La Tropicana

One of our favorite places in the city: La Tropicana at 5001 Lindenwood. The alfresco dining is tops. The food is amazing. This place, along with El Burrito Loco are fresh and delicious. The plantain torta, spicy fried plantain chips and spicy chicken quesadillas and cactus salad are my favorites. This is not your average, run of the mill place; it's tops for Latin food in my book. Not only is the food great, the people are nice too.

A St. Louis Public School in the neighborhood, Kennard Classical Junior Academy, has a unit on community and the 1st graders get to walk from their school to La Tropicana to learn about a local business in the neighborhood. The kids learn Spanish too, so they each introduced themselves (in Spanish) to the owner, told them where they live, how old they are, what languages they can speak and what they want to be when they grow up. 25 or so kids are in the class and the owner graciously listened to each and every kid's spiel. He fried up some plantains and made chips for the kids to taste. He gave them guava jarritos, showed them around the market, talked about where the food comes from and how they prepare it. Each class got a bunch of those mini bananas to take back to class.

I never did anything like this in school. Of course, I went to a private Catholic school in a small town where no one offered or spoke anything other than English. My high school didn't even offer Spanish. It was either French, German or Latin. I am so happy my kids are getting exposed to the Kingshighway Hills neighborhood, local-family owned businesses and multiple ethnicity's. Heartwarming stuff really. The owner really went out of his way to educate the kids and show them a good time.

Back to La Tropicana. This food is fresh, delectable and affordable. If you're not into fresh Latin food, you can always sit outside under the tent and enjoy a cocktail or a delicious Mexican beer with lime (mmmm Modello) and watch the neighbors walking around and tending to their homes/yards. This is one of my favorite neighborhoods in the city.

You can't go wrong supporting places like this.

Exciting Projects

Back in September, 2008 I did a post on my most anticipated projects in St. Louis:

The proposed Drury Inn at Kingshighway and I-64. *This could extend the CWE, Barnes money and activity south to the Forest Park Southeast neighborhood.

The Bohemian Hill development in Lafayette Square. *The addition of a some needed services in that part of town could be a main boost for that neighborhood.

The CVS drug store in Boulevard Heights. *they are new to this market. If they can build an urban drug store (to the street with parking in back), I'll never go to Walgreens again.

The Great Rivers Greenway pedestrian trail *The Morgan Ford to I-55 extension is nearly completed, the next step is from I-55 south to Loughborough Commons.

BPV *I'm still optimistic it will add activity to this part of Downtown. I'm hoping it doesn't end up a TGIFridays, and a nail salon & instant check cashing strip mall.

So what's the progress been in 8 months?

Drury Inn seems to be a go, and will be quite an improvement to the area. Most interstate passers by and out of town'ers will be impressed with the new I-64 interchange at Kingshighway. Think of these twin towers rising to the south and the behemoth that is Barnes-Jewish/Childrens to the north. Here's an excellent summary of the project from March.

Bohemian Hill has broken ground. The Walgreen's pharmacy is being constructed right now. I was visiting with a family member last night at the Georgian, right across the street and he's very optimistic about the development. All in all this is a good development. I know there are nay sayers. Maybe I'll have to eat crow when it's all said and done. But, I think this is a decent development. At least they are going to try to fit in with their surroundings. It seems like a softer landing for Walgreens than their typical search and destroy tactics such as Gravois/Hampton (I miss you Red Bird Lanes), Kingshighway/Arsenal (I miss you Carriage Bowl), Kingshighway/Chipppewa (I miss you Famous Barr).CVS pharmacy in Boulevard Heights. I know this isn't a project with a big impact on the city. But, as a resident of this neighborhood, it's good to see the old Amoco/BP site get redeveloped. It's good to see Walgreens get a little competition. The demolition is nearly complete and construction likely will begin shortly. Will it be built to the street? with parking/drive through in back?

