Kenrick's Feeds a Good Meal to Ameren Crews

The Mayor has a few guests at his day job in the form of 300 out-of-town Ameren restoration workers from all over the Midwest. (They're staying in the dorms, drinking beer, and gawking at the college girls while not on duty.) How pleased was I to see that Affton's own Kenrick's Meat Market & Catering was providing the box lunches to the crews!! In my contact with the group, I was offered one of the extra lunches.

Now I've eaten my fair share of box lunches, but this was head and shoulders above the rest! A HUGE turkey breast sandwich on a bun, individually wrapped toppings INCLUDING PICKLE (a sorely overlooked topping or side dish depending on how you look at it,) baked beans, fruit cup, granola bar thing, Doritos and the absolute masterpiece...a Twinkie. Seriously, when was the last time you ate a Twinkie? It's some fourth-grader goodness even at my age!

This gave me a great idea. Perhaps Kenrick's could combine the golden spongecake snack and their amazing meat cutting ability to create a Twinkie entree? While most would consider it a bastardization of meat cutting (as it would likely be processed meats) they could make them fancy delicacies by using meats like French canard.

Does Affton Have a Prostitution Problem or a Homeless Problem?

Word came to the Mayor last weekend that there is a blonde woman walking around the Affton/Concord Village area who may be either homeless or a prostitute. Apparently she has been written about before, although no one could tell me the publication source nor could I find it on Google.

What makes this woman so obvious is the fact that she totes three suitcases with her at all times. Additionally she does not move quickly due to the fact that she can only move two suitcases at a time. It is not uncommon to see her crossing the street, placing two bags, then recrossing to fetch the third case.

WHO IS THIS WOMAN? Has anyone else seen her? How can the Mayor's Office help? I have some citizens engaging in reconaissance to try and obtain evidence, but I advise all citizens to stay informed, vigilant and not to succumb to any such woman of potentially loose moral virtue!

Reach Out and Touch the Electorate

People, another election day is upon us this August. No, I'm not campaigning this term, but I cannot tell you how important it is to get out and vote. I think there is a lot of frustration out there and I urge you to seek out information about your candidates and pick the lesser of the evils as many of us do.

Even if you hate everyone running, vote yourself as a write-in candidate. Can you imagine the stories if we had the highest voter turnout in the County and elected NONE of the candidates? Wouldn't it be great if we could select "None of These" on a ballot just like those annoying tests in high school? Sadly, gone are the hanging chads and pregnant chads.

The County recently rolled out TWO electronic voting machines for this election and they are supposed to be pretty easy. See a demo here.

Now why are there TWO machines? I applaud the County for making voting more accessible to more voters, but why confuse them with two machines? I have a friend who says "a camel is a horse designed by committee" and I'm wondering if we citizens bought a camel. Further, there are supposed to be events at which citizens can see the machines before the elections. So far, the County has no dates posted on the site.

The ACBA talked about having the machines at Affton Days in September. This is a great idea, but that's too late for the August elections. I'd still like to set up some Affton Days issues on the machines and get the citizens' input. Think of the fun we could have with these at Affton Days!!:

"What should be Affton's Official Sno-Cone Flavor? ---Blueberry or Tiger Blood"
"Which Afftonian Should Be Placed in the Dunking Booth from 3pm-4pm?"
"Who should be winner of today's 'Best Mullet' competition?"
"Do you like the idea of free, family movie nights in Mathilda Park?"

Hey, I think I'm on to something good here.

"Powerful" Reason to Stay Unincorporated

Well, the Mayor has been out surveying damage and Affton was not spared the storm's wrath. Much of central and southern Affton was without power from the beginning and some of it remains so. Today in the Post, they have the numbers of folks without power listed as of 9:24 this morning. I found this interesting:


63121 9490 12825 74%
63122 2449 8865 27.63%
63123 3474 25026 13.88%

The zip codes represent Normandy, Kirkwood/Oakland, and Affton respectively. The next numbers show those without power, and then total customers, and the percentage without power.

Now Normandy is the place I grew up and also the current home of County Executive Charlie Dooley. Charlie has to answer to the whole County so I guess his power goes on last and the voters get served first. Kudos to Charlie, but please look in on your neighbors as there are a lot of seniors up there as there are in Affton. Lots of small municipalities in that zip code to deal with such as Pasadena Hills, Pasadena Park, Bell Nor, Bell-Ridge, etc.

Is it any wonder though that the Kirkwood area, so rich and important that is has it's own Public Works Department, is not getting the power on as quickly as those in Affton? This type of localized thinking is really a major downfall of the St. Louis region, especially in an emergency. If you were part of a large, regional system, you wouldn't have to compete so much with your neighbors for things like power or development.

