Spielin' on the linguisticalities of the verbiage...St. Louis style that is

I love words.  Bending them, using them, or even better:  misusing them....it's all so much fun.  It's why I like hip hop and poetry and songwriting.  I'm not an English major or writer but I love the language, all languages.  You don't have to be an academic to enjoy language and English, in fact it might be quite the opposite.  My favorite musicians, song writers and many authors don't have formal education.  They have soul and experience though, in spades. I also love dialects and accents, I like the ones I hear around St. Louis.  Folks from all over speak differently.  The Bosnian cashier at the Walgreens on Holly Hills/Gravois is sexier, but less fun/hilarious than the Croat checker at Bates/Grand.  Read Winter's Bone and connect with that style, it's easy to do around here.  Academics and intellectuals and elitists sometimes don't get this.

If anything pisses me off, it's people who look down on others based on the way they speak.  What an ass, you don't get it do you?  Our differences make us stronger.  Listen to Nelly and then listen to Q-Tip and then listen to Common.  Drastically different...all great.  This is what makes cover songs fun.  This is what makes the messenger interesting.  Listen to a white dude read a Maya Angelou poem (most likely on NPR), or a black dude read a passage from Willa Cather (has this ever been recorded, please Alan Lomax help us).  Great spins on great words.  Totally new and exciting or overly intellectual and boring, you make the call.  The Rolling Stones made a career on imitating and adding to the playing of black dudes.

Whatever you call it, I like folk music, folk writing, folks in general.  If the internet age and technology has brought us anything, it's folk art.  Any chump can write or sing or perform or whatever and the world can access it and critique it, laud it, ignore it or ban it immediately.  It's a new audience if nothing else.  We see what people are doing all over the world and we're all having fun and are unique.  Tosh.O, this blog, you name it.

So let's celebrate the times and talk some shit about words and the modern society and culture and urban context of words in St. Louis.

One of my upcoming series after the neighborhood thing I'm doing will be spieling on words with an urban context that have completely taken on new meanings in modern times (read ghetto or gangster) or words that are inflammatory or confusing or just flat out misunderstood (read gentrification, hipster, urban or hoosier).  I can't wait to get started on this and I'm going to try to enlist the help of some better read/versed friends to help me with this.  I hope to interview some folks and neighbors and anyone else interested.  If you have a word or an accent or a dialect that you think is unique, confusing or different in St. Louis than anywhere else, drop me a line and I'll try to work on it.

In the on-deck circle:  GHETTO!!!!!!  Stay tuned kind reader.

1.5 miles from a micro-brewery

I've read/heard tales of a St. Louis where kids would take emptied beer pales up to the corner tavern to refill it (probably sipping the top as not to spill on the way home) and bring it back home to mom and dad.  I recall being served at 8 or 9 years old at fish stands in Smithton and Millstadt, Illinois and carrying the metal bucket filled with cold lager back to the adult table.  I thought I was the king.  I felt trusted and pretty big time.

I feel like a kid again as there is a microbrewery less than 1.5 miles from my house where I can fill my growler for $10 with tasty seasonal selections of hand crafted beer.  Lucky me, now if I could just send my kids to get it for me....

I love living in a big city with plenty of neighborhood micro-brews.  I love supporting small business and helping unique businesses thrive in our neighborhoods.  St. Louis still needs more business to compliment the amazing housing stock.  This would really set us apart from other cities in the United States.

Daydream # 383

The housing market has seen a downturn no doubt. But people still need a roof over their heads. We still have and need a diverse set of housing stock to meet the ups and downs of a housing market that can appeal to both prospective owners and renters and lessees. Rentals, townhouses, single family homes...all coexisting to create a whole neighborhood.

There are many, many re-habbers making great progress in this city. I've seen them as far north as Riverview and as far south as the Patch. People that care and want to see properties brought back to life while making a living seems like the perfect match. Grassroots efforts are WAY more impactful for the long term health of our neighborhoods and our city as a whole than the huge entertainment projects like Ballpark "Village" (no residential?), Bottle District, etc. that get so much attention around town.

I drive down many dilapidated streets and see a property being rehabbed and I laud the efforts of these folks, but I can't help but feel like their efforts are overwhelmed by the staggering amount of negativity and neglect that surrounds their noble efforts in some parts of the city. On the other hand, I've seen some homes being renovated on streets in Tower Grove South, Shaw, Lafayette Square or Soulard that are the last shell or rehab available on the block...the icing on the cake so to speak. Both are important, and there's so much left to be done.

So why not call all re-habbing hands on deck to work together in a concerted fashion to work toward transforming and marketing streets, blocks, neighborhoods to new residents. The sweeping power of an effort of this scale would be overwhelming. Money would more easily be made if folks worked together to reclaim an entire street. Resources could be pooled.

