The Mayor of Affton

It's On People, Here's Your Party

2007-12-23T09:04:00.000-06:00

At the risk of creating a potential fire hazard at the 10 Mile House, I cordially invite you, my constituents and friends of Affton, to the 2nd Annual Mayor's Economic Development Ball this Friday the 28th. I'll be featuring the Sons of the Southside band again this year playing more of your 70's and 80's favorites similar to last year. Cocktails with the Mayor at 7PM, music around 9:30.

I'd love to see some faces from the ACBA, our state representatives (Mike Vogt, this party is totally up your alley), all the "Affton Junior Planners" from the UMSL Partnership the last two years, and the fine folks from St. Louis County Economic Development Council and County Planning and Zoning. These are the people who really put in the time, blood, sweat, and tears to improve Affton's future as opposed to my online shenanigans.

Charlie Dooley, I understand if you have other obligations or if you are still bitter about the Billy Ocean thing, but you're welcome too as I know you have a sense of humor.

(Oh, and if Capt. Belmar and his staff from the County Police could drive by around 10PM and make sure I haven't been assassinated by all these folks, that would be great.)

Happy Holidays,
The Mayor

Finally, Resolution on Gravois!

2007-12-23T08:43:00.001-06:00

Well, my Afftonians, it appears that the Angry Villagers in Grantwood Village are no longer so angry. The Suburban Journal is reporting this week that the new plan for a senior assisted living center on the acreage next to Cor Jesu has met with everyone's approval. I'm very pleased that the developer, Erickson Retirement Communities, of Catonsville, Md. was responsive to issues brought up by the residents. This is the way it should happen and shows that it IS possible to get the public's support for a well-planned development. I'm also very pleased that Cor Jesu got what they wanted in the deal and will be able to expand and to stay competitive.

I'm a bit dismayed that the population of the community will be only seniors. There was a real opportunity here to bring much needed new housing for middle class families to Affton that would bring some new life, energy and ideas to our area. Instead we will have more voting seniors who have been sent off by their families to grow old outside of their homes.

While the Carondelet neighborhood, a new haven for young families, is moving forward with their plans for an aquatic center for example, Affton will remain unable to compete until some more progressive minds move in.

Open Letter to Residents of St. George

2007-11-07T08:48:00.000-06:00

Dearest Neighbors:

It is with great sadness that I read about your mayor (small "m") and his submission to drugs and kiddie porn. I have quietly been watching this unfold and did not jump to conclusions, but now I'm going to let it rip since You Tube, CNN and High Times are done with you.

Thanks to this guy, your Google search for "St. George in St. Louis County" will forever be marred with this scarlet letter of disdain. Shame on your council for not questioning this man throughly before letting him run for office! While bigger and more respectable leaders have been pot-heads (Clinton comes to mind) child porn absolutely crosses the line.

While the Mayor of Affton may have inhaled before, there is absolutely NO excuse for the exploitation of children except:
1) Using their small hands to get screws or tools dropped into small spaces that Daddy cannot reach during home improvement projects.
2) Using their cuteness to sell things...almost anything.
3) As a cheap labor force in making fashionable clothing overseas.

St. George, I'm writing today to offer you my services as your new Mayor. You need respectable, cutting-edge leadership to turn your image around and that's exactly what the Affton Mayor's office is about. Make the right choice. I await your call.

BTW, Bella Villa, watch your ass. I still haven't forgotten your shenanigans from a year ago!

Bad to Worse?---Influx of Seniors Headed for Andy Busch's Land!!

2007-10-18T09:41:00.000-05:00

The actual headline reads "Cor Jesu plans to double size of campus". The truth behind the headline is that the highly controversial residential development originally planned for the dozens of acres west of the school (owned partly by Andy Busch) are now going to become senior housing.

The Suburban Journals reported this week that Andy Busch and Erickson Retirement Communities of Baltimore have agreed to give Cor Jesu the land they wanted for future expansion in a deal that is part purchase and part donation. All this hinges on the change in zoning needed which is scheduled for hearing on Oct. 31. Your Mayor is pleased that the school has come out a winner in this deal, however this development will insure that Affton gets bombed back to the Stone Age.

Voting records and friends of the Mayor's with the County will confirm that it has been the Affton seniors that have voted down increased funding for Affton and Bayless schools, my beloved water park plan, and now hey are trying to kill the trash consolidation program. All of these things would make life better and more attractive to new families which would propel with future economic viability of the Affton area. Instead we will now have potentially hundreds of new seniors that will likely continue the status quo in our area.

It is my sincere hope that the great work done recently by the Affton Community Betterment Association and the fine folks at UMSL will be successful in reaching out to the Bosnian community in the area. Our only hope to get anything approved that might involve a vote on any tax increase for schools or amenities in Affton seems to lie in their hands. The families with children are far outnumbered by the seniors already.

Let me also make clear...I'm not a "senior hater" by any means. (I could not have been elected without them!) Not everyone over 55 automatically votes down a tax increase. But the recent trash consolidation issue could actually get us some savings on trash removal. It makes great sense financially and environmentally and the hundreds of vocal seniors are the ones trying to shut it down.

Links to some previous posts and backstory on the original land deal:
http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2005/11/14/story1.html
http://afftonmayor.blogspot.com/2006/04/power-of-prayer-hotline.html
http://afftonmayor.blogspot.com/2006/06/gravois-creek-bridge-and-grants-view.html
http://afftonmayor.blogspot.com/2006/08/sour-grapes-grantwood-village-people.html
http://afftonmayor.blogspot.com/2006/09/deal.html
http://afftonmayor.blogspot.com/2006/09/pray-for-land-or-god-will-smite-you.html
http://afftonmayor.blogspot.com/2006/10/waking-sleeping-dog.html

Mayor's Adventures on Craig's List

2007-09-23T22:15:00.000-05:00

Unless you've been living under a rock you've probably wandered onto Craig's List
and poked around. I make it a regular habit and I've lately become enamored with the BARTER section. Most are trades for work in exchange for electronics gear. This one however was posted by a fellow Afftonian and was so beautiful in its simplicity and demand, I had to share it with you. I also put their reply-to address in case you want to get in touch with them. I'm a Busch man, myself.

Reply to: sale-417692989@craigslist.org
Date: 2007-09-09, 12:34AM CDT

i have a tall boy of budweiser. what do you have

Location: affton

Talkin' Trash

2007-09-23T11:56:00.000-05:00

In order to keep you, my Afftonians, in the know, I'm posting about this important forum.
Clipped and edited from the Suburban Journal:

St. Louis County will have a public forum Monday in the auditorium of Affton High School, 8309 Mackenzie Road. on its trash district plan at 7 p.m. County officials will give a presentation on their proposal to divide the unincorporated area into eight to 10 waste-hauling districts and assign one trash hauler to each district.

This plan has been very controversial...and surprisingly so to your Mayor. The last forum on this brought out about 300 pissed off folks, most of whom were irked at the number of different trash trucks going down their streets.

My position is that this plan will save you money...end of story. By consolidating the trash hauling, your bill will decrease. Now, my people, many are the complaints of our senior residents who have difficulty keeping their living costs low. As a result, they vote down my chance at a community pool, vote down tax increases for schools and anything else that might make Affton an attractive place to raise a young family. This is also a bit of an eco-friendly choice as fewer trucks will be driving duplicate routes.

Now these seniors have a chance to get a reduction on a bill and it appears many REFUSE IT claiming that they don't want to lose their ability to hire and fire their trash hauler. Seriously, when's the last time you had a real problem with the trash guy? How many times in the last 5 years have you actually FIRED your trash service? I think the opposition to this measure is not based in a "solid waste" of brain cells.

Either way, go to the forum and get heard.

Mackenzie & Heege Update and Public Forum Tomorrow!

2007-08-29T20:55:00.001-05:00

At last, your Mayor has found a moment to update the Mayor's Blog! For those of you interested, the Mayor has been understudy to a developer in the City of St. Louis on a residential high rise condo conversion. Since the real estate market has taken a bit of a slump, it's a good time for me to write again!

While much is going on in Affton lately, I caught this recently in the paper:

Developer John McLain seeks commercial zoning for 1.8 acres at Heege and Mackenzie roads. He plans to build a small shopping center on the property, which currently has the old Heege School.

McLain told the St. Louis County Planning Commission that the development would have stores and offices.

I'm hoping the developer is an avid reader of the Mayor's long-winded posts on this interesting corner.

GET YE OUT TO THE FORUM!

This is a reminder that ACBA will be hosting a community forum this Thursday (August 30th) at 7pm at Bayless Elementary in the Cafeteria (4530 Weber Road).

The presentation for the evening will begin at 7pm and be on the Property Tax System and Housing Reassessments. County employees and a policy analyst from UM-St. Louis Public Policy Research Center will be available to answer your questions.

County Resident Survey

2007-04-23T11:27:00.000-05:00

Citizens, your federal government has seen fit to endowing the county residents with $5.5 million in Community Development Block Grant funds this year. As long as the funds are used for housing and community improvement, it's open season.

To this end, the County wants your input. Sadly, the survey is not available in an online format. But here is a link to the paper survey. If you want to have the Dave Matthews Band play your block party, you can advocate for that here. If you think the fire department needs a shinier truck, you can ask for that too.

As a resident of Affton, may I humbly suggest rating the following highly in an effort to make our community a better place for the long-term needs of its residents and to attract more visitors to the area:

1) Job Creation & Retention
2) Park & Recreational Facilities
3) Community Centers
4) Sidewalk Improvements
5) Accessibility Improvements
6) Facade Improvements
7) Start Up Business Assistance

I like to hear from you as well on your thoughts.

Long Lost Relatives Nearly Long Lost in Long Grass at Mayor's Mansion

2007-04-15T21:36:00.000-05:00

The Mayor's sister-in-law is getting married in a little over a month and the wedding shower was at the Mayor's Mansion over the weekend. Much to my chagrin, the weather conspired against me yet again and I was unable to get the grass cut before the event. I would not have been surprised if guests could not find the house due to the jungle growing outside.

This has been the case for nearly every weekend this season since the grass started growing. (The other two "nice" weekends were spent at funerals.)

For the past couple weekends, I've been watching it rain or freeze while I drank my coffee on the couch each morning, contemplating this humiliation. As a guy, nothing can be more important in making impressions at these events than your yard. We don't make the cake, we don't plan the event, we don't write down who gave what, and we CERTAINLY don't write the 'thank you' notes. Thanks again, Mother Nature for making me look like a total failure. Your power even usurps the Mayor's. I can only hope my neighbors, who appear to have cut their grass somehow, don't try to oust me.

Representation Without Sanitation

2007-04-06T13:02:00.000-05:00

Recently at issue in the local news, my Afftonians, was the emergency meeting called by Councilman Campisi regarding the proposed consolidation plan for residential trash services in unincorporated St. Louis County. Your Mayor was notified of the meeting with less than 24 hours notice and could not attend. To me, this decision is a no-brainer and I was shocked to hear of the ensuing uproar by you, my people.

The story as reported in the Journal.

Results of the meeting as reported in the Journal.

Of the 300 people attending the "trash bitch-in" who was the old fart that referred to the county as "Communist China"? For the love of god people. You complain and complain that taxes are going up and then when your elected officials have the chance to lower the cost of a municipal service, you call them Communists!!! WTF??!!

More shocking to me than the outright opposition, was that the issue seemed more about reducing the number of "those noisy" trash trucks on streets and not about the economy of consolidating trash services to reduce cost to residents! Not to mention that the County's proposed changes provide curbside recycling services.

Recycling at my curb ALONE makes this worth supporting. Too often am I tripping on pizza boxes and Busch Beer cans strewn about my garage for weeks being "saved" for a car trip to the recycling center by the (environmentally conscious) First Lady!

From the County's web site:

Extensive research has demonstrated that losing the option of choosing a trash hauler is outweighed by the benefits communities receive when hauling companies competitively bid to serve a defined area. St. Louis County is aware of the importance of good customer service. Not only will customer service be a key component of the bid specifications, but also penalties for poor service will be factored into the contract.

One of St. Louis' greatest hindrances to achieving greatness is the fragmentation of government. St. Louis is host to about 771 local, regional and municipal government agencies. This is extremely high challenging even Philadelphia for the top slot. While I, as your duly elected Mayor, understand everybody's desire for representation and choice, why would one choose NOT to save money under these circumstances?

Mayor Goes Green: Abandons Crappy Car

2007-03-18T21:31:00.000-05:00

Friends, inspired the Mayor was at the sight of Al Gore and Melissa Ethridge accepting Oscars a few weeks ago. After much thought, I have decided that it's time to do my part. As of tomorrow I will no longer be driving my car to commute to work. I will be opting for Metrolink.

While this has been brewing in my brain for quite a while, the recent success of An Inconvenient Truth, the rising price of gas and continued shame about my 1996 Nissan Altima with three hubcaps (obtained by marriage to the First Lady) has finally driven me to the brink.

While celebrating the St. Pat's holiday with the First Lady and the kids, I found myself talked into partaking in the run/walk downtown along Market Street. I realized that I was enjoying myself even though the temperature was in the low 40's.

Truthfully, Metrolink has only offered me one bad experience, but hey it was Mardi Gras. Watch this spot as I tell you of money saved, pounds shed and productivity gained as I ride the rails!

ACBA Quarterly Forum: Better Than Reality TV

2007-02-26T21:14:00.003-06:00

Better than reality TV of course because IT IS REALITY. Why the hell would I want to watch "Men In Trees" on Thursday night when I can watch two sitting Missouri State Representatives (Pat Yeager D-96th and Mike Vogt D-66th) and sour grapes (losing) candidate from the 96th District Ronald Levy engage in verbal combat! (Mr. Levy if you take offense at my comment, remember that my hat is off to you because you ACTUALLY RAN for office as opposed to creating a fictitious one for yourself to claim!)

