11.20.24

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A message from executive editor Sarah Fenske

It’s been fun these past two years, dreaming about what we could do with $280 million in Rams money—the windfall the city won in litigation with the NFL team after it decamped for Los Angeles. But now that public hearings have concluded and some big proposals are on the table, it’s time to get serious. Read more below to learn about some of the factions now duking it out, bigger questions about process, and one unique idea that could get parents of school-age children excited.

While you’re reading, I also have news on a tough situation for everyone’s favorite soccer supporter group—and just the place to buy a hot pink Christmas tree. Who wouldn’t want that?!?

Follow me on Bluesky to keep up with the latest. Have a story idea? Reply to this email, or send a message to sfenske@stlmag.com.

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5 Things to Do

😱 Spirits with the Spirits at Lemp Mansion

🎭 Broadway Musical Trivia at Hidden Gem

🎸 Old Crow Medicine Show at The Pageant

🎵 The Burney Sisters at Focal Point

📽️ The Florida Project at Hi-Pointe Theatre

Samantha Stangl, executive director of House Everyone STL, called the consensus from the summit “an important, historic first step.” Photography by Nicholas Phillips

THIS JUST IN

Region thinks bigger—together—on shrinking homelessness

Much recent discussion of St. Louis’ homelessness problem has centered on emergency shelters: Should it be easier to build them? Will they have enough beds this winter?

But now regional players in government, philanthropy, business, and homelessness services are coalescing around a bigger and bolder promise: to work as a team so that those who are sleeping in shelters can get out—and stay out.

Such was the promise articulated Tuesday at a public event summarizing the consensus from the Housing First STL Summit, which had been held in October by East-West Gateway Council of Governments. The very name of the summit suggested an embrace of the “housing-first” model of tackling the problem—a model based on the research finding that unhoused individuals respond best to wraparound support while living in residences of their own, not shelters.

Mayor Tishaura Jones, who as council chair first proposed the summit, said Tuesday that the “wonderful service providers who have been moving in this direction for a while” have also realized that the region can’t get better at this unless “we are all rowing in the same direction.” The idea is to test the rehousing strategy on a pilot basis, then refine and scale up from there.

Next steps include identifying a respected “anchor institution” to champion the effort; identifying a “backbone organization” to make sure the pieces hold together; and creating a better (and possibly regional) system for collecting data.
Also on Tuesday, Jones signed Board Bill 114, the proposal by Alderwoman Alisha Sonnier to clarify the process in the city’s zoning code for opening shelters and transitional homes. —Nicholas Phillips

WEPOWER's presentation to the Board of Aldermen laid bare some of the conflicts underpinning the Rams' funding question. Screenshot via YouTube

DEEP DIVE

Tough decisions loom as public hearings for Rams funds wrap

The public hearings arranged by Aldermanic President Megan Green to discuss spending the city’s portion of the Rams settlement funds wrapped up Monday—but now the hard work begins. The city’s settlement totals just $280 million, yet the various ideas on the table could easily cost 10 times that.

At Monday’s hearing, local nonprofit WEPOWER pitched creating a $100 million endowment, yielding $3 million per year to upgrade daycare facilities and $2 million annually to boost staff pay and training. But the plan triggered fierce pushback from public school advocates concerned about, among other things, WEPOWER’s past collaboration with Opportunity Trust, which supports charter schools.

And WEPOWER’s toughest competition may come from Jason Hall of Greater St. Louis, Inc., whose organization of business leaders wants $100 million for downtown and another $130 million for disadvantaged neighborhoods in Southeast and North City. Four aldermen have introduced a bill with those aims, triggering a sharp retort from Green and setting off an epistolary fisticuffs: Green accused Hall of attempting to “bypass” the public process, and Hall accused Green of short-circuiting the process to benefit her desire for an endowment.

Why It Matters: The $280 million from the Rams will have an outsized impact on the city’s future—and we only get to allocate it once. While it would be an exaggeration to say the fate of the city hangs in the balance, that may indeed be the case for the political futures of the combatants now in the trenches.

What’s Next: Now that public hearings have ended, Green and Mayor Tishaura Jones plan to make a proposal of their own, likely combining pieces of what’s come out of the sessions, in the coming weeks. —Sarah Fenske and Ryan Krull

Read the full story »

Photography by Phillip Hamer Photography

A MESSAGE FROM ST. LOUIS SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL

See the heartwarming, new musical remix of A Christmas Carol from November 26–December 22

It’s Dickens with a musical twist! Join Scrooge on his path of rhythm and redemption this holiday season. Fun for the whole family—coming soon to Grand Center.

