maplewood
Mark your calendar … actually, Maplewood’s annual July celebration, Let Them Eat Art, is coming up quickly, so maybe you should set your alarm! (If you’re not too smart, but your phone is, both apps are right on there.) Typically, this unique street fest is loosely themed around Bastille Day, celebrated in France every July 14, but it falls on Friday the 13th this year. Anyone intent on celebrating Bastille Day is welcome to, officially, on Saturday. They celebrate it in Montreal, too. Despite certain grumbling and tweets to the contrary, France and Canada are still our friends (unlike an Asian dictator, the president’s newest buddy … that is, last week). Are we scared that the 13th annual art fest is on Friday the 13th? Well, the ’Wood has always staged it in fine style, pulling out all the stops short of actually beheading Marie Antoinette at Manchester Avenue and Sutton Boulevard. Many of the 50 artists slated for Friday have completed works that evoke anything that freaks out the superstitious … broken mirrors, black cats, walking under ladders, opening umbrellas indoors … and, of course, Friday the 13th itself. Seems the stars have aligned for an enchanting selfguided tour of live art, music and entertainment, plus restaurant specials and merchant open houses. Performing in the kids’ section of Sutton Loop Park will be The Opera Bell Band, and other musical entertainment includes Hobo Cane featuring Javier Mendoza, Farshid Etniko, Powerplay Band, Acoustik Element, Neil and Adam, and Saint Boogie Brass Band. A couple of art demonstrations will address the question posed by the classic, eponymous slasher flick (think hockey mask and bloody blade) and its sequels, while others challenge the sensibilities of your run-of-the-mill, quivering triskaidekaphobic (someone with extreme superstition of the number … you guessed it … 13). An array of exclusive creations will be for sale. Other stuff is not quite so scary: The St. Louis Hoop Club, the Aalim Belly Dance troupe, top spinning, Circus Kaput, face painting and performances by Shakespeare Festival St. Louis actors.
Riding around the streets of St. Louis with thousands of like-minded lunatics sounds fun, especially after midnight. Right? I did it one warm August night a while back, and maybe you’ve done it a few times yourself. A solitary cyclist pedaled on the first Moonlight Ramble 55 years ago, which was called the Midnight Ramble at the time. (If you’ve ever tried to decipher Mick Jagger’s mumbling through “Midnight Rambler,” the Stones’ ominous epic on their 1969 album Let It Bleed, you’ll have a good idea why they changed the name.) Hold that thought: you were looking forward to the 55th annual bicycle ride … not a race, ever … it ain’t gonna roll this summer because of some mishegas with radio stations changing hands, safety concerns, yada-yadayada. Don’t cry for me, Argentina. But, and we do mean butt, if you’ve really got a jones for saddle soreness, another leisurely ride is here before you know it: On July 21, you may take part in the 11th annual World Naked Bike Ride in St. Louis, which starts in The Grove at Manchester and Kentucky avenues. At 4 p.m., you can rub elbows—and elbows only, mind you—with your partly clothed brethren and sistren before y’all get rolling, as bare as you dare except for a helmet, at 6 p.m. Allow us to emphasize that full birthday suits are not acceptable attire for the pre- and post-party. Once riders take to the streets, bare-nakedness is just fine with us, if it’s OK with you. Meanwhile, speaking of bicycles, we’ve been keeping an eye out for any rental ‘bike-share’ and ofo cycles that have ventured outside the limits of The Lou. At least four have, so far, since they arrived in town in April. A solitary LimeBike was spotted in the western hinterlands of U. City recently. Then, just a few days later, a loyal reader texted his photo of another that had made it even farther out: The vivid green-and-yellow machine was parked on the shoulder of Clayton Road, right across from Ladue Chapel. At this writing, two brightyellow ofo cycles were awaiting their next riders in Tilles Park on McKnight Road.
affton
In golf, do fat ladies sing? If so, the fat lady will sing in a week or so (July 10) for Tower Tee, the venerable par 3 course, driving range, batting cages—did we miss anything?—that has been operating down yonder in Affton since 1964. Times have changed. I mean, there used to be a drive-in theater not too far west on Watson Road across from what would become the now-defunct Crestwood Plaza. (The 66 Park-In was razed in 1994 to make way for a center that today includes Schnucks, Best Buy and Starbucks.) The 27 acres that Tower Tee occupies is owned by media company Tegna, parent company of KMOV-TV (Channel 5), which sold the acreage to home builders. The adjacent red-and-white broadcast tower that, well, towers over the vast green space is from whence the complex—which had leased the property—got its name. A sales trailer will be installed soon, or may have been by the time you read this. Maybe you’d like to check out what’s up with the 150-odd homes McBride Berra Land Co. has planned at Tower Tee is the name the company, a joint venture by McBride & Son Homes and developer J.H. Berra, has dubbed the subdivision. The two companies also came together for the neighborhood across Gravois Road from Grant’s Farm in Affton. If it makes you feel any better as a hometown guy or gal who wishes things would stay the same, reportedly Tegna is to donate the $4 million proceeds from the sale to charities nationwide. (What? Why not just in the metro?) Anyhow, there are many who still may have fond memories of another StL icon replaced by a subdivision, the Coral Courts, although some are loath to provide details. Could be they’re just bashful architecture aficionados. I mean, the storied Route 66 motel featured units with attached garages.
By the time you read this, the black bear sighted a few weeks ago in the woods near a Ballwin subdivision will have consumed all of the nasty food waste it could find in the trash, or moved back into ‘pick-a-nicking’ territory à la Yogi and Boo-Boo. However, this isn’t a Hanna-Barbera cartoon. It’s for real. Besides, anyone who lives in one of our westernmost suburbs has to accept the presence of wild animals, including larger carnivores on occasion. After all, they were there first, and as subdivisions crop up unabated, their territory shrinks. Residents of Ballwin, Wildwood, Town and Country, Chesterfield and unincorporated county coveted that extra acreage to spread out, to thrill at the wooded backyard, to give their horses room to graze … but with that comes critterage, and not only the species that suburbanites lament as a neighborhood nuisance for nibbling on the hosta and ornamental trees. (We hope ursine-conscious Ballwin residents thought to remove any larger koi or salmon from the fish pond.) As late-night TV host Stephen Colbert reminds us, marauding bears pose the greatest threat to U.S. security. Alright, already: Thank you for ‘bearing’ with all of that because—seriously, folks—police issued a news release warning residents on the city’s south side to keep their animals inside, bring in trash cans and otherwise keep an eye out for the black bear, which was last reported the evening of June 17 ambling through the common ground area between the Castle Pines Subdivision and Oak Run Lane.
south county
What’s in a name? Millions upon millions if the name used to be St. Anthony’s Medical Center. ‘Tony’ officially becomes Mercy Hospital South Oct. 1. Meanwhile, Mercy is moving forward with plans to build a $54 million, 70,000-square-foot, two-story, stand-alone cancer center on campus, as well as commit $20 million for nine new Mercy Clinic primary care locations to be built over the next two years in South County, Jefferson County and Monroe County, Illinois. The first two buildings in Barnhart and Hillsboro are projected to open this winter. The cancer center is slated to open late next year and will include a connector to the hospital; the project will require changes to the on-campus roadways. With its HQ in Chesterfield, Mercy serves communities across four states with approximately 45 acute care and specialty hospitals—cancer, heart, children’s orthopedic, and rehab—and more than 800 physician practices and outpatient facilities.
Artwork above by Genevieve Esson