[creve coeur]
Of the handful of area municipalities that gave a green light to red-light cameras, Creve Coeur has sort of gone to yellow. That is, the city has pulled the plug on the devices, for now, and is taking a wait-and-see approach as legal challenges get resolved, appealed, overturned… ad nauseam. Meanwhile, as the same flip-flopping continues in St. Louis, a San Antonio law firm/collection agency sends threatening correspondence to scofflaws irrespective of whether this or that court is on this or that side of the issue.
[ellisvile]
Fortunately for everyone involved in the theft of a $35,000 Rolex watch from Clarkson Jewelers, no one was hit when the store manager fired a few shots at the suspects. An employee tackled one of them, but had the good sense to let go and back off when threatened with death. Last, neither cops nor robbers were hurt in the wild chase that started near the Ellisville store and ended in Chesterfield with a single-car crash. Yes, a really, really expensive watch would make a wonderful gift, but we’re sure these guys weren’t planning to give it to someone. These days, anyhow, aren’t wristwatches obsolete, except as fine jewelry? Even the average knucklehead has a ‘dumb’ phone, which that tell you the correct time.
[kirkwood]
What to do while waiting at the airport with a youngster who keeps asking, “When are we going to get on the airplane?” Like, 250 times? “Well, honey, you can get on a plane right now!” is how frazzled adults can respond, come late May, when the Play Port opens in the C Concourse at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport. For anyone who’s ever wondered whether it was possible for The Magic House to expand any more, the children’s museum in Kirkwood is behind this whimsical, handson children’s exhibit.
Think of it as a miniature expression of the classic Steve Martin-John Candy movie Planes, Trains & Automobiles, where for the longest time the comedians can’t manage to get anywhere. Kids will stay right where you can see them in this 1,500-square-foot transportation hub of fun, with climb-in and climb-out conveyances including a plane, a train and a few autos that look tiny enough to rival the smallest hybrid vehicles of today (those roller skates with a windshield, roof, doors and seats). The $150,000 project was backed by major donors, including Enterprise Rent-A-Car, with private donations accepted via Rally Saint Louis. The play area also will include a child-size air traffic control tower, car rental counters and an airport screening area. “See, junior, waiting in the TSA line can be fun!” exclaimed no adult, ever.
[maplewood]
Is the independent bookstore on its way out? Pah! Not The Book House, which was evicted from Rock Hill awhile back and set up shop in Maplewood just in time to do business and have book signings on weekends leading up to the Yuletide (and all this without heat). The store left a 100-year-old historic home and moved into another centenarian of a building … a former department store at 7352 Manchester Road that had been shuttered for 20 years. Plans down the road include an event space. Though a Kickstarter campaign is keeping things going for the time being, this is still one of those stories that just warms your heart at the holidays. When the monthlong campaign ended, it had topped its $10,000 goal by more than two grand. More than 300 donors kicked in. Wonder how many copies of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol are among the 200,000-plus books that made the move?
[saint louis]
IKEA is coming to the city. Yes, you read that right. Wow. After all the smoke and no fire billowing from any number of media outlets in town, including us, The Great Flyover will have its own store(s). Kansas City will have one a year before we do, dang it! The household-goods retailer based in Sweden, which for years has been coy about any Midwest expansion plans into the Gateway City, has found a place that feels like home. And it’s not any of the suburbs that have been bounced about by pundits and prognosticators (like Chesterfield or Richmond Heights, among others). It’s in midtown. Officials of the company announced that the store will be built at Forest Park and Vandeventer avenues, near Saint Louis University. Parking? There will be upwards of 1,200 spaces in an underground garage beneath the two-story, 380,000-square-foot store. Oh, and when? That’s sort of a sore subject among any folks who still sense a rivalry between KC and STL. The one on the other end of Interstate 70 will open in 2014, officials say; ours will open in 2015 and will employ 300.
[sunset hills]
Counterfeiters are like the flu. Every time researchers develop a new vaccine, the flu virus mutates, rendering the vaccine ineffective. And the U.S. Secret Service works vigilantly to stay one step ahead of fake-money makers, who manage to create believable, but bogus, bills—also like the flu, just in time for the holidays. Victims can range from a small Sunset Hills salon to a big box in Brentwood, and agents say they’ve even seen attempts at counterfeiting the new, improved ‘Benjamin’… the $100 bill, which features a strip of holographic tape in an attempt to foil criminals with even the most sophisticated printing equipment. Busy businesses can stay a step or so ahead of the crooks by using special pens … they look and operate like a highlighter… or a newly developed penlight to separate the wheat from the chaff. Authorities emphasize that if a bill just doesn’t ‘feel’ right, it probably isn’t.
[town & country]
We really should have waited for the other shoe to drop. A few weeks ago we eagerly expressed our presumption that vocal opponents of rezoning in Town & Country would be satisfied by the city’s vote on Maryville University’s request for about 16 acres to be used for a parking lot and maintenance facility. However, the city voted 6-1 to approve the measure.
This means Maryville can go ahead with its development plans, which include new athletic fields. The university has moved up, division-wise, and who knows how successful the Saints will become as an NCAA Division II school.
Meanwhile, the university will construct a 5-foot berm along Conway Road; it has worked to move the maintenance facility to another part of campus, farther from neighborhoods. Still, some residents say the city has ignored their concerns. They decry change … residential zoning means residences, period, conditional-use permits be damned. But other residents say a vibrant, growing university can do nothing but good for the community.
The land in question, once a farm, belongs to the university. Throughout the county, former farmland has been subdivided according to the acreage specified by the municipality, which here ranges from about 1.25 to 2.3 acres. That could have meant about seven McMansions–errr, very large homes.
Maryville is leaving most of it as green space—much of it for athletics, to be sure. Closer investigation shows a university making great efforts to be a good neighbor despite growth in its student body and program offerings.
[chesterfield]
Barrel Bob has appeared alongside westbound Interstate 64 in Chesterfield, and he’s sporting a festive red hat for the holidays. Made from recycled orange-andwhite highway barrels and cones, the smiling figure is just east of the construction at the Daniel Boone Bridge at the Spirit of St. Louis Boulevard overpass. If the flashing sign that MoDOT has placed farther east warning drivers to slow to 50 mph limit doesn’t do it, the sight of Barrel Bob just might. The MoDOT mascot, 11 feet tall, is MoDOT’s movable caution to drivers: “Don’t barrel through work zones.” He and his brethren also are targets of pranksters statewide. A couple years ago near Lake of the Ozarks, two women managed to make off with his top half, leaving his bottom half at the construction site.
[university city]
Five or so years ago, when gas-electric hybrid autos attracted stares, ‘green’ was a relatively novel concept in design and construction. Businesses trumpeted their LEED certifications from the U.S. Green Building Council. Although it’s still more the exception than the rule, green building has become more commonplace, which means young people are accepting ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’ as part of daily life. With its two new elementary schools—the first in the area built to LEED standards—U. City has had the opportunity to weave teachable moments on the environment into daily life. Most recently, in 2011, Barbara C. Jordan Elementary opened with major features that include large windows and a building orientation that exploits sunlight. It has a rain garden, as does Pershing Elementary, completed in 2009. Pervious (the opposite of impervious; in this case, porous) pavement helps lessen storm runoff at both schools. Recycled building materials were a key element in construction. These features figured into the exhaustive checklist required for LEED certification. It ain’t easy being green: For example, more-efficient HVAC systems cost more at the outset but save energy dollars over time. Somebody had to take the lead with LEED; let’s see if other districts follow suit.
By Bill Beggs Jr.