An entire neighborhood, take Fox Park for example, which is working toward extending its historic status south of Shenandoah to cover the entire neighborhood could be a perfect case study for this type of effort. Start on Ann Street and work south to the end of the neighborhood. Market the neighborhood to renters, owners and lessees. Work toward drawing small business, the local and national press and everyone else to take notice of the concerted efforts to take a single neighborhood on the fringe and elevate it to a regional showplace.

I have always said that bringing a vacant property back to life is the single greatest thing one can do for the betterment of St. Louis. Taking a 4 family down to a 2 family townhouse or a 2 family to a single family dwelling is what we need. We have a city built for 1 million when we only have ~350,000 residents. We should prepare for a solid 500,000.

Hey I can dream can't I?

Yours truly is getting ready to toss our hat in the ring....more on those adventures in 2011.

Old North St. Louis: Old North Grocery Co-op

My recent visit to Crown Square led me to another fascinating personal first...a stop into the

Old North Grocery Co-op

.  The amount of positivity that has sprung up around Crown Candy Kitchen is simply amazing.  The

ONSL Restoration Group

is doing a great job at organically building the neighborhood back up to it's original glory.

Now, there are some things that simply make sense to me on every level.  Buying fresh, locally produced food and products is one of those things.  I like to spend every dollar I can within the limits of the City of St. Louis.  And when I can't find it there, extend my reach to the state level and then made in the U.S.  It's a challenge for me, and I think it's my duty as a good citizen to support local business owners.  When it comes to food, it's getting easier and easier to get local (within 100 miles of the city) produce and meat products.  With farmer's markets and co-ops and neighborhood gardens popping up all over the city, I'm very impressed with the locavore activities in St. Louis.

The Old North Grocery Co-op is just one positive example of this. 

Upon my visit, I bought some bacon, pork chops and an ~8 pound chicken (butchered within 48 hours of purchase) from a local farmer in Truxton, MO.  Lee Farms is approximately 70 miles from DT St. Louis; a mere 1.5 hour drive.  The processor (Davis Meats) is also in the great state of Missouri in a town called Jonesburg only ~66 miles from DT St. Louis.

It gets better.  As I was shopping for some delicious food, there was a couple in the back having a conversation.  As I approached the cashier to check out, one of the people at the back table approached me with an extended handshake and introduced himself as the farmer that raised the animals that I was purchasing.   He gave me a heartfelt thanks and I returned the thanks for doing one of the most important jobs in the world, providing food for the masses.  It was a good experience.

I am very proud of the work that farmers do to feed the world, especially farmers that are interested in serving their communities and regions with fresh, healthy food.  I am also very proud of folks like the Old North Grocery Co-op that are working toward fresh, local solutions toward healthy nutrition and living well.

Old North never looked so good.  You've got to check this place out.

Old North St. Louis: the 14th Street Mall or Crown Square

I've been reading a lot about the opening of the 14th street pedestrian mall or as it's referred to now: 

Crown Square in the Old North St. Louis neighborhood.  Built St. Louis has some great "before" pictures from this section of the neighborhood.

It's clear, the space had seen better days.  But today a major transformation has occurred.  Not only has 14th street been opened up to vehicular traffic, this is straight up one of the most handsome business corridors in the entire city.  The views of DT and the Arch are unmatched.  The buildings look fantastic, and I was beaming with pride as I walked around.  This is one of the greatest transformations in my time living in St. Louis.  Cheers to all involved on a top notch effort.  Take a look:

views from in front of Crown Candy Kitchen

new street signs, lights, bike racks, parking meters and planters/benches

landscaped path to parking lots

PARKING IN THE REAR!!! So the storefronts can shine!

WOW!!!!  Can I get an Amen St. Louis? 

The regional/tourist draw of Crown Candy Kitchen should not be underestimated.  People from all over the suburbs and metropolitan region come here, especially at lunchtime and weekends.  Tourists flock here as well.  Hopefully more tenants in Crown Square will bring more tourist/visitor dollars to the neighborhood. 

On the day of my visit, people were walking around peeking in windows and admiring the workmanship and feel of the area.  It's great to see.

Now keep in mind this is St. Louis...the naysayers are already out in full force....they say, I'll call this a success when and only when there are businesses occupying all the storefronts.  I see what they are saying and there is still many a negative element in the surrounding areas.  They will try to make their mark (some genius started a fire in one of the brand new trash receptacles):

But the guts and drive it takes to make a successful renovation on this scale is simply astounding.  If you let the naysayers have their way, it would never have gotten off the ground, nor would it have come to completion. 

I commend all those involved!  You make this city guy proud!!!!

Want to read more?  Here's some great content: yahoo, St. Louis business journal, St. Louis beacon, Urban Review STL