The topic of the night was education funding in Bayless as opposed to Affton. While Affton does generally not fair the best in the region, it looks like a gold brick next to Bayless. It was a compelling presentation (which I will try to obtain and post.) Largely at issue was a description of the new state school funding formula. It is the proverbial "doozie." (Pull out your nerd glasses and graphing calculators now.)

As I understood the explanation, it bases funding on a statistically impossible goal set by (among others) a school's average daily attendance. After I heard that, the rest of the formula was shot for me. It does not take a genius to realize that even if your average is 95%, you still have to PROVIDE for 100% of the students. There is a LOT more ridiculous math that goes into this (phased in over many years, making the funding amounts based on up to 5 year old data!) Perhaps that's why half the schools in Missouri sued the State in retaliation.

ANYWAY...far more fun was listening to Ronald Levy. He also thought the school issue important and proposed that we adopt a method similar to Proposition 13 passed in California. This bill basically freezes real estate taxes at the purchased price and only allows up to 2% increases per year regardless of any increase in appreciation value. This idea may have merit in Affton for some reasons, but I don't think it's going to fix school funding.

I understand that seniors are having a hard time with increasing tax burdens on their homes and there are some programs (two at this link) out there to help them.

While I support everybody's right to argue their tax assessment (I've done it successfully myself!) I think arguing it in court twice in four years is excessive and a waste of MY TAXPAYER DOLLARS. Just look at the amount of writing time that had to go into these cases!
LEVY v. "The Assessor" 2002

I'm no political adviser, but I don't think calling the assessor "discriminatory" without any evidence to support the point is appropriate for a State Representative candidate!
LEVY v. "The Assessor" 2004

ACBA Public Forum Tonight!

2007-02-22T08:39:00.000-06:00

The ACBA is hosting a public forum tonight. This is the 2nd of promised quarterly meetings. Get there, get involved, and meet the Mayor!

When: Thursday, February 22, 2007 At 7:00 PM

*Refreshments will be served. *

Who: All Affton/Bayless Residents

Where: Bayless Elementary Cafeteria 4530 Weber Road

Why:

Ø Learn What Every Taxpayer Should Know About Education Funding in Missouri

Ø Meet Some of Your Local Government Representatives

Ø Speak with Representatives from St. Louis County and Area Organizations to Hear about Resources, Activities, and Programs Available in Affton and Bayless

Ø Discover How You Can Get Involved in Your Community

The Mayor's Holiday Economic Development Ball

2007-01-04T22:14:00.000-06:00

The First Lady and I love to throw great parties. Halloween Costume Balls, Murder Mysteries and all that stuff. This year, we planned a big campaign "fundraiser" party to end the year. The First Lady and I decided that we'd do our part for Affton's economic development by inviting about 150 devotees to the Ten Mile House...most of whom had never been there.

If Affton needs one thing, it's focused economic development. That only occurs when new, imported dollars come to town from the outside. "What's easier than having friends over for drinks?" I thought.

Anyway, I threw a band together with some great and talented friends and a few fun wigs and we classic rawked our way through the 70's and 80's with all our friends. I was amazed. We must have timed it well with the holiday break becuase there were friends in from Chicago, Pensylvania and other places. I think about 10 people from O'Fallon spent the night at the Mayor's Mansion.

Folks seemed to have really great time. It was great night of fun and a real pleasure getting introduced to some of the constituents. It was a feel-good event for me too, because ultimately, Affton was the winner. If I can find a bigger venue, perhaps I can make a public invitation on the web site next year. Who loves you, Affton? The Mayor, that's who!

Band Setlists from the Party:
Gloria
Green River / Suzie Q
Wild Night
Drive My Car
Jumpin’ Jack Flash
All Right Now
Whole Lotta Love
Purple Haze / Fire
Rockin’ Into the Night
Two Tickets to Paradise
Don’t Stop Believin'

Livin’ on Prayer
Working for the Weekend
Double Vision
Summer of 69
Jump
What I Like About You
867-5309
White Wedding
New Year’s Day
Where the Streets Have No Name
Encore: Separate Ways

Patience!

2006-12-20T23:19:00.000-06:00

Some of you may have noticed that my posts are less frequent. I have been trying to get my blog off of Blogger to move it to a new home with more features for you, the Afftonians. 'Twas to be my holiday gift to you.

It's the holidays and you're busy anyway. Go ahead and party like it's 1979. Affton will be here for us in 2007. With any luck, my new site will be as well at www.afftonmayor.com

Happy/Merry HannaKwanzChristmasukkah. Happy Festivus.
And Happy Boxing Day, whatever that really is, you wacky Canadians!

More Powerful Than "A Streetlight Banner Campaign"

2006-12-20T22:19:00.000-06:00

Your Mayor recently attended the Affton Community Betterment Association's Strategic Planning meeting. Pleased I was to see nearly 100 of you get involved as well!

While the ACBA has been around for several years, my first impression was that it was a ship without a rudder. With little financing or real power, it seemed that it was unlikely that the group could really make a difference. In addition, the group seemed to lack goals. I need to clarify however that my time sitting in with the ACBA has been very short so I do not assume to know their whole history or previous strategies or hurdles to create and reach attainable goals. What I can say is "thank god for grant money and graduate students." It appears that the ACBA is about to become "born again." I'm not talking about the type of "born agains" who attend mega-churches where GOD appears in hi-definition and 7.1 Dolby Surround Sound. I'm talking about an actual rebirth based on a powerful intervening force.

Thanks to a $200,000 grant from HUD, some fine folks from UMSL (based in the Mayor's original 'hood in Normandy) are about to whip our butts into shape for the new year. It's very much like HUD has given us a personal trainer for Affton!

You should all exercise as follows:
Start your workout slowly by viewing the presentation from the Strategic Planning Meeting.
And Rest.
Do 50 sit ups.
And Rest.
Consider carefully how you will get involved. You are now able to join committes charged with tackling an issue in Affton. You can choose something you like to do that's within your skill set or you can pick whatever topic you crab about most to the Mayor's Office and GO FIX IT.

Watch this space for info about new Affton Committee meetings.

Holidays Begin

2006-11-22T09:26:00.000-06:00

Well the holidays are upon us. It's earlier every year thanks to the commercialization of Christmas. Peeved I was to see the holiday lights and chachkis out just a few days BEFORE Halloween.

Halloween is a very underrated holiday in my opinion. Some of my best parties were Halloween parties. For some reason though a lot of conservative college-age women think it's merely a chance to dress in slutty outfits. (See pic of Lindsay Lohan at left.) I know this from the time I worked at SLU and personal experience.

Regardless, the Mayor's Mansion will be empty this Thursday as we will be traveling all the way to Webster Groves for the traditional meal. We hope that you enjoy some time off.

Of note this week...

While voting I noticed that Rogers Middle School has begun work on construction of new, permanent classrooms to replace the "temporary" trailers in the yard. Way to go!

Buck Collier had a good piece in the Journal detailing how St. Louis' numerous governmental bodies hinder regional planning efforts. So true. There are upsides, however to a large number of governments. Primarily that there is excellent representation of citizens opinions. At 31.7 government units per 100,000 residents in the area, I'm amazed the reps don't visit each resident personally just to see if there's anything they could do. The study in in progress is on the East-West Gateway's web site.

This begs the ever-lingering question of "should Affton incorporate?" Even though it's nearly impossible thanks to the recent rule changes by the Boundary Commission, here's a few pros and cons:

Lower Taxes...while one of the big arguments against incorporation is that taxes would increase, it may be a wash. I conversation I had with folks from Shrewsbury (who have a map proposal in place to annex much of Affton) said that they can provide fire protection at a substantially reduced rate.

Increased Representation...since we would have an actual election for...AHEM...an actual mayor and other positions, the response to local citizenry and opportunity for citizen involvement would increase. We may lose some of our regional oversight and planning help from the County though.

What do you think?
Sound off in the comments section.

Time For Action!

2006-11-09T14:04:00.000-06:00

Folks, this is why it all started...The Mayor's Office...I...er, well truth be told, it was started as a funny joke, then a mock campaign....but involvement! INVOLVEMENT!! Civic engagement!! Being able to make a difference!! Now I've never asked you for anything, but I continue to give and post things for you, the Afftonians. I'm calling in the favor. Just passed to me from Beth in the County office: This invitation for you to participate in creating the next evolution of Affton's history.

Affton Community Betterment Association is Hosting a Community Forum
When: Wednesday, November 29, 2006 At 7:00 PM *Refreshments will be served. *
Who: All Affton Residents
Where: Affton High School Cafeteria 8309 Mackenzie Road
Why:
Ø Hear ACBA’s plans for action
Ø Find Out What is Going on in Affton
Ø Discover How You Can Get Involved

Bring questions, your urban planning hat, and I'll see you there.

Elections Over...Phone Stops Ringing

2006-11-09T13:42:00.000-06:00

The Mayor's Mansion has been full of "potty mouth" lately due to the incessant robo-calls from tape recorders looking to get elected. Thankfully that mess is behind us now and I hope you voted and your candidates did well.

Sadly, Kurt Odenwald was unseated from his County Council post by Barbara Fraser. Now it's not like Kurt and I were friends, but he was smart enough to email me information for the people of Affton and his assistant, David was good-spirited enough to actually address me as "the Mayor" at the ACBA meetings. These things make me laugh, and also make me think that this blog is worth continuing. With this in mind, I'd like to announce that I will soon be moving to a proper domain and hopefully an improved blog system in the next week or so.

And with that in mind, I invite Barbara Fraser and her staff to the next ACBA meeting on Nov. 16th. I know U. City is a long way to come, but hopefully you can make it.

Mayor Interviewed By CNN Radio!

2006-10-24T11:41:00.000-05:00

I happened to be walking downtown today and I was approached by Ed McCarthy of CNN. He was here covering the World Series, but it seems the other agenda on all reporters minds is the Talent/McCaskill/Michael J. Fox race for the Senate. I was not asked who I was voting for, but I was asked my opinions of the race. I said that the dirty campaigns sucked and really detracted from any examiniation of the issues and that dirty politics was a crappy way to win anything. I'm not sure what seat Fox is running for but he still is better looking than the quickly aging McCaskill. I would ceratinly not cast votes on looks, but I like Fox in the commercials over her.

Thank god we AREN'T voting on looks! In Affton my choices for County Council are Barbara Fraser and the venerable Kurt Odenwald. Barb is well made up in her ads, but is touching a lot of old people in them and giving me the creeps. Odenwald on the other hand sent me a postcard this week and he has the good sense to be casual in his pics. As incumbent he can afford that. He should however have the printer ramp down the cyan and magenta. On the card, Kurt's skin is as orange as Fr. Biondi's and (as former SLU employee) that also gives me the creeps.

In the interview, I was also asked what I thought the future of politics held. I explained that I foresee a large number of average-Joe citizens, so disgruntled with the current system, and so removed from the "old boys" network of candidates that become engaged. I think that the younger teachers next door or the president of a neighborhood association will start running campaigns and filling in local seats. I think there's going to be a lot more Jessie Venturas, Al Frankens and Ahhh-nold Schwartzeneggers running races and running the states. Maybe there will be more pretend Mayors too.

I also must note the ridiculous Cardinals Fever downtown. There are cameras everywhere! Tents going up, stages being built, money being made. It's great to see. I myself personally am sporting a Scott Spiezio-inspired "naturally red" goatee for the Series. Go Cards!!!

We have Much To Discuss

2006-10-23T09:28:00.000-05:00

After finally returning to the ACBA meetings, I have some good news for you, my Afftonians! The jobs are in fact returning to the former Nestle plant. 40 of them to be exact and that number is scheduled to grow with time. The Kerry Group of Ireland is moving in. Now originally, I was told that they were a candy company. When I think "Irish" and "Candy" I can only think of whiskey. Alas, they make food additives and not the sweet nectar of my people that makes one dance on tables, get in fights, and procreate. The Mayor's Office, also fellow Irish folk, would like to officially welcome the Kerry Group to town. According to my sources, they are pretty amped up about moving here and would like to employ a number of local folks.

NEW CONTACT INFO: POSTED 11-14-06--Julie Horras is the HR contact for Kerry Group. She is accepting resumes by email and fax at 773-247-4945.

In other news, I was bent on going in there actually and asking what the ACBA's purpose or mission was. Happily, I found out that the UMSL group are planning that for us. Hopefully it will spell a new beginning to the ACBA and a lot of civic action for Affton. These things take time, but I will keep you updated.

We have some volunteer crews out doing home repairs for seniors. If your business has any building materials they can donate, please contact me.

Lakewood Meeting: There was a meeting for the Lakewood neighborhood on 10/9 and attendance was huge. About 125 folks went. While the meeting was planned by the County to hear residents' issues about property and such, the purpose was never really stated to the residents, nor was it published on the County's web site. I was told at the ACBA meeting that it was not published because it was simply a neighborhood meeting and those residents also got flyers in the mail, but I don't see the harm in publishing it. Hell, I didn't know about it until a resident emailed me asking to know what it was all about! What's the worst that could happen...people from outside that neighborhood might become interested in that neighborhood? Hey Charlie Dooley! Please publish those meetings!

Sleeper School: Bayless. This is one school district you rarely hear about. It's a shame too because I wish I had the spirit and spunk of Superintendent Dr. Clancy-May running my first grade school! She seems to have a lot of pioneering programs in her district. To show it off, they are hosting an open house on Wednesday the 25th and would like your attendance. It's in the day between 8am and 1pm, so you can still catch the Cardinals' game. (You were going to blow off work anyway that day.) The High School address is 4530 Weber Road, 63123 and is located on the south west corner of the district campus. Parking is across the street at the Elementary School and along side of the High School (west side of entrance).