Great Rivers Bike Trail. Another fantastic extension from Morgan Ford to I-55. This pedestrian path has added so much to my neighborhood. There used to be ZERO activity in Christy Park. Now it's teeming with runners, walkers, cyclists, kids, etc. Love this project!

BPV. UUUURRRGGHHHH!!!!!!! I cannot believe there's no public protest on this one. I fantasize about a group of citizens trying to send a message to the DeWitts. A group with sandwich boards with names painted on them: "Ballpork Pillage", "Pujols Pond", "Chesterfield Commons-Downtown", etc. This is an embarrassment. Put the heat on these clowns. Embarrass them when there are ~40,000 down there at each game. I think people would respond to a silent group walking the streets protesting. I can't believe they are getting away with this.

That's enough negativity....take a breath. In an economy that has been in recession for awhile, it's great to see projects moving forward (except DeWitt's).

Here are some more of my most anticipated projects on the horizon. I hope to take a look back in ~8 months and see where they're at.

Pelican Place

City Diner in midtown

SLU law school expansion

I've been feelin' midtown lately. I like it here and it's getting better and better.

and of course the granddaddy of them all: BLAIRMONT! Quite possibly the most exciting news to hit north city in 50 years! I can't stop thinking about this one. Now, if I can just get some facts.....

What are some of your favorite projects on the horizon?

Spring Harvest in the City

Broccoli and red leaf lettuce is being harvested daily at Bates and Arendes in Holly Hills:

Thanks to Missouri Forest ReLeaf for the 10 river birch and 10 eastern red buds. These trees are native to Missouri and are well suited for low canopy interest in a vegetable garden.

Another dedicated Holly Hills gardener is a former strawberry farmer:Romaine lettuce for dinner tonight. This 4 year old is not scared of our newest members of the garden (in the background)Thanks to yet another dedicated Holly Hills gardener, we now have 2 hives of European honey bees to help pollinate our flowers...and of course make some delicious honey combs.

Newly Discovered St. Louis Reading

Who needs TV and print media, when you have all this great and entertaining commentary:

http://downtownstlbiz.blogspot.com/

http://stlurbanworkshop.blogspot.com/

http://stlevolution.blogspot.com/

http://vanishingstl.blogspot.com/

I'm sure there are others, too.

Novella Bookstore and a Croatian Writer's Take on Cities

There is a charming little bookstore at 5510 Kingshighway owned by a very kind woman who just happens to share my rare last name (we're no relation, though). She is from the former Yugoslavia, and carries books mainly from that part of Europe.

My wife bought me a copy of Debravka Ugresic's "Nobody's Home". She writes of some personal experiences living all over the world, and not really ever settling down in one place for too long.

Here's an entry from one of her short stories that speaks to people's personal relationships with cities:

"There are cities where I feel compelled to intervene. In these cities some devilish voice is constantly nudging me: I'd move this, smooth over that. In cities like that I feel like a self-appointed mayor.

There are cities whose former beauty brings tears to my eyes. St. Petersburg is one such city. There are cities which galvanize me, raise the level of adrenaline in my bloodstream and blur my vision. New York is a city like that.

There are cities held together by a river. Take away the river, and the city turns into an amorphous smudge. Belgrade is one such city. There are cities whose beauty lies in the promise of sea and shore. Take away the promise, and all that is left is a mega-oasis. Los Angeles is a city like that. There are cities which bring together essentially incompatible things such as power and melancholy. Berlin is that sort of city. There are cities which would need nothing more than a facelift to place them among the most beautiful cities in the world. Budapest is one such city.

The beauty of the city is in the eye of the beholder. The more beholders, the more visions of beauty."

I'd put St. Louis somewhere between the Berlin and Budapest category. I, like Ms. Ugresic, feel like a self appointed mayor sometimes. I too feel that the more beholders we have the more visions of beauty we will have. It'll take all the beauty and vision we can muster to move us out of our darkest period in St. Louis (~1955-1995) and on toward something that makes us great again.