university city
Thinking of spending thousands on new landscaping for the home spread, or maybe dropping even more of the long green on some bona fide landscape architecture? Maybe you don’t have to break the bank. You can ‘Bring Conservation Home’ via the St. Louis Audubon Society. Thanks to an endorsement from the city council, consultations are only $25 for U. City residents. The society says native plants are the foundation for any garden attractive to birds, butterflies and pollinators in general. Since all these critters evolved in the region, they’re adapted to our variable (I know,  right?) climate and clay-based soils. If native flora are chosen properly, once established in a garden, they don’t require pesticides, fertilizers or supplemental watering … sorry, Monsanto and Missouri-American Water. After applying to the program and scheduling, a team of habitat advisers will meet to discuss your goals for the landscape, survey your grounds, offer immediate feedback and then provide detailed, written recommendations on how to improve your yard as a habitat. An optional second visit is included in the initial fee for use anytime. It doesn’t expire. Maybe then your great-grandkids can chase the bazillions of monarch butterflies that opt to stay on your property rather than migrate to Mexico?

chesterfield
Look out yonder in Chesterfield Valley—why, Gander Mountain is still there! Built recently, in 2015, it is not part of the outdoor-goods retailer’s list of planned closings. The company plans to shut down 32 of 162 locations as part of its bankruptcy filing. All others in the metro will remain. For the time being. But the times, they are a-changin’ for brick-and-mortar retail, what with online shopping and mergers to guard against further fiscal challenges announced just about daily. Cabela’s and Bass Pro Shops are merging; Office Depot and OfficeMax already did. OfficeMax is now a subsidiary of Office Depot, and since 2013, about 700 of its stores have closed. One locale in Overland is now a Planet Fitness! Then there’s RadioShack. Their remaining stores are little more than Sprint retailers, not the cool places where old guys like me bought their first stereo components in the 1970s. Three of the 187 stores the chain is shuttering in its latest bankruptcy filing are in the metro. Meanwhile, there is reportedly even less loyalty to luxury, putting even the high-end haute stores in jeopardy. You can get that silk Ralph Lauren jacket on eBay. Even Nordstrom is struggling, likely not from dropping Ivanka Trump’s line … which, meanwhile, has been doing fine online, especially since POTUS henchwoman Kellyanne plugged it (ethics be damned). Following a gloomy holiday, Macy’s was to cut more than 10,000 jobs and proceed with closing 68 stores among the 100 that will eventually go. And, with failing Sears stores at the other end of many malls, whither goeth those dinosaurs? Criminy. At Macy’s, clerks are required to dress in black. Maybe they’re in mourning?

creve coeur
You might wonder how much time Doug Manninger of the Creve Coeur Police Department actually has to serve as a police officer. Well, he’s not your average beat cop. He’s served the community in many other ways since January 2016 (at least) as the crime prevention officer for Creve Coeur, and recently was recognized as the 2016 Police Officer of the Year by the Creve Coeur-Olivette Chamber of Commerce. As the old saw goes, ‘an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of Coeur’… ‘cure,’ that is. In 2016, Manninger worked diligently to educate citizens, students and businesses on crime prevention strategies. He’s coordinated several educational programs, including—take a deep breath—Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE), Rape Aggression Defense, West County Citizens Police Academy, civilian response to active-shooters training, and safety presentations on identity theft, personal safety and business security. In addition, Manninger is committed to building relationships between the police department and the community by coordinating (take another breath) Creve Coeur Night Out, the Neighborhood Watch Halloween Party, the Neighborhood Watch Trivia Night, and the first Creve Coeur Coffee with a Cop (we hope there were doughnuts). He also arranged fundraisers both for the Backstoppers and Special Olympics, respectively raising $2,843 and $2,155. What’s more, he manages the department’s Facebook and Twitter accounts, regularly updating them with crime prevention tips. Regardless of where you live or work, they’re worth checking out. Manninger joined the department in October 2010. IMHO, all towns should hire someone like him.

st. charles
If you scratched your head a little after reading the article in our esteemed metro daily about a two-story St. Charles house built from eight stacked rectangular steel cargo containers, we were right there with you. From the outside, it looks like something you’d see in a railroad yard: utilitarian. But the 3,100 square feet inside are adorned by the creativity and ingenuity of an artist and his wife, and extremely appealing. We won’t get into what the neighbors think, and neither did the writer. But cargo-container architecture is a thing. There are presently more than 17 million of those steel boxes sailing the seas on cargo ships, riding the rails or pulled by 18-wheelers, so there are plenty to be had for a thousand-plus bucks apiece (plus a few Benjamins for shipping … but what sort of container do you ship a cargo container in?). Repurposing them as living quarters is a brilliant idea, and we only have space enough on the page to show you a high-rise dormitory made from abandoned grain silos with several floors of cargo containers on top. There are Starbucks cafes made from the containers … some with a drive-thru. (We didn’t see any railroad sidings.) To be absolutely amazed, Google ‘cargo container architecture.’ Despite the popularity of such Bauhaus-y, less-is-more architecture in progressive cities, we will bet that cargo-container housing won’t pass muster in, say, Town & Country. Although it is a statistical probability that five out of four philistines hate a Frank Lloyd Wright-looking house in the CWE. Post-post-modernist architect Frank Gehry might be tarred and feathered on sight.

st. louis
Pot-loving underground comic duo Cheech & Chong had a funny bit about ‘puppy uppers and doggie downers’ on one of their 1970s records. Back then, misguided youth in Colorado also thought it was hilarious to blow marijuana smoke into the dog or cat’s face. Problem was, they didn’t know that a dog or cat has a much lower tolerance level than a human. Not to mention that it was illegal everywhere. Fast forward to today, when recreational marijuana use is legal in a few states, and medical use is legal in a few more. It’s still illegal for any purpose in Missouri, but Gov. Eric Greitens, accessible to donors but so far not the press, won’t talk with us about stuff like that … or anything. Meanwhile, in California of course, compassionate pet owners are giving cannabis extract to dogs and cats that are elderly or in pain. (‘Hemp’ is the main ingredient mentioned in any such product we surveyed online; the rest is various other herbs.) Apparently, treated animals act like puppies and kittens again. It doesn’t include enough psychoactive ingredients to get a hamster high, but appears to soothe what’s ailing beloved canines and felines. And horses. Research on cannabis for companion animals, however, is insufficient to indicate anything, veterinarians say. Plus, experimentation could put a vet’s license in jeopardy … even in California. The FDA hasn’t approved cannabis for pets, and vets aren’t allowed to write ’scripts, even though proponents think the ‘holistic’ products out there are just dandy … nudge, nudge, wink, wink. But in states where pot is illegal, many vets are loath to even discuss the idea. Nicole Mattis, DVM, of St. Louis Veterinary Center, says, “It’s not only illegal, but unethical.”