VOTE: Please remember to get out there and vote November 7. Wheel out your seniors, young folks, and new americans and prepare to get touchy-feely with the new voting machines.

Waking the Sleeping Dog

2006-10-12T16:35:00.000-05:00

As if the Grant's View land deal was not wild enough for our community, I am beginning to hear qualified rumors that Andy Busch may be filing suit against the parties that halted the planned development. I think he has a great case.

The Mayor has been fully in support of the development based on the demand for new housing in the inner ring suburbs, not to mention the huge increase in tax base, economic multipliers as more shoppers shop Affton and, of course, more voters getting involved.

It seems likely to speculate that not only would the County Economic Council be sued, but Grantwood Village, or the Grassroots on Gravois organization also would be sued as they mounted the legal horse to stop the development. Boy, that would really put the Angry Villagers in a pickle! If you thought affording the last lawsuit was going to be expensive, think about this one! You have tangled with someone who has infinite amounts of time and money on his side. No doubt, there is some informal agreement with Busch and the developers to meet again once all this ugliness gets ironed out and Busch gets the land and entitlements in place.

Once this gets going, I'm going to crack a few smooth Busch beers and watch the sparks fly.

Jobs May Return to Affton

2006-10-11T15:58:00.000-05:00

After much speculation, it appears that the County Econ. Development folks have courted a suitor for our beloved and very vacant candy plant. From the Suburban Journal:

County sweetens deal to reopen Willy Wonka factory
Steve BirminghamOf the Suburban Journals
Oakville-Mehlville Journal,South County Journal
10/11/2006

Veruca Salt would not be pleased, but Willy Wonka's factory in Affton may crank up candy production without her.The St. Louis County Council passed a resolution last week spelling out their intention to issue $10 million in industrial development revenue bonds to help an Irish company purchase the former Nestle USA manufacturing plant at 8021 New Hampshire Ave., in Affton.The plant formerly manufactured Willy Wonka chocolate products, Sweet Tarts and other candies but was closed by Nestle USA, which also closed a factory at 100 Water Street in South St. Louis in 2003. Almost 355 employees were laid off in the closings.The bonds would be issued for Kerry Inc. of Tralee, Ireland, which would reopen the plant to also manufacture sweets. A report on the project from the St. Louis County Economic Council said Kerry would spend $3 million on real estate and $7 million on equipment within the first three years, and bring an estimated 200 new jobs to the area. Kerry also is seeking a 35-percent abatement on real estate and personal property for 10 years and a sales tax exemption on building materials for the project.
Council Chairman Kurt Odenwald, R-5th Dist., said the Affton school and fire districts have already been notified of the proposal. Odenwald said he wanted to do "everything that's necessary to get this company to invest in the plant and get the facility open."Under the plan, revenues from the bond sales would finance the costs of purchasing, constructing and equipping the plant and the bonds would be payable solely from payments, revenues and receipts from the leasing the facility to Kerry.According to the plan the bonds and the interest on them will not be a debt of the county or the state and neither will be financially liable for them.

Grant's View Article

2006-09-09T09:04:00.000-05:00

Here's the article from the PD about the development. While all of you pray for land, the First Family is praying for an end to the road construction. The following work was going on simultaneously:

1. Resurfacing of Mackenzie Rd. up to Watson.
2. Major repairs closing River Des Peres Blvd.
3. Resurfacing of Watson from City Limits west to City of Marlborough.

These three major arterials surround the Mayor's neighborhood making for many sleepless nights and traffic headaches at the Mayor's mansion! This was in addition to the Shrewsbury MetroLink station construction and the very popular resurfacing project on I-44 at the RDP bridge. I'm all for progress, but sheesh! Bring on winter to end this.

Pray for Land or God Will Smite You!

2006-09-07T16:18:00.000-05:00

This was circulating on the email yesterday among some alumni of Cor Jesu. By way of disclaimer, this was NOT sent out by the school:

I am sending this to any person that I think has a connection to Cor Jesu and might be interested in the recent developments with the property at Grant's Farm.
I spoke with Sr. Sheila today and she says that the contract that existed between Andrew Busch and the developers has now expired. In other words, we are back to Square One with the property. There are no binding anythings on anyone. At this point, Cor Jesu again has the possibility of persuading Andrew Busch to sell them up to 15 acres of land directly. Previously, the school was going to have to pay $500,000 an acre for the 3+ acres the developers were going to sell them. The developers would have paid "only" $250,000 per acre and would thus make a handy profit. All that is gone now. Sister is trying to reach Mr. Busch to see if he is now willing to sell directly to Cor Jesu.
Sister asks that everyone pray for success in this area. I think Sister did an outstanding job of acting in a Christian manner with all the commotion that happened earlier. As a result, no bridges were burned. She is also very happy that they did not enter into any of the lawsuits that were brought forward. In other words, Cor Jesu is still free of binding agreements with other groups and can act freely. Please pass this message on to any and all CJ supporters so that we all pray for success for the school, its students and families. It's urgent that we pray NOW, so please put the word out. Thanks!

Now I find it truly ridiculous that, even if there is actually power in prayer, that people would think PRAYING FOR LAND was OK in God's eyes. It's been a while since I called myself Catholic, but I think there was something in the teachings about rejection of material goods and worldly posessions. While I think "Acting in a Christian manner" looks good on paper, let's not forget that acting this way also brought us things like The Inquisition and the Crusades.

God just may not see the need for parking cars and girls running on a track next to Cor Jesu as a prayer worth answering.

Fair and Biased Coverage

2006-09-07T15:33:00.000-05:00

Yesterday the Journal landed on my lawn and in addition to the Mayor's favorite Town Talk, there was a story with high praise for the new Loughborough Commons development at Hwy. 55. While a few residents were impressed at the produce selection, the article largely touted the new development as a big achievement, primarily with the help of the government officials.

There was merely a footnote of Steve Patterson's Urban Review blog as a dissenting voice about the project due to it's near total lack of pedestrian and bike-friendly connections. The Journal made it seem as if only Patterson was in opposition. What was not covered were the dozens of like-minded comments posted on his site.

In addition, he posted just today about how the reasons for the use of blight to take properties have not been fufilled. It's an interesting story to follow and I think one that could easily happen in the Affton area due to it's lack of adequate and local representation by citizens and government.

The Deal

2006-09-02T10:20:00.000-05:00

Upon further investigation, I have found out that the proposed Villages at Grant's View development plan appears to be scrapped.

At the end of announcements at Cor Jesu Academy, the new principal relayed that there would be no 4 acres for Cor Jesu as originally planned in the deal with the developers. This was followed by the shrill shreiking of hundreds of teenage girls.

It would now appear that the developers never actually closed on the land and, for one reason or another, the entire deal is off. The girls at Cor Jesu were instructed to pray that the school can now have the opportunity to buy all the land they need directly from Andy Busch.

This now begs the question of whether or not the land will be for resale for any desperately needed new housiong stock. While I think Cor Jesu SHOULD benefit from the sale of the land, I think that the demand for new housing far outweighs the needs for 20 acres of a sprawling Catholic High School.

BREAKING NEWS: Cor Jesu Land Deal Goes Sour

2006-09-01T16:56:00.000-05:00

So much for the power of prayer!

I have not got much information to share just yet, but I'm hearing reports that the 99 year land-lease deal orchestrated by former principal of Cor Jesu, Sr. Shiela, has fallen apart. The deal would have given the school 4 acres for expansion from the developers of the controversial Villages At Grant's View development on Gravois.

As you heard here first, the deal hinged on the fact that the developers would provide a signal at the entrance to the school. MoDot is strongly opposed to this idea as it would impede traffic flow significantly as it is too close to the signal at McNary Rd. This fact did not prevent Sr. Shiela from making a deal with the developers. My guess is that they cannot uphold their end of the bargain if MoDot prohibits construction of the light.

More as I am made aware.....

Metrolink Opens...Affton and City Both Under-represented!!

2006-08-28T11:06:00.000-05:00

Well the new extension of the MetroLink opened Saturday with much fanfare and the First Family was all over it. In addition to free rides along the route, we opted to partake in the festivities that were planned at the Shrewsbury station. My first beef with this was that it involved closing the few remaining feet of River Des Peres that are not under construction. The entire area south of Landsdowne was blocked to traffic.

But first, the train...parking is more than ample at the station. My recent change in jobs now allows me to take the train to work which I did today and plan on trying to do most days. I can't tell you how actually beautiful River Des Peres could be if it were allowed to have water in it all the time. It had rained a lot Friday night and was flowing well when our train pulled out over the bridge that extends over I-44. Get a glimpse of it soon if you can. The ride was delightful and full of people out for a free test ride which was nice to see.

On our return, we headed toward the party across Landsdowne. There was plenty of free stuff to do as well as food and live music. Your Mayor and First Father-in-Law even got to have a beer (making all encounters with in-laws universally better!) The BIGGEST spoiler for me the entire day was the fact that I spied a mexican food vendor with margaritas AND THEY WERE FROM O'FALLON!!!! WTF? This party was less than one mile from (Mayor's favorite) El Maguey and no one invited them to the party??? Clearly someone screwed up big time.

Why on earth would you invite ANYTHING from St. Charles County...a place that has no public transportation, votes down any involvement in MetroLink expansion, and has one of the largest disparities between workforce housing and jobs...to the grand opening of METROLINK???!!! The Mayor demands an explanation for this.

Sour Grapes, Grantwood Village People

2006-08-16T12:09:00.000-05:00

Well, apparently the Grantwood Village People have decided that they can't have their cake, but they are going to eat better despite themselves.

Back around the end of June, at the height of opposition to the proposed development, Grantwood Village proposed their own annexation plan with the Boundary Commission and (what a surprize) they want to aquire the future site of the Villages at Grant's View next to Cor Jesu Academy.

Boundary Commission: Don't Test Me!

2006-08-16T11:09:00.000-05:00

As promised, I am writing to inform you, fine Afftonians, that the hearing for annexation proposals with the Boundary Commission has been scheduled. It will be at Affton High (home of the Cougars) in the cafeteria on Tuesday, August 22. The Mayor will be in attendance.

The Journal reports that proposals will be heard from Bella Villa and St. George, but oddly there is no mention of SHREWSBURY'S EVIL PLOT to annex most of Affton over several years. While I love to call this evil, I think little will come of it. Becuase of the rules, Shrewsbury would be forced to annex mostly cemeteries first which holds little interest for them as a tax base.

Also of vexing note, the Boundary Commission web site feature that allows you to enter a zip code to see if you are affected by a proposal is not working...again! This happened back in the spring as well. They fixed it thanks to my email. Today, the Exec. Director notified me that the site is undergoing maintenance and that we can still scroll down to see the proposals. Curious that twice Affton is affected and twice the information system is not functioning properly. In fairness, they have been very responsive on making repairs.

FURTHER, the Journal notes a start time of 7PM for the meeting. The Boundary Commisssion lists both 6:30 and 7. I think I'll be early just in case Shrewsbury decides to spring something on us.

Don't forget..the ACBA meets tomorrow morning at 9AM at Commerce Bank. I am not able to be there this month, but feel free to show up on behalf of the Mayor's Office and listen in.

O-O-O'Reilly's Nice Guys

2006-08-08T08:19:00.000-05:00

Generally speaking, auto and auto parts dealerships are not good for neighborhoods. They tend to junk up the area and have a bunch of folks working on cars in a public parking lot detracting from an area's appeal. (See the Auto Zone on S. Kingwhighway if you don't believe me.)

Affton is fortunate to have some good-looking chain stores that I'd consider more of an asset than a liability. In our case, the folks at the O'Reilly's store at 9445 Gravois are worthy of kudos in spreading the Affton love. Even the Mayor shops there to keep his 2-hubcapped hooptie running.

I had a chance to buy some wiper blades and a brake light bulb for the First Lady's car this weekend. On my arrival, I noticed a sweet 1970's VW bus running in the parking lot. While checking out, the owner of the van came in accompanied by a huge Great Dane to say goodbye to the store staff. It seems my checkout guy, Brian and many of the others at the store put in some long after hours work to help this guy fix his van. The kid was on a road trip to Phoenix when the van broke down in Affton. He stayed for three days while they got parts and installed them to get him back on the road.

The store staff gathered around to wish him well as the van sputtered off in that sound only an old VW makes. Why can't everyone be this nice? If you are in the market for mud flaps or gear shifters that light up, consider a visit to these fine representatives of Affton pride.

VOTE TODAY

2006-08-08T08:13:00.000-05:00

Be sure to cast your ballot today and let me know what you think of the new voting machines with your emails or comments. The new system has complicated the way we used to be able to look up our local issues, so here's how to do it:

Enter your address here.
This form will result in your district information and show you your elected officials.
Click here to view a listing of candidates and issues. You will need to compare these to see if you folks are running for reelection.

Kenrick's Feeds a Good Meal to Ameren Crews

2006-07-27T11:14:00.000-05:00

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?

2006-07-25T11:42:00.000-05:00

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

2006-07-24T11:06:00.000-05:00

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

2006-07-24T10:20:00.000-05:00

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!

2006-07-20T14:33:00.000-05:00

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

2006-07-06T08:47:00.000-05:00

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

2006-07-05T09:23:00.000-05:00

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

2006-07-05T08:48:00.000-05:00

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.

