Ten years ago today, a Ferguson police officer shot and killed Michael Brown Jr.—an event that galvanized St. Louis to look at longstanding racial disparities and over-policing. While many things have changed in St. Louis in the decade since, activists say one major goal that followed 2014’s protests remains unfulfilled. Below, staff writer Ryan Krull explains why activists are doubling down on a call for change first issued in 2015.
On another note, enjoy the cooler weather this weekend. With this being St. Louis, it won’t last forever.
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🥳 Union Station hosts a weekend birthday block party
THIS JUST IN
Now hiring: a top cop for St. Louis County
Now that St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell is almost certainly headed to Congress in January, all eyes are on County Executive Sam Page, who chooses his replacement. Much of the buzz is about Chelsea Draper, Bell’s former chief of staff and the daughter of retired Missouri Supreme Court Justice George Draper III. After four years in the county office, Draper took a job as an assistant U.S. Attorney in Raleigh, where court records show her entering appearances in a wide variety of criminal cases, from bribery to cigarette trafficking to wire fraud. She left after just over a year and now works at a private healthcare company.
Doug Moore, a spokesman for Page, says the pressure is off, for now, noting that Bell doesn’t take office until January: “Sam’s got four months, really, to decide. But he wants to get the process going.”
The law says only that Bell’s replacement must share his political party. But Moore says the lack of parameters raises some of the same questions that Gov. Mike Parson grappled with in choosing a replacement for Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner, namely: Do you look for someone to fill the remainder of Bell’s term or someone who could hold the job for more than two years? —S.F. and R.K.
Photography by LittleT889 via Wikicommons
DEEP DIVE
10 years post-Ferguson, a renewed call for municipal court reform
Since 2015, the nonprofit law firm ArchCity Defenders has targeted St. Louis County’s municipal courts through court watch programs, litigation, and an online storytelling project. It has only become more confident that consolidating the 85 courts into one is a necessary fix. ArchCity communications director Z Gorley explains why.
What’s Changed: Revenue generated by tickets issued in the city and county is down from $61 million in 2013 to $17 million last year.
How Muni Courts Still Criminalize Poverty: Gorley says there remains “a system that requires an individual to have money in order to not be considered a criminal.” Referring to prohibitions on too-high grass or having chipped paint on your house, Gorley says many ordinances have less to do with public safety and more to do with people “not being able to afford something in the first place.”
How Consolidation Would Help: Central administration would make it harder for smaller municipalities to treat their courts primarily as revenue-generating systems. It would also eliminate a central conflict of interest wherein “a prosecutor in Hazelwood is a judge the next day in Beverly Hills,” says Gorley.
A Murky Future: It’s unclear who has the power to consolidate the 85 divisions into one. The state legislature could make it happen; others have argued the Supreme Court of Missouri or the presiding judge of St. Louis County Circuit Court could as well. —R.K.
A MESSAGE FROM JAMES S. MCDONNELL FOUNDATION
Now accepting applications for $2 million in grants
The JSMF open call is here! The organization is delighted to announce new grant opportunities in the areas of civic infrastructure and wealth building. The deadline for all grant applications is August 30, 2024.
St. Louis startup creation dropped in 2023 (St. Louis Business Journal): After six steady years, the number of new St. Louis companies hiring their first employees dropped 27 percent in 2023, according to the 2024 State of the St. Louis Workforce report. Experts say one big reason is that venture capital has dried up across the U.S. in the past two years.
Kurt Warner cheers at the Olympics (@WarnerBrenda on X): The legendary quarterback was in Paris with his wife, Brenda, to cheer on their nephew, Freddie Crittenden III. The McCluer North alum made it to the finals for 110-meter hurdles yesterday. He didn’t medal, but was almost certainly the only one in the race with a Super Bowl champ cheering him on.
Acclaimed Opera Theatre director is heading to Seattle (SLM): James Robinson, who directed 15 world premieres as artistic director of Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, many of them heralded, has taken a job as general and artistic director of Seattle Opera. He’ll still be back in St. Louis next year to direct the world premiere of This House.
Photography of Craft Alliance show courtesy of Allora McCullough
Around Town
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THE POLITICAL TEA
Several St. Louis aldermen aren’t fans of a proposal to change the name of the Board of Aldermen to the City Council, which would presumably change their individual titles to “councilperson.” One of the proposals to come out of the city’s Charter Commission, the new name is part of a wider effort to remove outdated gendered language from the city’s 1914 governing document. “The Board of Aldermen is an important part of our history; it's part of the character of our city. I’m not in favor of changing that,” Ward 4 Alderman Bret Narayan said at a committee meeting yesterday. Alderwomen Sharon Tyus and Laura Keys also opposed the effort, with Tyus saying she’d previously helped to make “alderwoman” part of the body’s nomenclature. Narayan also flagged the cost involved: “You think all the signage and letterhead and business cards are free? We just got all-new ones.” The effort advanced by a vote of 9–4 and will likely head to voters as part of a package of charter proposals this fall. —R.K.
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EYES OF THE NATION
Today is National Book Lovers Day (yes, that’s a thing), and how lucky to be in St. Louis on such an auspicious occasion! After all, we’ve just been named one of the 10 Best Cities for Book Lovers by a study analyzing our number of bookstores, libraries, literary landmarks, and more. And if anything, we’d argue we’ve been victim to an undercount. Not only do we have an impressive number of indie bookstores and a kick-ass library system, but the study utilizes the American Library Association’s official list to credit us for just one “literary landmark,” Kate Chopin’s house. One!? In a city that still houses the apartment building that inspired The Glass Menagerie, Maya Angelou’s childhood home, and the wasteland (err, parking lot) that was the boyhood home of T.S. Eliot? We demand a recount. —S.F.
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ART SCENE
An art show that set off a major hubbub earlier this summer wraps up Saturday—but don’t expect controversy around its closing reception and artist talks. Bryan Walsh, who owns Fifteen Windows on Cherokee Street, provided a home for Planting Seeds, Sprouting Hope, after Craft Alliance canceled it in June. The nonprofit crafts-focused arts organization in the Delmar Loop had removed the exhibition just after its opening and terminated the residencies of the two artists involved, saying their work was antisemitic. The artists disputed on those claims (one has threatened legal action). Walsh says the exhibition, which uses watermelon imagery to express solidarity with the Palestinian people, generated zero pushback at Fifteen Windows. “The opening was packed and positive, and gallery hours were well-attended,” Walsh says. “Many pieces sold on opening night and some more since.” —S.F.
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