richmond heights | The St. Louis Galleria’s owners, New-York-based Brookfield Properties, is putting about six acres of land at the mall’s southern end—presently a parking lot—up for sale, with redevelopment potential at the busy intersection of Interstate 64 and Brentwood Boulevard. There is no publicly available asking price. The site has hosted events like the immersive Van Gogh exhibit, an interactive destination under a massive tent, in the fall of 2021, as well as the Cirque Italia Water Circus last year. The city of Richmond Heights has highlighted the site for mixed-use redevelopment with greenspace. Despite losing Nordstrom earlier this year, the Galleria quickly filled the anchor space with Dick’s Sporting Goods, showing resilience in retail demand. The site’s visibility and constant, brisk traffic make it attractive for developers: “Every retailer wants to be here,” emphasize metro experts in commercial real estate. Nearby destinations like Brentwood Promenade and Brentwood Square add to the area’s retail density. For developers, the opportunity presents a rare chance to build at one of the busiest corners in the county. For the community, the potential for new retail, dining or even residential projects could reshape the mall’s footprint and add to its allure.
ladue
Join author and investigative journalist Ben Westhoff for a screening and panel discussion of his first documentary film, Antagonist: How a Wonder Drug Got Sidelined, on Dec.13 at our county library’s Clark Family Branch. Westhoff’s books will be available for purchase and signing at the 6:30 p.m. event. The investigative documentary, by the author of Fentanyl, Inc., explores addiction and treatment, and why we’re not doing as well as we could: Addictions to opioids and alcohol kill more 220,000 Americans annually. Naltrexone, a drug developed and first marketed under the brand name Antagonist by DuPont Pharmaceuticals, has helped many people beat these addictions. But naltrexone has received negative media coverage and been ignored by many doctors. “The discovery of naltrexone should have been a penicillin moment,” says Percy Menzies, president of ARCA, a St. Louis recovery clinic. Antagonist features Menzies, who worked for more than 18 years at DuPont and remains personally and professionally dedicated to ending our national drug and alcohol crises. Filmed largely on the streets of San Francisco and St. Louis, the film draws upon Westhoff’s decade of reporting on the opioid crisis and follows addicted users through the heartbreak and joy of recovery. The project was well researched through interviews with doctors, addiction experts, historians, academics and addicts themselves. Westhoff’s credentials include advising officials at the highest levels of government on the fentanyl crisis, and he has written on the opioid epidemic for The Atlantic, The Guardian, Los Angeles Times and NPR. For the panel discussion, Westhoff will be joined by Menzies and Dr. Fred Rottnek, a professor and director of community medicine at SLU School of Medicine, program director of the Addictio Medicine Fellowship, as well as medical director of ARCA.
forest park
Much of Forest Park’s canopy was knocked flat by the May 16 tornado. To go a long way toward restoring our beloved park’s devastated woodlands and familiar landscapes, Forest Park Forever (FPF) and the City of St. Louis plan to plant at least 2,400 trees over the next 12 months and 6,000 over the next five years. FPF made great strides on Forest Restoration Day on Nov. 2. More than 200 people planted 883 trees of 41 different native species across 22.6 acres. In a normal year, notwithstanding an ‘extreme weather event,’ the nonprofit plants between 400 and 600 trees in the park, and aims to double that this year. Of course, many trees that were destroyed or irreparably damaged had been growing throughout the park for dozens of years. Many of the mighty giants blown to splinters were much older than even you, dear reader.
notable neighbors
cwe
START (St. Louis Teens Aid Refugees Today), had a modest, well, start, established in the fall of 2016 by St. Louis high-schoolers intent on helping Syrians escaping from that country’s civil war. First a drive collected basic toiletries for the families who came here. Then, the volunteer effort got more serious when some newly transplanted teens were beaten. START is now under the umbrella of Welcome Neighbor StL, which has partnered with Afghan families, Ukrainians and others from war-torn, unstable areas. “The Afghans started coming in the fall of 2021, seemingly overnight,” says Ann Wittman, executive director of Welcome Neighbor, which has organically grown into a multi-faceted organization that has helped more than 600 refugees from 11 countries. “We now have 14 employees,” says Wittman, who was able to do so through grants and the generosity of donors throughout the metro, whose philanthropic spirit and effort is second to none. Their offices are at 5007 Waterman Blvd. in the CWE. “I have a ton of connections in St. Louis,” she adds, which she started building probably even prior to her high-school years at Visitation Academy and added to during her years studying information systems at SLU and into her subsequent 13-year corporate career with Deloitte. But the universal divine had plans for her other than working for a Fortune 100 company. “God was asking me to do more,” she says. Welcome Neighbor teaches refugees to fish, so to speak. “It’s not a one-and-done situation—our whole mission is to partner with them, not support them.” It’s a relationship largely based on trust, which was a quality largely absent in the countries from which they escaped. She’s had refugees approach her to volunteer. They’re brave, resilient, grateful and patriotic: “They want to be American success stories.” One of the most dedicated START members is her son Bobby, who’s in his freshman year at the University of Dayton on a service and leadership scholarship. Bobby made sure to return home in time to be involved with the agency’s winter party. Understandably, it’s not a holiday-specific party, because so many of the participants practice different faiths. The Halloween celebration was also great fun. “Although the concept was foreign to Afghans, the girls loved the idea of dressing up as a princess,” says Wittman, with a laugh. Wittman and her team, plus a small army of volunteers, are tireless. “It’s truly an honor to help these people find a home and get a job,” she says. But it has become an even more desperate task to try and get many of the refugees’ family members out of the country. Wittman and her compatriots will help our new residents prepare as best they can. To learn more or to get involved, visit welcomeneighborstl.org.
Bill Beggs Jr. has worn many hats at newspapers, magazines and in marketing communications since before the era of the floppy disc. Now he just wears a hat to keep his bald spot from getting sunburnt. You can reach him at wrtrs.blck@gmail.com.