Celebrate Your Independence By Blowing Up Some of Your Tax Dollars

2006-06-29T13:59:00.000-05:00

The Mayor will be presiding over a few family events, the backyard construction and a few cold ones over the holiday. Join me and the First Family tomorrow at the JB Blast with music by Fanfare from 5 to 9 p.m. and fireworks after the concert. Your Affton Chamber of Commerce is one of the sponsors. Lawn seating is available and coolers full of intoxicating goodness are encouraged. The event begins at 5 p.m. Friday at Jefferson Barracks Park, South Broadway and Kingston Drive, Lemay. The event is free. For more information call 314-849-6499.

Sale of Grant’s Farm Imminent?

2006-06-29T11:16:00.000-05:00

The Grantwood Villagers’ blog is reporting today that rumors abound that Grant’s Farm could be on the selling block. See the post here and I’ll let you know if I get to the bottom of this.

The Grass Could be Greener

2006-06-29T10:52:00.000-05:00

The Mayor attended a conference on Sustainable Development this morning hosted by the Urban Land Institute.  Most of the discussion was old hat for the Mayor as I am well aware of the concepts that create such developments.  What was enlightening was to see actual reports and data that proved the return on investment to developers that choose to “go green”.  A representative from Clayco explained that there was a 1%-5% premium for designing sustainable properties, but what developers are now interested in is the dollar savings over time as the buildings are completed.  From his perspective, green building is booming in St. Louis and starting to catch on across the country.

The keynote address by Ed McMahon (not the one of Johnny Carson and sweepstakes fame) of the Urban Land Institute touted many of the claims taught in my Urban Planning training.  He called fighting development a “national pastime” and I could not help but think of Affton’s own Angry Villagers fighting the Villages at Grant’s View project.

While clearly ours is a suburban style project, whose design style has come and nearly gone as it is innately unsustainable, I’ll allow it as it is within the context of the current developments.  However we need to be arguing for things like increased access to Grant’s Trail for its health benefits and smarter parking and road design to decrease the runoff from the project.  I think these are things that would benefit The Grantwood Village People, the new residents, the ladies at Cor Jesu, and folks downstream from us on Gravois Creek.  I think a lawsuit-battered developer will be far less likely to sit down and discuss these topics which will ultimately benefit more people in the long run.  McMahon cited a National Assn. Of Realtors’ study from 2002 that noted that 36% of homebuyers preferred their home to be near a walking or nature trail versus 6% that wanted to live on a golf course.  To me, this shows that largely, people will support development that is increasingly more dense.

Stone Walled!

2006-06-29T10:08:00.000-05:00

For those of you who asked, the stone wall coming down east of McNary Drive is nether because of the proposed development NOR your friends at MoDot. While it was believed that they were removing the wall as part of their right-of-way for the redevelopment of the Gravois Creek bridge in 2008, I have confirmed with one of their project engineers that it is not their doing! More on this later as I investigate.

(Further, I am not so supportive of their desire to close the Thurman Ave. bridge in the Shaw neighborhood of the City.)

Gravois Creek Bridge and Grant's View Development

2006-06-28T15:00:00.000-05:00

Well, two days ago the Mayor had a huge post prepared for you and Firefox's browser decided to crash and lose everything. I will recap for you now.

Last Thursday I went to the MoDOT open house. They are planning on reconstructing the Gravois Creek bridge just west of Grant's Trail and McNary Drive. The new bridge will have five lanes and a new signal. The work will take two months if they close Gravois completely. If they keep one lane open in each direction, it will be drawn out to six months. They were showing off a very nerdy and cool software called Sim Traffic that takes known traffic data and simulates what traffic would look like under altered conditions. Believe me. No one wants to see what it looks like on Laclede Station Road with that traffic backed up. I supported the full closure. It will be the dead of winter in 2008 and there will not be that many folks using the trail (which will remain unaffected.) My only complaint was a sidewalk on the south side that seemed to connect to nothing.

The big coup of the weekend was the arrival at the Mayor's Office of a huge package of architectural site plans for the Villages at Grant's View. One of the site plans was shown at the last ACBA meeting, so I asked the County Planning Dept. for a copy. I got 8 huge pages that will be nearly impossible to scan. I'll do my best to detail the plans here. Here's a map to get you oriented.

The latest revision of the plans call for 434 dwelling units. This is split into two areas of development: The 193 single family homes and 76 attached villas hug Musick Road on the West, and the very northwest corner at Gravois (about 1/2 of the area from Musick to McNary). Everything in front of Affton Athletic to the north is open common ground most likely as it is flood plain. There are two entrances to this part of the development, both on Musick Road.

The 164 condo units occupy the area east of McNary ajacent to Cor Jesu and bounded on the west by Grant's Trail. Access as it is shown right now is only via Gravois.

OTHER MAJOR POINTS: There is no access to McNary Road via Cor Jesu. This needs to get worked out, because according to Cor Jesu, their land deal rested on the fact that they got a signalized intersection in front of their place. MoDot says "no way" as they don't want signals within about 1000 ft. of one another as it never works. I point to the newly redone intersection of Laclede Station/Watson and Heege as a glowing example.

The developer is putting a sidewalk in along Musick and all the way down Gravois. This may also go as far as Laclede Station Rd. if they get the land for free to improve. I'm in support of this as it will increase access to the Trail. I think Trailnet will support this as well as long as there is not a vehicular crossing over the trail.

I am largely in support of this development. I know there are a few votes at risk here for me, but there is unquestionably a demand for new housing in inner ring suburbs. Price points on the condos are rumored to start about $150,000 which is similar to some of Affton's older single family homes. In addition, these units will likely sell at a high price which will benefit the surrounding residents. While I agree that it is a dense development, I don't think that anything can be too dense if there is enough demand for it to sell. Further, this will turn into a whole lot of new voters in Affton!

The Grantwood Village People have recently filed suit against the County to delay the development. (Ironically, not only has the name of the development changed, but so too has the name of the opposition to "Grassroots on Gravois".) To quote The Angry Villagers' blog when the developers changed their name: "BS by any other name is still BS, so we won't be fooled!!"

While I support their right to fight this development, I think they are going to suffer a major defeat if they mount a full-on lawsuit. Fortunately, I don't think they will get the chance. Since they are fighting the County, they now need a certain number of petition signatures from basically all over the county to take it to court. I think they will not succeed in this effort. Further, I think their lack of focus on the issues has muddied their chances. Here's a snip from their blog calling folks out to a meeting just over a month ago. Their issues are listed with my comments afterward. I think this shows that most of their issues have been dealt with or were ridiculous to start with:

TRAFFIC 900+ cars
(Your Mayor did the math on this. In most units the development allows 1.5 parking spaces per dwelling unit plus .5 spaces for guest parking. They have more than ample parking, meaning more than required by law totalling 928 spaces. However I think it unlikely that EVERY single space, including ALL guest parking spaces, will ever be used simultaneously. I think it less likely that they will all be on Gravois at the same time either.)

SAFETY Grant Bike Trail potential hazard
(Potential, yes, but the plan in my hands shows no access to McNary Rd. I think the developer would rather not have a grade crossing at Grant's Trail either.)

DENSITY 438 units (3 story high condos) 3 and 4 attached Villas
(I have no idea what the Angry Villagers have against 3-story buildings. The density arguement is only strong if they point to a number of people per acre and say that it is too high.)

FLOODING rain water run off/ sewage waste into the environment
(I'm all for less pavement in the world, but I don't think that government environmental agencies are about to let anything in this highly scrutinized development sneak by. On what evidence do they think that sewage is going into Gravois Creek or being treated differently then sewage anywhere else?)

LACK OF GREEN SPACE
(I'd estimate that about 1/3rd of this is greenspace as it is in the flood plain. In section 4 of the plans, it outlines the possibility of Recreational Uses permitted by leasing the common ground area for parks, picnic areas, trail access and so on, as long as it's approved by County Planning and the Parks Dept.)

POOR DESIGN aggressive uniform linear alignment
Proposed curb cuts at Glenshire and Charrette with interior connecting street

(Now the Mayor has been a student of Urban Planning and I've never even heard of "aggressive uniform linear alignment" so I Googled it. All I found was help with algebra equasions. As for the curb cuts, they are exactly the same width and shape as the two streets mentioned. Do they also suffer from "poor design"?)

Hopefully my point is well taken that had the Angry Villagers a real case here, they would have been sticking to the point from the get-go. If the issue is density, it should have a number attached to it and they should be fighting for that number. All the other issues they had seem to have been mitigated haven't they?

REMINDER: Gravois Creek Bridge Public Hearing Tonight

2006-06-22T15:02:00.000-05:00

As the headline says, if you drive on Gravois near Grant's Farm, you need to charge up your Rascal or Lark Scooters now so you can attend tonight's public forum on the proposed construction which should start late this winter.

Your friends at MoDOT will be presenting the options and hearing your input. So PUT OUT!

Affton White Rogers Commty. Center between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m.

Where the Cool Kids Are

2006-06-20T14:16:00.000-05:00

Your Mayor was once accused by an infamous St. Louis blogger of accepting cold beverages in exchange for my praise of the new QuikTrip on Gravois. While I do like cold beverages, nothing could be further from the truth and I don't want you to think that's the case in this story. I'm writing today to point out how a market opportunity is turning Affton into an attractive place for young professionals to experience our community for the first time.

I turn your attention, my 21-and-up Afftonians, to the historic Ten Mile House at 9420 Gravois. Since the demise of Frederick's Music Lounge at Kingshighway and Chippewa, the alt-country-punk cool kids have not really had a place to call their own once the sun went down. Enter the booking agents at the Ten Mile. In recent months, the bills at the venue have gotten significantly better. Better bands are starting to creep into the lineup.

If this continues, and they work to actively seek out the best up-and-comers, they could really capture most of Frederick's scenesters. It's not easy as there is a fine and gray line between "hoosiery bands" and bands that are hoosiery with tongue firmly in cheek. If the Ten Mile can lean towards the latter, they will win the battle for class, but can they woo the City folks out of the City Limits for a show?

I need to do more investigating, but I think I can attribute this to an old friend of the Mayor, singer songwriter and bad-assed vocalist Jimmy Kennedy (pictured). Jimmy is a regular host of the open mic nights (Thursdays) at the Ten Mile. I have a feeling that he has been cross-pollenating the Fred's crowd and bands with the venue at the Ten Mile. If I can confirm this, I will be issuing official Mayoral proclamations to both Jimmy and the Ten Mile House in thanks for their economic stimulus and excellent timing of the music market.

Life, Death, and Road Construction

2006-06-16T13:15:00.000-05:00

Well it's that time of year. (I already posted about parish carnivals, silly.) I'm of course talking about the record number of orange sticks, cones and barrels that litter our roads as summer projects get rolling. The Mayor had a rough day yesterday, I was up late the night before, went to the ACBA meeting yesterday morning, had a death in the family, then attended to family and business matters until after midnight. To top it off, MoDOT was grinding the road surface off out in front of the First Family's house all night long! Needless to say, the Mayor is having difficulty with his "A" game today.

CHECK IT, YO: Our good friend Beth from St. Louis County Economic Council reminded the Mayor's Office that the public hearing is coming up for the reconstruction of the bridge over Gravois Creek near Grant's Farm and the bike trail. The public hearing is between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Thursday, June 22 at the Affton White Rogers Community Center. More info is here.

YE CAN'T SUE WHAT YE CAN'T FIND: The official name of the controversial development going next to Cor Jesu has officially changed. This "came out" in yesterday's ACBA meeting. It is now called "The Villages at Grant's View".

Perhaps this was to keep the Grantwood Village People (pictured) from successfully filing suit against the development.

Rejected names include: "The Villages Formerly Known As The Villages At Gravois Creek" and

The Mayor Goes Postal for Affton Pride

2006-06-14T10:26:00.000-05:00

I think like most folks, I have a real love/hate relationship with computers. The First Family's name has an apostrophe in it. Now since the dawn of computers and data entry, no one has clearly stipulated how to enter an apostrophe into a computer. Furthermore many computers simply don't accept apostrophes as part of the written world. There is nothing so annoying as being told that your "tickets are not in our system" or "you do not seem to be our customer" as a result of someone looking for the name in a computer search. TO WIT:

My name regularly shows up as the following on mail and other things:
1) O'Brien (the correct way)
2) OBrien (no apostrophe)
3) O Brien (space lieu of apostrophe)
4) Obrien (auto corrected for Proper Case by computers resulting in lower case "b")

Now my family name goes back a long way into Ireland when Brian Boru was the ruler of the country for 73 years around 1100 A.D. It's a proud tradition and the world has spelled it correctly since his descendants were called "O'Brien" (meaning "son of" Brian or simply "of" Brian's Family.) ALL OTHER INTERPRETATIONS ARE A BASTARDIZATION!!! If you pulled such crap back in the day, you would have met with my sword and had my coat of arms embossed on thy forehead!

I urge everyone in Affton to immediately stop allowing this similar bastardization:

XXXXX Gravois Road
St. Louis, MO 63123

This is a travesty! What I'm getting at is that Affton (or "Aff's Town" as it began) denoted the place that the mail was to be delivered. Although unincorporated, it is STILL WHERE THE MAIL IS TO BE DELIVERED! Affton has it's own post office and it deserves to be recognized as such. Should the Affton High Cougars become the Unincorporated St. Louis County Cougars? I think not. Please folks, let's make it "Affton, MO 63123" the way it should be.

Begin showing your town pride by contacting your creditors, vendors, friends and junk mailers and make them change your address! Furthermore, get new stationary, sticky return labels and address plaques. Our work will be done when someone can get our trash carrier, Allied Waste, to stop putting "LEMAY, MO 63123" on my trash bill. BELIEVE ME. I've tried. I think the Mayor of Lemay built their database.

Extreme Makover: Affton Edition

2006-06-13T12:00:00.000-05:00

AFFTON MARKET RESEARCH FACT: Twenty and thirty somethings who grew up in the Affton area and have lived in other areas of St. Louis never want to come back to Affton.

