university city
One of the more intriguing works produced during the Plein Air painting competition sponsored by U City in Bloom last year is Artists at Work, a painting of painters painting painted by painter Zhen Xu. I would have titled the painting, A Painting of Painters Painting, but, lest, I paint myself into a corner with more somewhat artful wordplay. Here’s the news: U City in Bloom will sponsor its fifth biennial Garden Tour Sunday Sept. 24 from 1 to 5 p.m., featuring some of the oldest and most historic homes and gardens in town. And, painters will paint en plein air that afternoon during the self-guided tour highlighting gardens in University Heights No. 1, the subdivision laid out more than a century ago (well, 115 years ago, to be precise) by U. City founder Edward G. Lewis. In 1902, Lewis purchased 85 acres northwest of Forest Park, envisioning the land as the first subdivision in ‘A City Beautiful.’ Today, most of the site is contained within Lewis Park. Many of the homes have passed the century mark and have ‘Century Home’ plaques by their doors. As the light for painting wanes (although many artists might prefer a sunset scene), a reception in the rotunda on the fifth floor of City Hall will begin, with food provided by Salt + Smoke and beverages from Urban Chestnut and Fitz’s. Works that are painted throughout the day will be on display and available for purchase at the reception. You could take home a winner! Prior to their sale, we suspect, paintings will be judged and monetary prizes awarded. Tour tickets may be purchased online for the next few days and on Sunday at City Hall. Proceeds will support U City in Bloom’s mission to enhance and beautify the city through public gardens, community partnerships, citizen involvement and environmental education.
ladue
Word on the street is that it’s going to be quite the party. The Ladue Street Fest, that is, which replaces the Dogwood Parade this year. It spreads out Saturday Sept. 23 from 4 to 8 p.m. on Clayton Road east of Dwyer Place (in front of Janet McAfee Real Estate) to Mister Guy. Features include live music, local food, a wine and beer garden, and plenty of activities for kids, from giant inflatables and the Bubble Bus to a velcro wall that always attracts the adults, too. Ladue merchants displaying their wares will include: Sasha Nicholas, Mister Guy, Shine Boutique, Great Clips, Schnarr’s Hardware, Complete Eye Care, Whimsy Rose and PALM Health. Three blocks of Clayton Road, one of Ladue’s busiest streets, will be shut down and filled with local vendors, inflatable games and a massive music stage featuring three bands throughout the evening. Parking is available in the lots at Ladue Middle School and Conway Elementary. Starting at 3:30 p.m., a shuttle bus can take you from the parking lots to the festival and back. Raffle tickets for $1 each will buy you a chance to win things like a ride to school in a Ladue police car or fire truck and dinner with Ladue Mayor Nancy Spewak.
north county
Beyond Housing, a community development organization focusing its revitalization efforts in the 24:1 Community in North County, has begun a $5.6 million project that will transform a half-mile stretch of Pasadena Avenue through the communities of Pine Lawn and Northwoods. This storm water management and beautification project will create a walkable space with sidewalks and a median, with a new roundabout where Pasadena, Sylvan, Fairchild and Oxford streets meet. Through a grant, MSD’s Project Clear initiative has committed up to $3.1 million to the project, known as the Heart of Pine Lawn/Northwoods Point. Beyond Housing’s 24:1 Community Land Trust— representing the 24 communities within the Normandy Schools Collaborative—has committed the remaining funds, up to $2.5 million. The MSD grant will pay for nine retention basins and several rain gardens. The basins and rain gardens will replace hard, impervious surfaces, such as cement and blacktop, that, during moderate to heavy rains, can overwhelm wastewater sewer and cause basement backups and overflows into area creeks and streams. ‘Rainscaping’ is a combination of plantings, water features, catch basins, permeable surfaces and other approaches that manage storm water as close as possible to where it falls, rather than moving it someplace else. It serves as a cost-effective means of preventing excessive runoff. Project Clear is a generational initiative to improve water quality and alleviate wastewater problems throughout the city and county. As part of an agreement with the U.S. EPA and Missouri Coalition for the Environment, Project Clear will invest $4.7 billion over 23 years to address overflows and basement backups throughout MSD’s service area. A component of this agreement—and part of the $4.7 billion investment—calls for $100 million in rainscaping projects. Officials at Beyond Housing call the project an opportunity for ‘place- making.’ Work began in July and is expected to be complete by next summer.
ballwin
Lots of little boys playing Army would love to be digging in the dirt and find a box with hand grenades inside. Their parents? Not so much. The Tuesday morning after Labor Day, a worker digging a trench between two businesses in the 200 block of Ramsey Lane unearthed just that. The grenades appeared to have been buried for decades. Ballwin police were contacted, who in turn got in touch with the St. Louis Regional Bomb and Arson Unit. A robot was dispatched to collect the three grenades, which were in an old ammunition box of World War II vintage. The two businesses and an apartment building were evacuated until the area was deemed safe. Imagine the worker’s surprise when his shovel struck something hard and he discovered just what it was. The lucky ditch-digger … lucky as in ‘all in one piece’ today … was digging a drainage trench between Steuby Manufacturing Co. and the Balls-n-Strikes baseball training facility.
st. louis
Fair Saint Louis is set to return to the Gateway Arch grounds! (Cue polite applause.) Some of the more cynical among us would say something like, “It’s about (insert expletive here) time!” Others who are more patient would say, “Well, that’s nice. You mean the VP Fair moved?” Anyhow, after four years at Forest Park, Fair Saint Louis will return in 2018 to its original home since 1981, Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, but not with its birth name. The next iteration of America’s Biggest Birthday Party will mark the grand opening of the New Arch Experience (which may not be its ‘official’ title, but we capitalized it anyhow). It will coincide with the completion of the CityArchRiver project, the $380 million renovation of the Arch grounds and surrounding areas in partnership with the Gateway Arch Park Foundation, the nonprofit that raised private funds for the project and will continue to support the park moving forward. July 4 occurs on a Wednesday next summer, so that’s when the music, food, fireworks and all the trimmings start … including the return of the ever-popular air shows. Apparently nothing happens Thursday, the 5th, but it resumes Friday and Saturday, the 6th and 7th. Then that’s it. Nothing on Sunday. Folks who want more than three days of a fair are just greedy, or they don’t have to work during the week. Besides the elements fair-goers have grown to love over the midsummer festival’s 37 years, new themes will highlight renovations that transform the visitor experience at the Arch. Maybe you haven’t been there in a while because you thought it would Never. Get. Done. But here’s the skinny on what’s new: a long-awaited park over the highway that connects the Arch to downtown St. Louis (making access so much easier and awe-inspiring), a raised riverfront to dramatically decrease flooding, 11 acres of park space that includes 5.4 miles of pathways, a new entrance to the Arch visitor center (which is expanded by 46,000 square feet) and museum exhibits that tell the story of America’s westward expansion and the important role St. Louis played in it. The project also includes a newly renovated Kiener Plaza. (Have we mentioned how much of this new stuff is, like, new?) Among other stakeholders, those who’ve provided financial (and maybe moral) support to the public-private partnership include the National Park Service, City of St. Louis, Great Rivers Greenway, Bi-State Development, Missouri Department of Transportation, Gateway Arch Park Foundation and Jefferson National Parks Association.
