commercial corridor. The amount of current investment activity is amazing.

A new restaurant is readying for its opening in the long-shuddered Eisele's Black Forest space. The outside seating area of a sidewalk cafe was filled to capacity. Long vacant storefronts are being rehabbed for new tenants.

That familiar presence in a neighborhood in renewal - a Friedman Group real estate sign - stands in front of a glazed brick, one story commercial building. On this beautiful spring day, Cherokee Street showed much of the hustle and bustle you find in many Miami, Florida neighborhoods.

With nearly all of its original, mixed-use, brick buildings still standing (and in solid condition), and the new Jefferson-Gravois Streetcar Suburb Historic District leveraging quality rehab investments, look for Cherokee Street and the neighborhoods around it to be among the big St. Louis success stories for the next five to ten years.