Rationale: They do not see the area as desirable when compared to other areas nearby that have centralized "downtowns," civic organizations, better schools, better housing stock, parks, pools and other public amenities. They also still see the area as being "hoosiery" and strive to disassociate themselves from that image.

On my recent trip to Baltimore, we were joined by an associate of my youngest sister. She is a St. Louisian, 26 years old, and single. Not to my surprise, she found the prospect of relocating to Affton very appealing. She cited the affordability of decent housing as the primary reason for this.

Affton must get out of the box and directly market to these young folks interested in starting families. This is a market segment SORELY underserved by current housing developments as only high-end homes and condos are the primary market. Even better if NON-Catholics are targeted. The realignment of City schools and Catholic parishes are points AGAINST locating families in the City right now. Affton's reasonably low taxes and relatively decent schools can be used to lure folks from fashionable City 'hoods such as St. Louis Hills and South Hampton.

* This represents my own, personal investigative research and not anything the good taxpayers forked out for.

CMT and Shrewsbury Plan Metrolink Charrette

2006-06-07T11:09:00.000-05:00

This just in to the Mayor's desk this morning:
Citizens for Modern Transit is hosting a charrette on June 17 with the help of Shrewsbury Mayor Bert Gates and Alderwoman Donna Baringer to look at the site surrounding the future Shrewsbury-Lansdowne-I-44 MetroLink Station that should open later this year. Transit oriented development will be the focus of the charette. Architects and planners are needed to help with the event. June 17, 2006 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Shrewsbury City Center--5200 Shrewsbury Ave.
MORE INFO: info@cmt-stl.org or call 314.231.7272.

N0w many of you have questions about Metrolink, I'm sure, and I'm sure the long hours listed here will not be for residents, but the facilitators. Althought it's put on by our annexation-happy neighbors to the north, consider yourself invited.

This event will NOT be addressing the possibility of Metro's plans to extend this line further south into Affton, rather it will be about increasing connectivity for residents of all the surrounding areas to the station, probably through increased bus service or other options. I highly urge you all to go, especially all you Town Talkers bitching about the price of gas. I myself have been taking my bike on the bus occasionally (using the handy bike racks on the front bumpers) and I have found it very enjoyable and economical. It is likely that I will be serving our community as one of the meeting facilitators, taking your ideas down on paper, so come meet the Mayor and represent!

I Thought It Was Your Turn to Do the Dishes

2006-06-07T10:11:00.000-05:00

From the Affton Precinct of the Police blotter as reported in the South County Journal on June 7:

"Burglars stole a dishwasher sometime on June 3 from a home in the 8400 block of Mathilda Avenue. The dishwasher was discovered missing at about dinnertime..."

So there I was, washing up things after dinner when I noticed I was loading the dishes into a 30-INCH GIANT HOLE UNDER MY COUNTER.

A Reading from the Letter of St. George

2006-06-05T11:41:00.000-05:00

St. George is having their parish carnival this coming weekend. Some things need no embellishment to be funny. Note the use of exclamation points. Verbatim from the St. George parish bulletin this week:
------------------------------------------------------------
The 2006 St. George Summer fest is ready to roll on June 10, noon until 10 pm! We are very excited to offer the exotic petting zoo this year!! Not only will you have the opportunity to feed and pet the animals - you can ride a CAMEL!! The inflatable activities are going to be a challenge - a climbing mountain, a bungee run, and a defender dome are just some of the offerings! Armbands will be available the day of the picnic. The price for the armband for the child inflatables is $20. The price forthe armband for the adult inflatables is $25. Both the exotic petting zoo and the inflatables will be in operationfrom noon until 6 pm. Admittance to the petting zoo willbe $2.50 for all entering! Test your luck with Bingo at 2pm and again at 6:30 pm!! Come hungry as Hodak’s Chicken Meals will be available from 4 - 7 pm!! After your meal, enjoy the German Band in the German beergarden while munching on chicken wings and peanuts! Now, we all need to pray for GREAT weather!!!
As always, to make this event possible.. WE NEED WORKERS! Some booths, still need a chair… the Chuck-a-Luck, the Bell Ringer/Hammer Booth beingtwo of these! These booths will not be offered if we donot have chairs and workers!

SET UP will begin at approximately 8:30 am on Friday, June 9th and will continue all day long!! WE NEED HELP HERE FOLKS!! Take down will occur on Sunday, June 11th at 8 am.. Again, WE NEED HELP!! Forthose who have tools, we can use not only your body but also your 1/2” deep well socket drill for setup!!
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Do you think they need help?
Child armband: $20
Adult armband: $25
Watching the drunk adults Chuck-a-luck Hodak's Chicken Meals from the top of a camel?
Priceless. See you there.

St. Dom's is NOT Serving 3.2 Beer at the Parish Carnival!

2006-06-05T08:35:00.000-05:00

My fellow Afftonians, in case you missed it, or were under the weather with the dreaded sinus infection, the parish carnival season is upon us! This is a great tradition in Affton! I was not able to make it to Seven Holy Founders a couple weeks ago, but come hell or high water I am always at the St. Dominic Savio picnic! Whether you are a parent, an aging parishoner, part of the Men's Club, a shut-in, or a middle-schooler learning how to flirt, this picnic is the place for you! I was totally an idiot and forgot to bring the First Lady's camera, but let's just say that between silly string, beer cups and pie throwing, the place looked like a great party.

St. Dominic's is nestled among a great neighborhood of homes built in the mid 1950's just north of Heege on Mackenzie. It is also the First Lady's former grade school. Your Mayor had the honor of sharing a few rounds of Break-A-Plate and Krazy Kans with some of the constituency. I was also recognized by a very young voter as I entered the Super Slide.

In addition to the games of skill, I presided over a few cold beers sent to me by the First Father-in-Law. I appreciate that the Catholics know that fully alcoholic beer makes a great party. Your Mayor was formerly a resident of Webster Groves and I know for a fact that the Webster Lions Club is serving 3.2 beer (or "near beer") for outrageous prices at the huge festival they do over July 4th weekend at the Webster Rec Plex. This controversy once made the Webster-Kirkwood Times when a new vendor wanted to sell wine and the Lions Club opposed the measure saying they had an exclusive on alcoholic drinks and "weren't getting anyone drunk anyway" and that serving wine would cause drunken chaos.

I really want to hand it to whomever had the good taste to book Mid-Rock Crisis as the band this year. As one who is highly critical of live music, I have to say that I was impressed at the caliber of this band for a parish picnic. They covered decades of music reproducing the hits from Joe Jackson to the Gin Blossoms and from Sam and Dave to Steppenwolf! A great mix of music for the great mix of generations undulating rhythmically on the asphalt dance floor. They are correct in noting on their web site that AFFTON ROCKS.

Mayor Invades Baltimore

2006-05-31T11:42:00.000-05:00

It's not everyday that the Mayor of Affton gets to see another city, but I had reason to visit the City of Baltimore recently. This is not what most folks think of first for a vacation destination, but nonetheless I had a much better experience in Baltimore this time than the last time. I was hell-bent on meeting and getting a photo with Mayor Martin J. O'Malley and to discuss how he took the country's most drug and crime-infested City and began to turn things around. But alas, he was unavailable.

In my quest for Mayoral Greatness I instead sought inspiration from the memorial to Samuel Smith on Federal Hill. He was a decorated war hero, senator and representative, and served as Mayor of Baltimore from 1835-1838. (The Mayor is also a fan of a damn good nut brown ale named for an Englishman of the same moniker.) His monument now overlooks the City's Inner Harbor district from across the water. This area is really the one thing that Baltimore tourism has going for it. It's got tons of shops, restaurants, historic boats, dinner cruises and a large brick "boardwalk" that goes around the water on three sides. (See picture of me on the cannon above.) There was obviously a lot of corporate meetings in the area and lots of tourists. Transportation options are plentiful including water taxis. This is a good thing. My last experience in Baltimore was not so great and took me through some of the worst neighborhoods they have to offer. The Harbor seems to be catching on and spreading as there is a lot of condo construction going on in the very historic downtown area.

The oddest thing I found was when I noticed "stop demolition now" signs in the VERY historic Fell's Point district. An inquiry to a local shop owner revealed that there is a Polish church called St. Stanislaus in the area that was closed by the Archdiocese in 2000. (Sound familiar??!!) It and the attached community center are being slated for demolition. There is an organization of businesses and residents trying to save the place due to its cultural significance in the area. All in all, it was a great trip even though the First Lady and I were fighting off a sinus infection. Although I did not get to meet Mayor O'Malley I think he has done a great job for Baltimore and is a good candidate for the coveted award as World Mayor.

Running Into Trouble

2006-05-30T12:33:00.000-05:00

Sorry I haven't posted lately...The First Family has been battling a family-wide sinus infection for a week that renders us lazy and snotty. In addition, we had to attend a graduation in Baltimore. I will post about the trip later. On to business...

A Mr. Conley wrote in last week to inquire about roads in the area. As a runner, the condition of the roads are of interest to him from a unique perspective. Now the Mayor only runs when he is being chased, but I understand his concerns.

"There's been a lot of road improvement going on in and around Affton recently and Afftonianites [sic] such as myself are probably interested in the scope of road repairs in and around Affton. Specifically road repairs in the neighborhood East of Mackenzie and South of Gravois. And more specifically the hill on Daisy Lane. (It sucks.) The arc in the road is ridiculously high and the ditches in our front yards also suck."

I have not yet been able to get over there to check it out, but I can tell you that the surface of Mackenzie Road has more pock marks than the faces of Affton High teenagers. There is a rep from MoDOT at the Affton Community Betterment Assn. meeting and he updates folks on projects. I can bring this area up to him, but I'd like to point out where you and others can go with this.

On this web page on the County's site are the steps through which "needs" become "projects." At the end of the page is an email link where you can write in about a particular section of road. On this page, there is a form one can fill out about a specific problem location.

I can say from experience with this Department that their service has been good. We had some street signs stolen in front of the Mayor's house a year or so ago, and I emailed about it. Within a few days, we had new signs. Until you see some results, I recommend citizens run on the River Des Peres Greenway Trail or Grant's Trail.

Dude, Where's My Clothes?

2006-05-18T11:39:00.000-05:00

I'm fresh back from my first Affton Community Betterment Assn. meeting this morning with my report for you, my Afftonians.

The committee as a whole seems a responsible bunch. I am mostly lurking at this point, but as far as I can tell, there are at least three Affton residents present (other than me). Is this great representation? Certainly not with a population of about 20,000. One would think that with the uproar over the Villages at Gravois Creek development, half the blogging residents of Grantwood Village would be there. This perhaps shows that the ACBA is not the power or citizen channel they should be.

In attendance:
Kathy Jadlot (Chair) Employee of Commerce Bank
Hal Deuser of Commerce Bank
Kay Gasen of UMSL (in charge of the grant for Affton)
Two members from the County Planning office
Two members of the County Neighborhood Preservation Dept.
Two members of the County Police
Rep. Pat Yaeger of the 96th district
Three residents involved in various organizations.
and Yours Truly, The Mayor of Affton

Anyway, of particular note was the lengthy report from the Neighborhood Preservation guys. As in any other neighborhood, we seem to have some "wackos"in the area. We all knew this already, but due to a new methodology by the department, they are now certifiable! When people fail to comply with their warnings and court orders about cleaning up their property, the County now sends them to Mental Health Court! In this, evaluations are made and often drugs are prescribed. While this may seem quite an effort, it appears to be working. Most of the patients accept the treatments voluntarily. As one member pointed out, the County is in many cases, "the only family they have now." One resident caught hoarding, has had his home cleaned out by City firemen. Eight 20-yard dumpsters were filled with the stuff in his home and yard. Most of it was unopened model toys, car parts, and small electronics.

On Philo, there is a resident who chooses to answer the door stark naked! We also are the proud neighbors of a resident deeding his TV repair property to NORML. (Apparently he has ancient permits for a greenhouse operation...hmmm.)

Others are just out to be crabby ol' jerks throwing tons of stuff in their yards and pissing off the neighbors. One mentioned at the meeting has reported for court with no attorney. He is verbally abusive to the inspectors and the police and is planning on getting them all fired. He has been ordered to show up with representation at his next hearing or he will become part of a prision work-release program with some hefty fines.

The Gravois Creek development continues to embroil many, incuding folks on the ACBA. The Grantwood Villagers have retained a lawyer to try and fight the development. Personally, I don't think this will be worth the money and it will take a lot of it. It is being speculated that Grant's Farm is "taxing" the parking at their lot this summer to fund the lawsuit. This also makes no sense to me. Since AB owns Grant's Farm and another Busch sold the land to be developed, why would GF side with Grantwood Village?

Everyone seems focused on the density issue now. Largely at issue is whether the parcel is considered continuous even though it is divided by a road and a flood plain which is undevelopable. The density figure is lower if they are counting it as one piece, which is the opinion of the Planning Division. It may be too dense if it is considered two parcels as the Grantwood Village folks contend. The County Planning rep at the meeting was actually ordered not to comment on the issue at our meeting, but directed those concerned to call Gail Ottolino at the Planning Office at 314-615-7260.

Lastly, there will be a public June 21st meeting on the grant program's Strategic Planning component.

Work on Mackenzie Lofts Begins! Gravois Creek Bridge to be Rebuilt.

2006-05-17T12:07:00.000-05:00

The Mayor was lurking about at the Affton Chamber of Commerce meeting this morning and got a few scoops for you, my fellow Afftonians. There were 13 people present including two reps from the County and one from MoDot. I'm pleased to report that the meetings are informal, unpretentious and actually have a few laughs.

