respublica

St Louis Fireworks

Flickr has a photo section given over to the images St. Louisans took of last year's fireworks.

Very cool, and, very well photographed.

Sauce Reader's Choice awards for 2008

The July issue of St. Louis' Sauce Magazine has their annual insert section on this year's winners in the readers choice of favorite restaurants by category.  I put it down after reading it last night when it occurred to me something was obviously missing.

Only one Illinois eatery was listed in any category, the 17th Street Bar and Grill received an honorable mention for barbeque.  The 17th Street Bar and Grill is in Murphysboro!  That's it for the Illinois Metro East as far as favorite places to eat in the entire St. Louis area.  No doubt this place has outstanding ribs, it's nationally known, but how can this be?  You have to drive all the way to Murphysboro to find a favorite place in Illinois?

Do Metro East readers not bother filling out the Sauce entries?  Certainly Sauce has many readers on that side of the river and certainly there are good restaurants which have many fans.  I just don't get it. 

I can think of at least one place which should get either first, second, third or honorable mention in its category and that is Bobby's Frozen Custard.  It's a given that Ted Drewes will always take first, but Bobby's is as good as any, better than most others, and is always packed. 

There are good restaurants and bars and hamburgers and pizza and etc all over the Metro East.  This year's Sauce awards has a huge void and will lead many on the west side of the river to continue to believe the metro east has nothing worth the drive.

Ballpark Village-Baghdad on Broadway

The only question most residents of the St. Louis metro area might have is why did it take so long for aldermen and the mayor to get tough on the stagnant hole next to Busch Stadium?

Alderman Fred Wessel wrote a letter to the Cardinal owners a couple of weeks ago in which he said, "For more than two years, the owners have allowed the property to remain the largest mud hole in any downtown in the Midwest," Wessels said in his letter. "I consider the condition of the property to be an insult to the citizens of the St. Louis metropolitan area — the same people who helped to fund the new baseball stadium."

Shortly after that letter, Mayor Slay wrote on his website, "Nobody, including me, likes That Hole. Please do something with it now," Slay said. "City inspectors will be visiting That Hole this week. Please let them know your plans for it."

After two years and two letters late in coming: "The weeds have been cut and the trash picked up from around the chain-link fence. Water is being pumped from a large hole that has turned into a pond. But what will happen beyond that is unclear."

This embarrassing mess has been the topic of complaint from many in the area for two years, including many discussions by KMOX's Charlie Brennan.  Why did it take so long for city leaders to finally reach the end of their patience?

Top 50 travel destinations

For the Fourth of July .  Via Priceline

St. Louis is number 7.  Fair St. Louis and Live on the Levee gave the city its high marks.

We're ahead of Boston which came in at number 8.  How surprising great is that?

Rising water under the Arch

We decided to visit the Arch grounds this morning to see how high the river has risen since the Mississippi began its flooding through the upper midwest.

Sign of the times around the St. Louis Riverfront.

It was a beautiful day otherwise, it's hard to believe with such blue skies that the water would keep on rising.

But it is.  Today the water should crest here in downtown, sadly what is bad news for those to the north in Missouri, Iowa and Illinois, the broken levees, is good news for St. Louis.  Much of the water has been dispersed.  Not all, though.

Still, it was a gorgeous morning.

Except for the water.

We walked out onto the Eades Bridge to see how things looked from there.

Dale seemingly relaxed about holding a purse.

It's clouding up again, but still...it was a beautiful day under the Arch even though there are places you can no longer go.

Revisiting the Highway 40 construction

Highway 40's closure and reconstruction has been rolling along at a brisk pace.  The Post-Dispatch has a report today with photographs. One picture in particular taken at the intersection of 170 and 40 stood out.  I took some photos of this area last fall, emphasizing homes directly behind the huge sound barrier wall.  I said then that more of those properties should have been bought out and the photo today reinforces that belief.  The barrier wall is massive, the next time you're driving west on 40 toward 170, take a look down at those homes and you'll see how crammed up the residents must live.

Yes, the highway construction is moving along with fewer traffic problems than anticipated.  But the fact remains that many of the home owners along 40 between Hanley and 170 are living in a lousy situation.

Discomforting sports reporting

Descriptions of things change these days, especially in the words used to describe pro athletes' injuries.  A case in point is how someone in the Cardinals organization or in the sports writing media chose to describe closer Chris Carpenter's elbow injury.

"Former Cy Young Award winner Chris Carpenter was examined in St. Louis on Friday after experiencing renewed discomfort in his surgically repaired right elbow...

"Renewed discomfort?"  Now that's different.  What does this really mean?

Taxi driver day in St. Louis

The St. Louis Convention and Visitors Bureau has declared June 25th Taxi Driver Appreciation Day in St. Louis and there will be a celebration at the entrance to the convention center from 8:30 to 10:30.

This story should give anyone who goes by this spot an ironic chuckle.  The entrance to the convention center on any given day will see cabs parked up on the sidewalk as they wait for customers.  Steve Patterson of St. Louis Urban Review has done a great job of photographing the cabs blocking pedestrians from getting by.  Below is just one of the photos he's taken for this issue.  He writes:  "Of course the taxi stand on the sidewalk gets more space than us pedestrians. I can tell you that being in a wheelchair heading straight on toward a taxi that is moving toward me is not a comforting feeling. Oh the driver saw me as he repeatedly tapped his horn as he drove off."  Steve had a bad stroke back in January and although he's improving, he has to make use of a wheel chair to get around his home area downtown. 

We can appreciate the job taxi drivers do but we'd also appreciate having them keep their cabs off the sidewalks.

Maplewood Farmers Market

Wednesdays 4-7.

Set up in the parking lot of the Schlafly Bottleworks.

Lots of beautiful greens today.

The first squash of the season and dill too.  And small potatoes.

You have to get to these places early because people start lining up well before the appointed time.  I can't believe there would be much left at 5 much less 7.

Buying spray paint?

You may soon need some ID.

St. Louis Alderman, Donna Baringer wants to enact legislation which will treat cans of spray paint like handguns, restricting who can buy them, requiring buyers to show ID, and introducing a new criminal penalty for illegal possession.

This proposal comes about because of the increase in graffiti showing up all over St. Louis on new overpasses and sound barrier walls as well as the side of older buildings along the interstates. 

She's certainly correct that the graffiti is becoming ubiquitous around the area and that the cost of removal to the taxpayers is considerable.  And, each overpass or wall has designs which look exactly like the others around the city.  Is it the same individuals doing this or is there a graffiti art trend going on?

But how really can you restrict the purchase of spray paint?  It is already common practice for stores to limit underage people from buying.