Get Tickets Today »

Today's Top Stories

$570M lithium battery facility will be built in North City (stltoday): ICL Specialty Products resisted offers from West Virginia to move there and will instead operate a new factory producing a key element in lithium batteries on a site in the industrial Near North Riverfront. The facility is expected to add 150 new jobs.
Parent sues caterer over E. Coli outbreak (STLPR): At least 94 people have now been sickened by an apparent E. Coli outbreak that county officials have tied to food served by a caterer hired by Rockwood School District. (The caterer has pushed back on that claim.)
Historic Preservation Board denies WashU’s demolition plans (St. Louis Business Journal): WashU wants to raze the vacant nursing home at 4936-60 Laclede, but the city board says the four-story building may belong on the National Register of Historic Places.

For the first time ever, Eckert's is dyeing some trees this year for a good cause. Photography courtesy of Eckert's

Around Town

☕ THE POLITICAL TEA

At Monday night’s airing of ideas as to how St. Louis ought to spend its NFL windfall (see above), the city’s chief diversity officer, Jonathan Strong, floated an idea that just might solve three very big problems. Strong asked aldermen to appropriate $20 million (a relatively small ask compared to other proposals) as seed funding to create the St. Louis Promise, which would cover college tuition at a host of local higher ed institutions for anyone who graduates high school while living in the city. (The program is modeled off the Kalamazoo Promise program in Michigan.) Strong pointed out that this would not only help future generations of St. Louisans become better educated, but it would also help local institutions of higher learning staring down an enrollment cliff and curb population loss: Families would be reluctant to move out of the city if doing so meant they’d miss out on significant tuition support. The program would cover “last-dollar” expenses, meaning it would pick up any remaining slack after scholarships, financial aid, and university discounts. “I keep saying the word ‘all,’ and we’re saying 'all,'" said Strong. “What we want is all students who live in the city of St. Louis. ... We don't have any financial requirement... If one of those partnership universities accept that student, we will take on that last-dollar scholarship amount.” He added that he hoped the $20 million in seed money could activate philanthropy dollars as well as support from the business community. —R.K.

🏛️ THE JURY IS OUT

For the past 15 years, “Louligan” has been synonymous in St. Louis with soccer—specifically, the group of CITY SC supporters known for their passionate fandom and the nonprofit they formed to raise money for good causes. Now, a for-profit company hopes to make that name synonymous with beverages. Mitch Morice, a board member of the St. Louligans, says the nonprofit recently learned that a Maryland Heights-based beverage company had filed legal paperwork seeking to trademark the name “Louligan”—and after a back-and-forth in which the company refused to back down, the supporters' group realized that it could be in for a “David and Goliath” battle. Ultimately, the Louligans decided it couldn’t afford the fight. “We started looking at it, and the legal costs to battle this would probably end up in the range of a used to new Honda Accord,” he says. That said, the Louligans believe that Missouri law allows them to continue to use the name that the group has cultivated for 15 years, and it has also successfully trademarked its logo. The group is now spreading the word that it doesn’t support the name being used on beverages. “There's going to be significant blowback,” Morice predicts. “And that's not even counting our friends and partners and members’ workplaces that are going to say, ‘Oh, we’re not going to use this company if they come calling.” Learn more about the company seeking to trademark the name—and the silver lining for Louligans such as Morice—in our longer online story. —S.F.

🎄 THE HOLIDAY SCENE

The limited-edition line of Christmas trees that Eckert’s is debuting this year are like something out of A Charlie Brown Christmas—and we don’t mean the sad little fir that Linus has to wrap in a blanket to keep vertical. No, we’re talking about those brightly colored aluminum trees that send Charlie Brown into a massive seasonal depression, only these aren’t aluminum at all, just pre-cut trees in eye-catching shades such as festive red and bold hot pink. The Metro East farm is offering trees that have been punched up with “non-toxic, eco-friendly dyes” as part of a collaboration with local nonprofits including Gateway to Hope (pink), The National Alliance on Mental Health (white), EasterSeals Midwest (blue), and the Ollie Hinkle Heart Foundation (red). Each purchase of a colorful tree benefits the respective nonprofit, and each has also selected a family who receives their services for a special treat from Eckert’s that includes hosted visits to its farm, meals, and a cut-your-own-tree experience. The trees are only available at the Belleville farm, and quantities are limited, so if a hot pink tree is your thing (we see you, Lucy Van Pelt), you know what to do. —S.F.