First, I confirmed that the cars present at the former Affton Elks building does indeed signify that work has begun on the Mackenzie Lofts by TB Realty & Development. This project was reported on in the Post in April. This project will be bringing 23 residential units to the depressing corner of Mackenzie & Heege mentioned in a previous post. While I'm not wild about this group's pride in developing Shop'n'Saves or Home Depots, their site does feature a couple of mixed-use residential developments that abut large retail stores. I think the plan for the Mackenzie Lofts (passed around at the meeting) is good. They are using the existing building, hiding carports on the south side, and screening the entrance drive with trees. There will be roughly 7 units per floor with 1, 2 and 3 bedroom options from a reported $140,000-$350,000. I am thankful that this will give a few folks an opportunity for a new housing choice. Sadly, there are no plans for retail space on the first floor and the existing parking lot is staying.

There was a recap of other development in the area showing a potential of 600 new residences for Affton!

Also of note was that the Save-A-Lot on Bayless near Union will be closing and going vacant. Apparently they are too close to the newer store at Grasso Plaza and the independent owner on Bayless will be calling it quits at that location.

The next hot topic of the summer will be MoDot's rebuilding of the bridge over Gravois Creek at McNary Rd. and Gravois near Grant's Farm. MoDot is planning on closing Gravois for about two months in the Fall or Winter to facilitate replacing the bridge built around 1923. Regardless of what happens with the Villages at Gravois Creek development next to Cor Jesu, there will be a new and wider, five-land bridge going in there soon. Grant's Trail access should not be affected. There will be a public hearing on this issue in July for debate on full closure or partial closure of Gravois Rd.

Federhofers Still Open for Business

2006-05-15T12:55:00.000-05:00

Recently, a Mr. Lydon emailed the Mayor with an alarming rumor. The rumor proposed that Federhofer's Bakery at 9005 Gravois might be closing. A quick call to the establishment this afternoon to ask for comment on said rumor prompted this [actual] statement from the "gal on the phone":

"Hahahahahahahahahaha...no."

One can interpret this two ways. First that this is the truth. Second, that this is a cover up and that they have become delirious thinking about all their debts.

Either way, I recommend that you call and order a wedding cake and a pack of party rolls (or a Fresh Grape Melba when in season) just to be on the safe side and to insure their future. In case you were not aware, their sign is a registered local landmark with the County.[photo courtesy: Signs of Gravois]

Is the ACBA a "Secret Card Game"?

2006-05-12T16:36:00.000-05:00

So last night the Mayor went to Commerce Bank on Gravois looking for the Community Betterment Assn. meeting. No one was there. On closer inspection of their web site, the ACBA tells us:

REGULAR MEETINGS:3rd Thurdsay of the month at 9:00 AM at Commerce Bank on Gravois, except when evening meetings are scheduled.
Evening meetings are held quarterly in Feb., May, Aug., and Nov. at 7pm. Locations to be announced.

ALL WELCOME!
UPCOMING EVENTS:
Contact ACBA for currently scheduled activities or check the Affton Chamber of Commerce web site at www.afftonchamber.com/communitynews.htm.

So, I click the link to the Chamber's site and it tells me this...

Affton Community Betterment Association (ACBA) meets on the 2nd Thursday of each month at the NEW Commerce Bank (10185 Gravois) at 9 a.m. The meetings in February, May, August, and November will be held at 7 p.m. to accommodate residents who are unable to attend meetings in the morning. Location of these meetings will be listed on their web site (www.afftonacba.com).

This is what Microsoft Excel calls a "circular reference" because it sends logical thinking in a fruitless pursuit of answers. One site refers you back to the other for answers and the circle if formed! Now I ASSUMED it was going to be at Commerce, so shame on me for assuming, but no posting on the sites? No note on the door at the bank? WTF? I'M THE FREAKING MAYOR! You think someone would make sure I was in the right place at the right time! If it's not on the web, what does that mean? The ACBA and the Chamber are communicating on soup cans with a string attached? Perhaps, but maybe they are actually preventing the public from going to the meeting. Perhaps they are only giving us lip service.

More importantly, I'm dying to know how many people attend the evening meetings vs. the day meetings. If the numbers go up, shouldn't they move the meetings to the nights permanently? I suppose it will be another three months before I find out for you as they only do this quarterly. I have emailed the ACBA and they have not yet responded. I'll let you know.

My Proposed Paradigm Shift in Affton Marketing

2006-05-11T09:18:00.000-05:00

I'd like to remind the citizens that tonight is the "regular" night time meeting of the Affton Community Betterment Association at Commerce Bank on Gravois. It starts at 7PM and yours truly will be there. I'm really interested in finding out if they are serious about anything and who's involved. I hope it's more informative than their web site. I'll have a report tomorrow for you for those of you who can't make it.

So here's a revitalization strategy for your consideration: Market Affton to families with children. I've got two myself and the First Lady and I are both very into real estate. While I don' t plan on leaving my constituency, we do a lot of comparison shopping. The First Lady was looking for "deals" out there last night on the web and found nothing comparable to our own home for less than $300,000. We found houses being advertised as "tear down or rehab" in Des Peres for $200,000!! We paid about $20,000 less than that for our very viable home 3 1/2 years ago. Well screw your crazy high prices, Des Peres...As I have said before on this site, I recommend that Afftonians BUY AND HOLD.

Families with children were about 50% of the home-buying market in the late 1950's, but now comprise about 33% of that market. We have been replaced by young professionals and the HUGE number of aging baby-boomers. In short, most development seems to be overlooking the market for family housing (generally considered 3 bedroom or more). Why can't we make Affton the attractive haven for families? It's close to the City and it's amenities, yet primarily suburban in layout. I think the hipsters with kids will appreciate this fact if we market to them. The housing has to be affordable. Read this disturbing story on the lack of available housing for families.

Here's what we need to change NOW: Our school districts are far better than the city, but are not up to snuff with most of the County's. This is largely because the huge number of old folks in Affton will generally not vote for ANY tax increase. We will have to house and care for these people for a few more years before we get a hold of their property and begin the obligatory installation of Malibu Lights, so I think the focus really needs to be on businesses and attracting more of them. While I don't think the "Affton Wal-Mart" should be in our future ***SHUDDER***, we need to replace that Nestle plant on Heege with something VERY taxable immediately to replace the $300,000 annual shortfall to the schools. Furthermore, I'm very troubled that in the June 2002 Affton Community Plan only found ONE SINGLE site for major commercial redevelopment at the NE corner of Mackenzie and Gravois. I plan to get on the bike this weekend to locate more.

The next thing we need to focus on is lifecycle housing. If we attract young families to the area, they will only want to move away when they are ready for their second house as there are not many options for a "move up." I'm not sure why our Lakewood area has not yet seen a rash of development. I think the prices are about to bottom out and that is time to buy!

The Mayor of Shrewsbury?

2006-05-05T11:53:00.000-05:00

It recently came to the Mayor's attention that the City of Shrewsbury has submitted a map to the Boundary Commission in February. I was not able to find any news articles about this submission, so it may still be under the public's radar. It appears, on the surface, that Shrewsbury is still interested in annexing a lot of our unincorporated areas farther south than Heege and as far west as our border with Crestwood. My first "freak-out" over this was that on the Boundary Commission's web site, you can enter your zip code to see if any proposals affect you. On entering 63123 I was SHOCKED to find that 63123 was NOT affected! This has since been brought to the attention of Executive Director Courtney Irwin and was quickly fixed.

From Ms. Irwin: "Near the end of this summer, the Boundary Commission will hold a series of public hearings wherein Shrewsbury, the Boundary Commissioners, and those constituents potentially affected by the proposed map plan, will have the opportunity to openly discuss Shrewsbury’s map plan. Check our website periodically for public hearing dates, times and locations." I will keep you all posted on those dates.

This led me to a conversation by phone with Assistant to the City Adminstrator (of Shrewsbury) John Shaw. He assured me that although Shrewsbury is not really interested in annexing anything within the map just now but they submitted the map to keep their options open for the next five years. Sadly for both sides, there is just not much to tax there. They also cannot annex the whole area shaded on the map as the rules indicate that you can't annex anything more than half your size.

One point he wanted to drive home was the fact that he believes that annexation might actually LOWER our taxes. He claims that Shrewsbury residents pay less for fire, police and city services combined than we pay for the Affton Fire District alone. I'll keep you posted.

From My Mind to Your T-Shirt

2006-05-04T12:59:00.000-05:00

Based on a request or two from the constituency, the Cabinet and I are looking into offering "Affton Mayor Wear" which we might make available for purchase. More on that after the Vice Chair of Graphic Design submits his artwork to me. What could be more democratic that putting the designs to a vote?

Riverfront Times "Endorses" Mayor

2006-05-04T12:51:00.000-05:00

For those of you with the attention span of a grapefruit, you may still be able to read the goofy format in the Riverfront Times. While I certainly don't solicit press coverage, it does help bring the issues of the people of Affton to our neighbors. We at the Mayor's Office are pleased to be picked as the RFT's "Local Blog O' the Week" on p.10.

So Far County Plan Shows Little Content Other Than Bitchy Residents

2006-05-02T09:00:00.000-05:00

Well, my Afftonians, I endured quite a treacherous drive last night in the storms to attend the St. Louis County Strategic Planning meeting on your behalf, and as Master Yoda would say, "Interesting it was."

In a nutshell, I was amazed on a few levels. I was amazed that about 100 people constitued what County Executive Dooley called "a big crowd". This was a piss-poor showing of residents interested in how planning is addressed for their county. Chief of Governmental Affairs John Temporiti (whose name is nowhere on the County web site BTW) cited that of the approximately 1.2 million people in the county about 1/3rd live in unincorporated areas and that Charlie Dooley was, in effect, their "Mayor" (I bit my tongue at that point as this meeting was NOT held in Affton.) If you take 396,000 (1/3rd of 1.2 mil) into 100 (number attending meeting) and multiply by 6 (number of meetings planned) you get 0.15%. That's 0.15% of JUST THE UNINCORPORATED citizenry at the meetings. It would be a much smaller number if we count incorporated residents. For shame.

One of the hallmarks of Dooley's time is office is improving Customer Service. To this end, he is about to roll out a phone number where citizens can call for ANY issue and immediately speak to a human being without use of an IVR system until their issue gets addressed. This is a great idea, but as a next step, I suggest that the focus be on citizen engagement or involvement rather than a passive customer service role.

In light of this small showing, I must say that you did not miss much. For a presentation about the 5-year strategic plan, I saw almost NO content with regard to planning issues. Temporiti outlined four challenges:
1) St. Louis County's Role in the Region
2) Reinvestment in Older Neighborhoods
3) Services to Unincorporated Areas and
4) Transportation

There was, however nothing said about how these issues are being researched, where reserach was leading, ideas coming out of the research, or how citizens could be more involved in tackling each of these issues. Most critics of the St. Louis City 5 Year Plan note that it only really shows areas on a map and whether or not the City is interested in new developments in that neighborhood or not. There is little content about how major issues are to being addressed.

I think this is a result of the vast number if independent governments in the region. (St. Louis has more local governments than anywhere else in the country save for Philadelphia.) Since they all operate on their own, there is little means to combat regional issues. I noted this on the survey the County has online.

The presentation went on for 20 minutes and immediately went to Q&A where the sheep in attendance were largely interested in bitching about issues personal to them. While I don't mean to belittle their concerns, the 5-Year Strategic Planning meeting is not the time or place to bring up how a traffic signal might be needed at a certain corner or why an individual with a septic system was being billed for the sewer lateral program. One resident, an engineer no less, wanted to know why the Metrolink was not constructed in a linear fashion and opened on a station-by-station basis. How this would benefit Metro or residents? I have no idea.

A few people did make good points that were appropriate. Several residents, your Mayor included, were highly complimentary of the St. Louis County Police service. I assure you this was not the case when the Mayor was trying to get beer to high-school parties in his teenage years! A boy of no more than 13 spoke for a number of residents on the issue of large opposition to a QuikTrip going in on Telegraph across from a Mobil station. He was met with applause from the crowd. Another person said that new development was too dense and too fast. My beef with these folks was that they were only reacting to things that were already done or in progress. Not one person asked "how can we prevent this from happening again?" THAT's PLANNING! I won't even go into the vocal opposition present to the Villages At Gravois Creek development (adjacent to Cor Jesu; See my previous post.) that are still holding out becuase they "got theirs" in the form of a one-acre or half-acre lot in Grantwood Village and oppose the development only on the basis of density or "undesirable elements" moving in. Hogwash. I doubt that even the Mayor's salary would allow me and the First Family to move there, and arguably I am not undesirable.

ANYWAY, on to Affton! Regarding your aquatic center...it is unlikely that this is going to happen as a small tax increase for the Dept. of Parks was voted down last year. My insider at the Planning department (and fellow Afftonian,) told me that the voters of South County were the ones that killed it. THANK YOU, OLD FOLKS! You got your "stitch and bitch" and "line dancing for seniors" up at White-Rodgers Community Center and now my kids have to swim in Gravois Creek this summer! Grrr.

REGARDING THE NESTLE PLANT ON HEEGE ROAD...I met with two members of the Economic Council. One was well versed on Affton. We both agreed that housing was not going to be appropriate for that area as it is next to a concrete contractor (lest they have another Fred Weber situation) nor was a big box development approproate due to space and access. One told me that Hershey's has looked at the plant as well as others. There is a potential deal in the works with a food maker, but the realtor is not saying with whom yet. They are in contact weekly so we assume it's still a possibility. Nestle was the biggest taxable corporation in Affton bringing $300,000 to the schools district annually. (See my previous post.)

