TCB > November 2005

The St. Louis Regional Bicycle Federation is one of my favorite local nonprofit organizations. At the bicycling advocacy group's annual meeting on November 13, Karen Karabell took over the reins from outgoing chair Bob Foster.

The other officers of the Bicycle Federation are:
Chair-Elect: Ben Hockenhull
Vice-Chair: Jason McClelland
Treasurer: John Sweet, M.D.
Secretary: Carrie Zukoski

The board members of the Bicycle Federation are:
Martin Pion
Wes Ridgeway
Patrick Van Der Tuin
Russell A. Willis, III

Posted by Brian Marston on Wed., Nov 30, 2005 at 10:20 AM
Link & Discuss (0 comments) | People

90.7 KWMU-FM announced on Monday that Steve Potter has been tapped to be the host of "Cityscape." The weekly radio show focusses on the local arts and cultural scene. It airs on Fridays at 11 a.m. and again at 10 p.m.

Posted by Brian Marston on Wed., Nov 30, 2005 at 9:19 AM
Link & Discuss (0 comments) | The Media

According to a report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, St. Louis City had the fourth largest percentage decline in employment between March 2004 and March 2005 of 322 U.S. counties with 75,000 or more employees. The city lost 3,100 jobs in a year, 1.4% of its employment base. In contrast, St. Charles ranked 23rd in employment growth, with its workforce shooting up 4.8%. The national job growth rate during the period covered by the survey was 1.7%.

On the flip side, the average weekly wage in the city is $910, compared to only $652 in St. Charles. In St. Louis County, it's $819.

Posted by Brian Marston on Mon., Nov 28, 2005 at 11:26 AM
Link & Discuss (0 comments) | STL in the News

Have a Grape Day is "the wine calendar built for St. Louisans who dream about grapes each day." Its righteous goal is to help people get off their couches and out to local social events. Thanks to John Oates for sending me the link.

Posted by Brian Marston on Tue., Nov 22, 2005 at 10:58 PM
Link & Discuss (0 comments) | Fun Links

Spotted this a.m. at the Target Greatland (just what is the "Greatland" all about, anyway?) in Brentwood: one Deb Peterson—clad in kicky, rolled-up, side-tie jeans and star-covered boots—making a beeline for the women's winter accessories. Note to would-be favorably covered a-listers and hot dog munchers: she seemed particularly taken with the faux-fur capelets and pom-pom scarves...

Posted by Amanda Doyle on Tue., Nov 22, 2005 at 11:43 AM
Link & Discuss (0 comments) | People

It seems that even good ole Forest Park is on the blogwagon: check out the small sampling of entries here. Now, it's a little odd, in that some bits have a date, others don't and it seems a bit haphazard...but all in all, we're fans of civic and cultural institutions that have honest-to-God blogs that are informative, informal and helpful to your average citizen.

Unlike whatever the hell Janie P. was doing over there at Slay re-elect HQ...

Posted by Amanda Doyle on Mon., Nov 21, 2005 at 3:05 PM
Link & Discuss (0 comments) | The Media

St. Louis stencil artist extraordinaire Peat Wollaeger has a blog. Among the things I learned there is that he was selected as a Juxtapoz magazine reader artist for the week of October 10. One of my unrealized dreams for The Commonspace's physical incarnation was to have one of our art shows featured in Juxtapoz. The one we had for Peat and Justin Tolentino would have been a good fit.

Peat also has a Flickr account. Speaking of Flickr, there's a St. Louis group on the site that has 140 members who have posted 2,094 photos of our fair city. Check it out.

Posted by Brian Marston on Tue., Nov 15, 2005 at 1:44 PM
Link & Discuss (1 comment) | Fun Links , People

The L.A. Times ran a story yesterday by its music critic, Mark Swed, that has a whole lot of good things to say about SLSO conductor David Roberton (you remember? It's different?) and a lot of good things to say about St. Louis. (Oh, and then a lot of bad things about the city, too, thanks to a glass-half-empty-kinda taxi driver....)

Swed's eager assessment, in part:
"In St. Louis, Robertson has attempted to transform the symphony practically overnight with the most adventurous programming in the country, more daring than that in Los Angeles or San Francisco. And by opening night, he had already motivated the most miserable musicians in any major American orchestra (at least to hear them publicly complain); turned on teenagers as well as dowagers; and begun reaching deep into a racially divided community."

Posted by Amanda Doyle on Mon., Nov 14, 2005 at 10:43 AM
Link & Discuss (0 comments) | STL in the News

Some folks living on the bubble's edge and beyond are waking up to "boring" quality-of-life issues—like housing cost—that lead them to reconsider how cool it actually is to live in mind-numbing, slavish devotion to their expensively maintained California lifestyles...and finding the Midwest! Today's NY Times has the story.

Still, we've got a long way to go, baby: "A year ago, Melanie Fischer, a lifelong Californian, was not entirely sure where Missouri was. So when her husband proposed that they consider moving there, she raced to locate the state on a map printed on her children's placemats."

Posted by Amanda Doyle on Mon., Nov 7, 2005 at 11:36 AM
Link & Discuss (5 comments) | STL in the News

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch editor has resigned, to be replaced by managing editor Arnie Robbins effective the first of December. Soeteber gives as her reasons an inability to "come to terms with management on financial issues, both personal and in terms of the resources needed to run the newspaper. But, she said, those were not the only factors for her decision."

Wonder if the honchos are getting way more bloodletting than they bargained for with this "early retirement" exodus and now this?

We'll just point you to their own story for the specifics.

UPDATE: We checked in, just for giggles, on the Mayor's latest mini-poll, which finds Ms. Soeteber clocking in second lowest on his odd "how well are true believers doing their jobs?" poll. Guess we won't have Ellen to kick around anymore.

Archbishop Burke, we're lookin' at you...the gauntlet is down. Also, does anyone else find it disingenous that lil' ole Fran Slay didn't include "Francis Slay, as Mayor of St. Louis" on the poll?

Posted by Amanda Doyle on Fri., Nov 4, 2005 at 7:53 PM
Link & Discuss (3 comments) | The Media