Century Building SLAPP Concluded?

Many years ago, there was a beautiful building in downtown St. Louis, sheathed entirely of marble, and featuring a large open floor plan on the first floor easily adaptable for reuse, as it was once a department store and theater back in St. Louis's heyday. Two citizens, Roger Plackemeier and Marcia Behrendt, believed it was outright ridiculous to tear down such a beautiful building, and they sued to stop it, as is their right as Americans. They were counter-sued by the developers, initiating a SLAPP suit, who tore down the building to build a parking garage with the same shape, with a grocery store on the first floor. The developer refused, for six years, to give the two concerned citizens their day in court. Apparently, last year, the case was finally heard, and the jurors called to the trial. But at the last moment, the parties settled, and the judgment on the one charge the defendants plead guilty to was sealed. What really happened? We'll never know, perhaps, since the two parties are barred from talking about it. Does anyone else know anything about what happened that day in court?

Golf in North St. Louis

How does a round of golf amongst the hallowed grounds of Pruitt-Igoe sound to you?

Yes, as recently as 2000, the city has floated the idea of removing large portions of the street grid in North St. Louis to build a suburban style, "urban oasis" that I suppose would cause people to abandon their McMansions in Chesterfield and resettle in the heart of North St. Louis. As a centerpiece of the redevelopment, the golf course would annihilate dozens of (admittedly depressed) blocks of the 19th C. street grid.

While not every aspect of the plan is moronic, it is frightening that some civic leaders are still trying to compete with St. Louis County in the "suburban wars." The city of St. Louis is being reborn because it offers something you can't get in the suburbs--the urban experience. Trying to reproduce the suburban experiencee in the city will always fail, because places like O'Fallon, St. Charles and Chesterfield do sprawl so much better than the city ever could.

And that's not a bad thing the city does sprawl poorly; it only serves to encourage the city to take a new-urbanist approach to revitalization.