I was pleased that I got to meet Charlie Dooley. Everyone I spoke with told me he's great to work for. On the surface anyway, Charlie was all about resident satisfaction. He noted that not everything would please all people. He noted that he's never played the lottery even though it was good for schools. We ended our meeting by shaking hands and complimenting each other on our fine displays of facial hair.

Urban Review Critiques Mayor

2006-04-28T13:49:00.000-05:00

We at the Mayor's Office are pleased that we have been featured on noted urban critic Steve Patterson's blog Urban Review. While Patterson posits that my favorable review of the new QuikTrip location on Gravois may have been "bought" with cold beverages, he is pleased with the work we are doing in Affton. Patterson usually has sharp and pointed criticism for developments in St. Louis. After reading his review of my Affton blog, I'm now sure that he is also a man of sharp wit. Keep at it Patterson & Co. You may someday receive a Proclamation of Honorary Citizenship from this office.

I'd also like to remind you, Afftonians, that Monday night is the second round of review sessions for the St. Louis County Strategic Plan. Will you get a Community Pool? Will you get Metrolink? Will you be able to afford your house? Come find out!!

I will see you at Oakville Senior High at 7PM.

CORRECTION!

2006-04-25T16:27:00.000-05:00

Cor Jesu got 4 acres with a 99 year lease. I incorrectly reported this as 10 acres.

The Power of the Prayer Hotline

2006-04-25T13:32:00.000-05:00

My run for office began AFTER the biggest land coup in recent Affton history was underway...that of the sale of 94 acres of rolling farm land owned by Andrew Busch (yes, Busch like "Anheuser") next to Grant's Farm and Cor Jesu Academy. You can catch up on the story in the Post or the Journal.

Anyway, after several all-school assemblies, mass demonstrations at the St. Louis County Council meeting and countless hours emailing the Prayer Hotline, I'm pleased to announce (before it's in the Journal) that Cor Jesu has reached a deal with the developers. The unflappable Sr. Sheila has apparently been able to purchase 10 acres next to the school for future development. I have not seen this published anywhere yet, but the First Lady of Affton is an alumna of the school and received an email with the announcement.

I'm happy they worked things out as it's likely that the Mayor will be paying for the First Daughter to go there in about 12 years.

Ditch Your Date with Ryan Seacrest and Hit the Trails!

2006-04-25T12:24:00.000-05:00

Thank you all for your comments. Keep them coming!

The weather has been beautiful lately and your Mayor was out on the bicycle last night trying out the new bridge that crosses River Des Peres between Morganford & Loughborough. It's nice! (Pictured.) I know this is not my jurisdiction, but I need to keep tabs on our neighbors to maintain my visionary regional perspective on things.

Need I remind you, Afftonians of the hidden gem of Grant's Trail? This path is easily one of our biggest assets. It is a great 6 mile sojourn through some of our most beautiful areas on an old railroad spur. Currently, it's an island, but if Trailnet andCrestwood can get their act together, this ultimately will connect to the bike path system being implemented by the Great Rivers Greenway. Check out the link if you have never heard of it.

Trailnet and Great Rivers plan to connect the path to the riverfront trail downtown. Crestwood (currently broke) is supposed to pick up part of the completion of the trail into Kirkwood. (The plan is to extend the trail from Pardee Road, over Sappington and north over the old train bridge over Hwy. 44. (Shown in dots on the map at left.)

Regardless of Crestwood's fiscal health, YOUR health is of vital importance! Healthy bodies make active, VOTING bodies. For the love of all things holy, turn off "American Idol" and get your butt some exercise!

The Teleportation of QuikTrip

2006-04-19T09:01:00.000-05:00

By what manner of wizardry did the QuikTrip move several blocks west from its location at Gravois and Siebert? It was before my time, but another Afftonian says that they fought very hard to get the "wedge" corner at Gravois & Siebert. Perhaps they wanted to move closer to Phil's Bar-B-Q, and who could blame them?! My source tells me that the old location ended up being a bad layout and when the new parcel became available they jumped at the chance to get more space. As you can see in the second photo, the new layout is nice and spacious such as you normally see at their other locations.

I'm happy to report that they have been good corporate neighbors and dug up their storage tanks and filled in the holes in the ground. The parcel is now for sale.

My Other Car Is a Roll-Off Dumpster

2006-04-19T08:37:00.000-05:00

The Mayor is recovering from a long Easter holiday of manual labor. I spent the weekend tearing two huge decks off my house in preparation for a new patio design. As a result, I had an "unsightly" 20-yard dumpster in my driveway for about a week. (Similar to photo.) We got a lot of perplexed stares from the neighbors, but nobody complained. Nor should they. I think that such dumpsters should become a status symbol. Nothing says "I'm going to spend a crapload of money improving my home" like a giant trash dumpster in your yard! This is how it's been in the City for the last 8 or 10 years. I know this type of work is not for everyone, but with all the refinancing going on lately, can't we make an effort? As Mayor, I advise you to NOT take an expensive vacation with that equity! Invest in your homes and make everyday your vacation!

On the Subject of Immigration

2006-04-11T11:15:00.000-05:00

There has been much talk and lots of upset people in the news lately regarding the proposed changes in immigration laws. I believe that most Afftonians support this tightening of the US borders as old people generally are A) afraid of strangers and B) afraid of foreigners.

Your Mayor takes the following stance: I support criminalizing those who enter the country illegally. By the very nature of "illegals" (being in the US without proper papers) they are in violation of law. (Duh...illegal). While most immigrants do often menial jobs that a lot of Americans won't, I don't think there's any guarantee of a job, nor do the economics of the situation make it OK. I don't sympathize with families who are broken up in the flight to the US. They made that choice.

Your Mayor traveled extensively in his life however, loves to meet people from other lands, and supports a very liberal immigration policy on the whole. To those who oppose this, I offer travel photos of places like western Kansas where there is so much damn space with nothing there but sunflowers. Clearly this land is very useable for a community. Although it is land out of my jurisdiction, I think that fans of sunflowers or sunflower seeds are the only potential opposition. In the event of a shortage of the snack, I propose that people switch to Big League Chew which also comes in a pouch and is fun to eat and involves less spitting in public. Although the gum does not yet come in Jalapeno or Ranch flavors, I'm sure we could work it out. In fact, it's probably as inevitable as Diet Coke with Bacon.

Anyway, my experiences with local immigrants have ALWAYS been positive. Affton is home to a growing population of Bosnians that are climbing the economic ladder. As a result, they are investing in local real estate, pimping their rides and spending money locally. My only complaint is that their voter turnout is very, very low. I think that if we can overcome our fear of them and welcome them to Affton, they will begin to creep out of their shells and get involved in civics, PTA meetings and the planning of the Affton Days festival.

It's Good to Be the Mayor--One Week of Progress

2006-04-11T10:56:00.000-05:00

Well, it seems that my little cyber-Affton is catching on. Reading this column qualifies you as an astute citizen of Affton and the surrounding areas. Sure, I'm not as popular as some other St. Louis area blogs like Urban Review or Urban STL, but they are for the masses. I only want readership from my 20,000 or so closest neighbors.

I need to borrow the First Lady's camera again, but I have definitive proof that my campaign gained some attention. El Maguey, the Mexican restaurant about which I posted previously, has just installed Malibu Lights in the front garden. As you'll recall, on another previous post, I indicated how these lights show that you care enough about your property to dump $60 bucks or so on some crappy low-voltage lighting. Clearly an investment in Affton's real estate future! (I really do appreciate people putting time and investment into their yards, but lightening bugs make brighter lights than Malibu lights...I just don't see the point.)

The Multiplier Effect

2006-04-06T11:41:00.000-05:00

Your Mayor does not have much of a sweet tooth, but I'm certainly not eating any Nestle products for awhile. At the turn of the year one of the biggest coups in Affton was the closing of the Nestle plant at Heege and New Hampshire. There were almost 300 workers in the plant. Even though the Swiss-based candy maker is the largest and the USA portion alone made about $12.5 billion in sales for 2004, they decided to move operations overseas to fatten their bottom line.

In their wake are properties lying vacant in St. Louis City and over 15 acres worth of facilities in Affton. These are being offered for sale by CB Richard Ellis. The much bigger deal is that the 2500 student Affton School District will lose out on the $300,000 in tax revenue generated by the plant per year. Here's link to the full story.

Apparently too much candy will make you sick to your stomach.

Putting the "Tower" in Tower Tee

2006-04-06T11:12:00.000-05:00

Since I'm not originally from Affton, I really enjoy digging up the history of the area. (Or at least putting together my own version of what I THINK is the history.) Take the popular, and newly remodled attraction called Tower Tee at 6727 Heege Road (see photo.) This sits on 27+ acres of land on our western border with Marlborough. In my research, I learned that the land they are on is actually owned by KSDK (Channel 5) and has been since 1968. They also own the adjoining property to the west (former site of the Mackenzie Pool and the First Lady's girlhood swim team) for a total of over 42 acres of ownership in Affton. Although I'm fairly well aquainted with weather guru Mike Roberts from work, I'm not a big fan of Channel 5's journalism. It's a bit sensationalist for my taste...too many fires. Anyway, my "Ah-hah" moment last night was that I realized that Tower Tee MUST be named so because of the GIANT TV TOWER on the property (shown at left in the photo.) There are three such towers in the area that roughly outline Shrewsbury's borders. Would anyone care to join the Mayor at one of the many heated tees for a round next week?

It's (un)Official!!

2006-04-05T09:34:00.000-05:00

We've won, my Afftonians! Victory is ours! Although the office of Mayor, as some pointed out, is non-existent, I am pleased that about 200 of you have chosen to visit this site and cast your vote of support. With this in mind, I am happy to accept the position you all have helped create as Mayor of Affton. I will continue to post about issues that affect our town and my opinions on various things as they arise. Please bring your issues forth and I promise to bring them to the attention of the powers that be.

While some of our discussions may be folly, there are serious and pressing issues that we residents face. This will be your forum! I will keep you all posted as I infiltrate the ranks of Affton's glad-handers and associations on your behalf. Since there is no lame-duck period, this starts immediately. Thank you again for your support.

A Welcome Respite!

2006-04-04T16:06:00.000-05:00

Since the bulk of the election results won't be in until later, I took a break and donated some blood. The victory champagne will do the trick tonight!

Remember to vote on your way home!

Election Day Upon Us!

2006-04-04T09:27:00.000-05:00

The Future Mayor was up early this morning and still campaigning. Even though I ate a slightly moldy bagel for breakfast and had a stomach ache, I forged ahead.

I arrived on the election scene at Rogers Middle School on Mackenzie Road about 8:30 to cast my ballot. As you can see, some of my supporters were there before me putting up signs!

The second photo is of some of Affton's fine seniors working for the Election Commission. I must report that all went very smoothly, although some of the Election Commissioners were not thrilled that I brought a camera to the polling place. Returns will be coming in this evening and I suspect that a victory will be at hand. Thank you all for your support.

Election Day Tomorrow!

2006-04-03T15:30:00.000-05:00

Well I am on pins and needles today as the election approaches. As of yet, I'm still running unopposed, so unless there is a huge last minute write-in campaign, I think victory is assured. Good thing too...it will be good for Affton. Remember to cast your vote tomorrow.

Today's beef is brought to you by the Affton Chamber of Commerce website. While I love the fact that you can drop by the office (behind Sam's Steakhouse on Gravois) and buy a map of Affton for only $1.00, it seems there are better ways to go about improving the area without spending much more money. The site itself looks like it came out of a Fisher-Price box for ages "3 and up".

Now clearly the Chamber's goal is to drive business to the area and improve the chances for existing local businesses to thrive. While many folks might like to do business on the phone, I'd like to know, among other things, why the database for available commercial property (developed by an independent contractor apparently in 2004) is only located "on the Chamber computer". Wasn't the Internet running in 2004? Who sold the Chamber on a database that runs on a 1.44MB floppy disk in 2004? (More importantly, who in the Chamber paid for it?) Perhaps a call to Elliott Davis is in order because YOU, AFFTONIANS, PAID FOR IT!

In fairness, there is a list of commercial properties listed but there are no clickable links, no photos and no links to development incentives for potential buyers. There is no indication as to how old the information is. Most importantly...the page counter has a measly 1061 hits since September 2004. Is this the best we can do? Can't this be database be online and made to look more..."sexy"? I know that web developers are expensive, but sites can be developed that are easily updated by simpletons. At the very least, it would make us look more legit to residents and potential visitors. As part of my myriad reform policies, I call for sweeping changes to the "official" Affton websites. I think the residents should be made aware of more than the Open Luncheons and the "Bunny Hutch" at the Oakland House.

Affton Might Take A Plunge!

2006-03-30T12:03:00.000-06:00

Praise be to the County Parks Department! Your Future Mayor stumbled across what the Future First Lady and I have been talking about for years! The Parks Department has conducted a feasability study on creating an Aquatic Center adjacent to the White-Rodgers Community Center. Based on the proposal (posted Feb. 2006) it looks great. Best of all, it's going to be over an existing, half-empty parking lot. While the Future Mayor is too Irish and pasty white to be in the sun for long, I do believe that the residents will respond positively to this development. I will totally volunteer to do a belly flop on opening day as a photo op for the Journal. Are you listening, Buck Collier?

This Land is Your Land

2006-03-30T10:49:00.000-06:00

Recently a resident posted a comment about the dismal corner of Mackenzie and Heege. I borrowed the Future First Lady's camera and set out to document the tragedy for you, the residents. Dismal it is! Now photographer, I am not. I took these from my car but it does not take a genius to see that we need some help here.

This first pic is the NW corner. The lot is 6313 Heege and it is about three times the size of the ajacent lots. In addition to the dark red shed, the white box in the rear of the yard is actually the box from a semi truck trailer that is sitting in the yard. Currently it is zoned residential. Great use of a prominent corner!

