7.29.24

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5 Things to Do Today

🎤 Metro Boomin and Friends play at The Pageant

🥩 Meat Bingo Monday comes to Tamm Avenue Bar

🎄 Christmas in July fills Busch Stadium for STL vs. TX

🎹 Soulard Blues Band plays Broadway Oyster Bar 

✂️ Edward Scissorhands screens at Hi-Pointe Theatre

Photography by Gage Skidmore, Flickr

THIS JUST IN

J.D. Vance tries to make it rain in West County

Senator—and GOP vice presidential nominee—J.D. Vance swooped into Frontenac on Friday for a fundraiser at the Hilton St. Louis Frontenac Hotel. Media wasn’t allowed at the event, which kicked off around 8:30 a.m. and cost $3,300 for breakfast or $15,000 if you also wanted to get a photo taken with Vance. The invite billed Sen. Eric Schmitt as a special guest. Gubernatorial candidates Mike Kehoe and Jay Ashcroft were in attendance, as was former Anheuser-Busch chairman August Busch III. Alas, as the event was wrapping up, the lanyard for Treasurer Vivek Malek remained unclaimed at the check-in table.

• With Missouri safely in Republican territory this election cycle, don’t expect national candidates to mingle much with the local hoi polloi. They want our money; they already know whether they’re getting our electoral votes.
  
  
• One exception: Rumors are swirling among local Republicans that Donald Trump may grace the state with his ocher presence in September. The last time he campaigned in St. Louis, in 2016, protests turned Stifel Theatre into mayhem. Expect Trump to skip deep-blue St. Louis this time for Springfield—if he even comes. —Ryan Krull

DEEP DIVE

St. Louis neighbors go to court to tackle nuisances

St. Louis has an abandoned property problem, and neighborhood associations are tackling it…one house at a time. That work is happening thanks to a little-publicized Missouri nuisance law allowing neighbors of “deteriorated property” to sue to force cleanup by the offending property owner.

“Nuisance is a wonderful tool,” says attorney Tara Rocque. “You are doing something that impacts me and reduces my quality of life—and that can include hurting my own property values or creating a threat to my safety—and I have a right to relief.”

Why It Matters: In theory, the work of cleaning up problem properties would fall to police officers and building inspectors. But so many city properties qualify as nuisances, the best government employees can do is “play Whac-a-Mole.” Private actors are picking up the slack. One recent high-profile use of the law was the effort spearheaded by former Governor Jay Nixon (now a partner at Dowd Bennett) earlier this year to shut down the so-called “Murder Shell” gas station downtown.

What’s Next: Neighbors of a derelict house in the city’s Marine Villa neighborhood sued its owner just last month, asking a judge to force him to replace missing doors, abate a rat infestation, and more. The owner could be ordered to make repairs and even potentially lose the house to a receiver. —R.K.

Read the full story » 

A MESSAGE FROM CITY WINERY

Enter to win dinner and a show at City Winery

Today's Top Stories

• Behind the ouster of SLPS superintendent (stltoday): Keisha Scarlett has run the St. Louis Public School district for just one year, but as the district confronts a $35 million budget shortfall, a half-formed transportation plan, and a slew of hires from Scarlett’s former home of Seattle, the Board of Education put her on a temporary leave of absence Thursday. Now questions are swirling about a slew of contracts she inked with former colleagues, many without competitive bidding. 
  
  
• Cannabis leader’s “predatory” contracts locked in minority partners (Missouri Independent): John Payne helped design Missouri’s microbusiness licenses, which is aimed at giving Black people entry into the state’s growing cannabis industry. But Payne is connected to more than 300 applications to the program, and he also signed minorities to contracts that experts find problematic, including giving Payne and his partners 90 percent of the profits.
  
  
• The Scottish Arms closes in the Central West End (SLM): After 21 years, Ally Nisbet's beloved Scottish pub served its last meal yesterday. Or did it? Nisbet tells SLM's George Mahe that he came achingly close to finding a new owner, and he's still hoping to make a sale. Says longtime manager Michael Cline, "In the big scheme of things, we weren’t talking about that much money.” Will someone step up to save the CWE favorite? 

BRANDED CONTENT

Top of the Rock is a perfect weekend escape in Ridgedale, Missouri

Whether you’re a nature enthusiast, a history aficionado, a culinary connoisseur, or anything in between, Top of the Rock offers something for everyone. Learn more about its world-class recreational activities and attractions and plan your family’s visit.

Around Town

☕️

THE POLITICAL TEA

Congresswoman Cori Bush put her chutzpah on display at a recent campaign fundraiser. Earlier that day, Bush told attendees, she rushed to the aid of someone who’d collapsed at an event. The story was meant to be one about putting differences aside: Bush, a former nurse, described the woman in need as a Jewish, AIPAC-affiliated critic who had “brought [AIPAC] to my doorstep,” according to Jewish Insider. However, political activist Debbie Kitchen tells SLM that she’s the person Bush assisted, and not only is she not Jewish, but she also doesn’t have ties to AIPAC. Kitchen wrote on her Substack that the embellishment is indicative of larger issues at the Bush campaign. “It just blew my mind,” Kitchen tells SLM. “Then, to find out that she raised $30,000 that night, I was livid.” —R.K.

🏒

SONGS OF THE CITY

Five years after the Blues’ Cinderella run won them the Stanley Cup, “Gloria” has cemented its place as a St. Louis anthem. Further proof came last Thursday as indie rock band Vampire Weekend treated fans at Saint Louis Music Park to a verse and chorus from Laura Branigan’s 1982 classic—revisiting their own playbook from a 2019 concert here and, as frontman Ezra Koenig told the crowd, playing it even better this time around. Vampire Weekend fans, predictably, went wild. I think they’ve got our number. —S.F.

Quick Hits

Meet me in Des Peres: Porano reopens today, six years after closing downtown
M-I-Z…Z-O-U: Mizzou-themed bar Ray’s SportsHouse is coming to Soulard

Keeping it kosher: A new kosher deli will open in the space where Kohn's closed 
What’s that smell: A corpse flower is set to bloom in Chesterfield this week

Couldn't pick just one: Trump endorses all three leading GOP candidates for MO governor

Last Call 🥃

Not what they meant when they said take the bike lane to work.

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