My Afftonians, if you are hot and still without power, please stop by the White Rogers Community Center at 9801 Mackenzie. They lost power early on, but are back at full power.

State of Emergency Declared!

It was on, it was off, it was on, it was off. That's how the lights and TV sets were at the Mayor's mansion last night during the storm. I nearly took the cork off the "State of Emergency" declaration bottle, but no. The lights stayed on as the storm subsided.

As I watched those in lesser communities suffer on TV, the call came in...

IN-LAWS HAVE NO POWER AND ARE COMING TO STAY AT OUR PLACE!!!!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!
(Oh, be sure to click on this.)

The Mayor has decided to leave the mansion indefinitely to go and serve his people in the field. I will report back when possible. My sincere apologies to the ACBA folks whose meeting I missed today due to Mayoral duties. We'll chat next month.

Affton = Good Italian

Last night the First Lady and I tried out the new Trattoria Toscana restaurant on Gravois next to the Ten Mile House. Let me first say that earlier I told a friend that I was going out to Affton's newest Italian eatery and he said "Fazoli's?" Chris, you are a jerk and so are you Fazoli's. I hate Fazoli's food and apparently they hate Affton since they don't have a location here.

Trattoria Toscana was a delight. While it was clear that they are just getting off the ground the food and service were top notch. Maybe it was because they knew the Mayor was dining there but I hope the service extends to the rest of their customers. It is moderately pricey but you would expect that from a white tablecloth joint with guys in tuxedos waiting on you. We spent less than $40 for two pastas, salads and a glass of house cabernet (tip included.) While it is technically in a strip mall, you can hardly tell from the decor and Frank Sinatra on the stereo. The lobster ravioli are second to none. All in all, it's a great place to go on a date with your special lady friend or significant other, business dinner, or for a special treat. I hope they survive as we are in dire need of such dining options in Affton. They are at 9416 Gravois.

ALSO: As I have long said, Affton property is a "buy and hold." Proof came to me this week as I was informed that my neighbors are expecting. The tide is turning folks. Hopefully I can get the vote for an Aquatic Center back on the ballot in the next few years. See my previous post on that.

NOW OPEN

I was working on the backyard project most of the weekend. While at the Ace Hardware at Gravois & Mackenzie this weekend, I looked longingly at the Ten Mile House and the alluring Busch Beer neon sign in the window. On closer inspection I noticed a "NOW OPEN" sign hanging at the new Italian restaurant Trattoria Toscano just next door. I will try it out this week and report back to you. I invite you to do the same.

Fair-to-Middlin' at Best

The First Family of Affton was tuckered out from baseball games and other activities this weekend, but managed to go to the Twin Oaks fireworks. (As Affton has no fireworks, we look elsewhere.) Now Twin Oaks is basically the Manchester/Ballwin area. They were AMAZING. I have never been so CLOSE to fireworks in my life. I was holding the First Daughter as we watched when to my amazement, bits of paper--some still burning--landed around us. The wind had shifted a bit during the display carrying the shrapnel and smoke towards us. We all got away unscathed but the cars were largely peppered with bits of burned paper.

I made the decision early this year to NOT attend the festival formerly known as the "VP Fair." I have decided that Fair St. Louis is like the French Quarter in pre-Katrina New Orleans. I'm glad we have it, but it's not for the locals. It's really a tourist attraction. The entertainment has been a joke for years. The fireworks are magnificent but I think they had Huey Lewis three times in the decade of the 90's. Now while I think it's great that Lewis supposedly has the largest "unit" in rock'n'roll**, I don't qualify him as great entertainment in the 90's.

It's not that I was even a huge fan of the actual fairground activity, but I was always attracted to all the bands that played on the tight streets of Laclede's Landing in sort of an anti-fair party. This did not happen this year along with the incredibly popular air show. How can we not have an air show? Because of costs? It's our tax dollars! It's already paid for! Apparaently the owners on the Landing thought the Fair was going to be as lame as I predicted and didn't book any entertainment.

I do have to say that I like having more bands for free under the Arch as the summer rolls on. In lieu of finding a corporate sponsor to pay for the highly successful Live On the Levee series started in 2004, the Fair got smaller and they are spinning the Fair this year as a kickoff event for the ongoing concert series. Teriffic. Let's book the Spin Doctors.

**This comment personally heard by ME during a radio interview long, long ago with supergroupie Sweet Sweet Connie (of "We're An American Band" fame by Grand Funk.) She claims it was as long as "two beer cans" stacked together. The smallest unit reportedly belongs to Peter Frampton in case you were wondering.