This pic is the very unattractive NE corner. The building on the right is the brand new building that houses Fortels Pizza Den. Their original location is the building on the left. (Big fans we are of Fortells at the Future Mayor's house.) We also love Shelley Fortel, current owner. She is a shrewd and hard-working business woman (I have personally witnessed her working there with an infant strapped to her chest in a Baby Bjorn.) Sadly, when they built the new place, they made it completely subservient to parking, which could have been placed in the back. Since the Elks Lodge was being vacated around the time they built this, why didn't someone with some VISION step in to help this corner? Wouldn't it have been great to have a street front series of small shops with dwelling units or offices on top? I think the folks at St. Dominic Savio could have helped make it work as would the local residents. The density in the area warrants more shops within walking distance!

The boarded up building on the SW corner is the former home of the Affton Elks fraternal organization. This place is currently for sale and would be great as a number of uses. The lot is almost two acres. Currently, it's a wasteland had has been for at least a year since the Elks built a new place next door.

Across from the Elks in the SE corner is the 7-Eleven. Sadly, it is the most used property in the corner.

Affton: Home of the Cougars

2006-03-29T09:03:00.000-06:00

While I'm certain (based on the headline) that you are hoping for information about the incredible athletic teams of Affton Schools (whose mascot is in fact the Cougar,) this is about a cougar of another kind. Today is the birthday of the eldest sister of the Future Mayor. Today's post is dedicated to her. She lives in Boston and has made me aware of an unusual urban phenomenon in her workplace which I plan to exploit into an economic development strategy to catalyze Affton's economy. Stay with me as I outline the plan...

Apparently the term "cougar" is used in reference to business-minded women who chose career over marriage and prefer to hunt for the company of men at least 8 years their junior. They want to be with younger men and make no bones about it. This movement has become so big that they seem to be a semi-organized group on sites like UrbanCougar.com. Lori (pictured) is an authority on the subject and answers questions submitted to UrbanCougar.com. There is even a book on the topic. These women hang out in specific bars to prey on young men and sometimes hunt in packs. To dumb it down for us newbies, I can point to the character portrayed by Kim Cattrall on TV's Sex and the City as a cougar role model. That should paint the picture for you. The cougars hunt their prey in places called "dens". Your Future Mayor is troubled at the fact that Missouri does not have ONE place officially listed as a cougar den in the entire state! I hear opportunity knocking!

My plan for Affton is to create a welcoming atmosphere for the cougars. I can think of no better place suited for this in the country than Affton (HOME of the Cougars already, mind you!) While Affton does have a large group of seniors in the community, we also have an abundance of young, blue collar men who either workout or perform manual labor as a means of making a living. I further propose that these powerful, single women will not only keep the young men of Affton happy, but will choose to relocate their homes and businesses here with small incentives from the local government. This will be a HUGE economic advantage for our area and a market demographic that is not being courted by any other municipality (except maybe Clayton.) Affton has plenty of land opportunities to locate new businesses. The recently vacated Nestle plant on Heege for one, could become a Class A business park.

These women will have large disposable incomes to spend in Affton and the St. Louis area. They will invest in housing, create new businesses ancillary to being a cougar (such as tanning salons and plastic surgeons), and are revered for getting involved in philanthropic endeavors which will help our senior citizens.

I posit that the following bars in or near the Affton area would already make EXCELLENT dens for the inbound cougars in the following order:
**House of Rock in Ronnie's Plaza (also home of the band The Well Hungarians)
**The Ten Mile House
**George's Route 66 Bar
and possibly **Schottzie's Bar & Grill

This is a WIN-WIN and I hope you agree! Remember, I'd appreciate your vote on April 4.

Affton, Get Out of My Dreams and Into My Car!

2006-03-28T11:54:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, in the Future Mayor's mail came a newsletter from St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley. (See Photo) I have long suspected Charlie of actually being 80's singer Billy Ocean (see smaller photo) but that's not important right now. I've never met Charlie, but an associate of mine worked on his campaign. Not only is he from my original home municipality of Normandy, but apparently he's one funny, sarcastic, menthol-smoking dude. Anyway, I like that he' s resurrected the Citizen Newsletter called "St. Louis County Direct" after a three-year hiatus. I quote our president when I sum up Charlie's newsletter in one word..."Strateegory". This man has plans.

I must say that I personally did not give a crap about the new playgound in Spanish Lake Park (I'm sure it's great), but from this letter I learned two important things. First, that the County is updating it's Strategic Plan. This is updated every five years and is designed to plan for county programs, preservation, transportation, health and other issues. There are several town hall forums and I need to go to at least one to present my concerns and ideas for Affton. It's a growing list so I may have to attend all six of them.

Second, UMSL's Public Policy Research Center has been awarded $200,000 in a grant money to fund community building in Affton. I have already been in contact with the project coordinator to get involved. I'm all over that. That information lead me to finding the Affton Community Betterment Association. Where the hell has this been? There's some sort of ACTION committee? Where are they promoting this? I've lived here three years and never heard of them. If you Google Affton right now, you find links to some real crap, if anything. One can find information about Pee-Wee hockey in Affton far easier than one can find the Betterment Association.!! It's proof positive that our priorities need to get back on track. Apparently they are the group behind these signs (shown above) on some of the light posts around town.
I must infiltrate their ranks immediately. That's going to be difficult however as they meet at 9 A.M. How is THAT serving the community? We're not ALL retired!

Official Campaign Poster

2006-03-24T11:42:00.000-06:00

It is with great pride that I offer you, Afftonians, the official campaign poster. Please post and print at will.

Time Heals All Economic Wounds

2006-03-24T10:12:00.000-06:00

For you, my future constituency, to consider this weekend...if you are thinking of moving from Affton for "greener pastures" I advise placating your need for instant gratification if you want to be a savvy investor. I know that a few folks in your Future Mayor's neighborhood are headed out, but their homes have been on the market for like 8 months! Put this in your meth pipe and smoke it: The residents of our area are OLD. As if the overgrown evergreen bushes, high number of bird feeders and other outdated decorating and landscaping weren't proof enough, here's facts:

The census tracts that make up Affton represent 5% of St. Louis County, yet the Social Security Adminsitration reports that we are responsible for 7.8% of the County's recipients of Social Security checks. 33% of our households have a person 65 years or older compared to 24% of all County households. What does this mean for you, my Afftonians? If Affton were a blue chip stock I would advise you to buy and hold. After decades of declining population, the 2000 census showed that our census tracts increased by 1000 residents. However, as we look at the population of our smaller, incorporated municipalities, they are largely still declining for the same period:
Lakeshire -5.7%
Bella Villa -6.4%
Mackenzie -8.1%
St. George -1%
Wilbur Park -1.6%
(source: East West Gateway Municipal Profiles)

And overall, Affton added 1000 people. Who's making headway in the world? Affton. That's who!

As our senior residents begin to pass on, I predict that Affton will become the next highly desirable place to live in the inner ring suburbs. Affton's high density (yet generous lot sizes compared to the City) will attract those who want the convenience of City living, but desire a more suburban lifestyle. Since the City cannot offer a worthwhile school district, I propose that Affton get in to the market of attracting young families with children. This will spur a boon of developent in the area by the younger generation. We'll have a thriving new group of residents putting disposable income into affordable homes with new landscaping and Malibu lights in every yard. Can you imagine reading the real estate ads that say "sought after Affton area"? Wow, now that's a vision. I humbly ask for your vote on April 4 to make all this a reality.

Support of Prop. EJ

2006-03-22T14:03:00.000-06:00

As your future mayor, I'd like to remind you to vote for me. While you're at it, my Afftonians, I urge you to vote YES on Proposition EJ. This would provide a small, tiny, tax increase for increased funding of the Community College system. Affton has it's share of unemployment my friends, and drinking Busch beer should NEVER be a full-time occupation.

The Meramec ("The Mac") and Forest Park ("Fo-Po") campuses do more then their fair share of job training at affordable rates! Even the Future Mayor himself has attended from time to time. Now I took a small business class and Cisco Networking classes, but where the hell else are you going to be able to get mad skills in Funeral Directing, Diesel Engines, and Tourism?

I heartily throw my support behind this issue! For those Town Talkers who complain about tax increases, my apologies, but sh*t costs more these days! Can you get a shave and a haircut for two bits? I think not.

Revenue-Generating Proposal

2006-03-21T13:12:00.000-06:00

Everytime the Future First Family drives home from somewhere, we pass the El Maguey Mexican Restaurant. Currently it's located at 7014 Chippewa in a former 1-1/2 story house. The place was founded by three brothers from Alabama of all places, but that's not important. What is important is that the place is packed...always. I'm not just talking about Friday and Saturday nights. Sunday, Tuesday...anyday, the lot is full or there is a line out the door. Although the Future First Lady is not their biggest fan, I am ceratinly in the running for that race as well.

Everyone I talk to about the place agrees that they need a patio and/or more inside seating. Future Mayor's Father-in-law and I have discussed the amount of savings that El Maguey can realize if they would simply cut back on the amount of sour cream they dispense when you ask for "a side of sour cream." This usually constitutes about 1/2 cup of the substance. Clearly far more than you need for a few tacos. I think they could afford the patio in less than a year.

I propose that Affton make a move to attract this thriving, minority-owned business to our fair zip code. I further propose that El Maguey develop a new property at 7208 Watson Rd. (which is only about 3 parcels west of the current location.) Currently this property sits vacant and undeveloped. El Maguey will save big as they will no longer pay City earnings tax and the proposed site is actually unincorporated St. Louis County lowering taxation further. The difference might be made up on the improved property, however the proposed site is smaller. Parking can be facilitated by using the neighboring Car X lot and the Optical Medical Center during busy hours. A patio overlooking Historic Route 66 sounds loke a good idea for Affton! Now who wants a burrito?

Education First For Affton!

2006-03-10T16:10:00.000-06:00

Here is another example of why education and creating a sence of "place" in your community is so important to Affton and other areas. The photo shows a former Affton resident whose childhood was spent in High Ridge living on the streets and whose adult life has been spent bouncing between jobs in St. Louis city and county.

Although this individual has had success gaining regular corporate employment (we could call him an "achiever"), he often resorts to his behavior learned growing up on the streets. The clothes look convincing enough, yet he remains confused about his place in the community. His appearance can be disheveled and he resorts to begging for change with a coffee cup while at the workplace. The children of Affton deserve more. As mayor, I'll work within our two school districts to increase funding for more technology in the classrooms and I'll institute a mentoring program so that corporate leaders can help us groom the workforce of the future. Get out and vote on April 4!

Affton Students Perfect Levitation Technology

2006-03-10T12:58:00.000-06:00

Now here is a great example of what Affton can do when we put our heads together. Judging by this photo, from the South- County Times, the kids at Seven Holy Founders have perfected some sort of levitation device! That's exactly the kind of progress we could use. Why are we wasting this resource on a jump rope competition?

I'm a staunch supporter of education and it will be a hallmark of my term in office. Teachers (and single parents) should all get tax breaks and gold medals.

Good Point About Anonymity

2006-03-08T13:00:00.000-06:00

One of my favorite weekly events is reading Town Talk in the local Suburban Journal. Generally, it's the older folks' rant column featuring such gripes as "Will the owner of the dog in the 3400 block of Ivanhoe please get it to stop barking all night??!!" It's so damn funny, I've considered Podcasting it weekly. Nearly all posts are posted with no name and occasionally with sarcastic or helpful retorts from the Editor.

This week, an astute Affton resident wrote in to try to change that policy. See the letter here. As a regular reader of the column, I think it would become much less fun to read, and while I understand and agree with the writer's point, I think that Town Talk is a safe way for citizens to vent frustrations. I certainly rather them vent in the column rather than yelling or gesturing from their cars.

Reflections of Day One

2006-03-07T09:13:00.000-06:00

Well, it's been years I suppose that I've been campaigning for Mayor of Affton, but it's a different story now that I'm actually running. For the moment I am running unopposed. While I relish the thought of a victory, it hardly is the best representation of a democracy. This is, in large part, the problem with Affton and the surrounding areas. Not one person from John Goodman's side of town can run for Mayor? Running unopposed has emboldened me and I vow to carry on my campaign with vigor.

To wit...Listen up Wilbur Park and St. George: If I were you, I'd consider myself lucky to be included in the Affton area. That said, you should consider getting your crap together and representing yourselves. If I am successful in my mayoral campaign, and you continue on this road of apathy, I will smack you so far down the census tracts that Lemay will look good to you!

While we're on it, we all know that Shrewsbury thinks it's part of Webster Groves but it surely is not. In fact, as shown below, Shrewsbury is largely in the Affton school district!

Step up Shrewsbury! Webster is busy improving itself and what have you done? You can't even fix the traffic and parking disaster on Weil Ave.! (For the love of god, make those people park on ONE SIDE of the street!)

Anyway, this looks to be a great campaign. I look forward to many events and issues to address on the campaign trail. I am pleased to be able to share it all with you. As for you, Shrewsbury, you better watch your ass!

Game On!

2006-03-06T09:40:00.000-06:00

The Future First Lady and I were waiting at the door of the St. Louis County Board of Election Commissioners in Sunnen Plaza when they opened at 9 this morning. After a nerve-wracking wait through the background check, I was approved! My papers were in order and I'm on the ballot! Please get out and vote on April 4!

Campaign Begins!

2006-03-05T18:57:00.000-06:00

Tomorrow is the first day of a new start for Affton, MO! I will file my intent to run for Mayor of Affton. I will be on the ballot on April 4 and would appreciate your vote!

I have set up an email address where you can contact me about your concerns for Affton, the campaign issues and for your messages of support. Reach me at afftonmayor@hotmail.com