“I started listening to their music a few months ago and it really just fuckin’ touches you and makes you feel what they are feeling.”

Paul was a new resident at that time, and he had not received his recycling bin from the city yet. New Town not only recycles, but we have the best recycling program I have seen in the St. Louis area. The recycling in New Town picks up pretty much everything: all plastics, all glass, all papers, even junk mail. I have lived in various parts of St. Louis, including University City, and they all had restrictions on what papers and plastics they would accept.

While he did not state anything patently untrue and because you were simply quoting, I find that choice to be extremely misleading. Anyone uninformed who reads that will interpret it to mean that New Town doesn't recycle! The green nature of New Town was one of its draws for me, so I find something that misleads readers about the environmental aspects of New Town to be extremely frustrating.
Kelly Steinmann, St. Charles

What makes a community?I have mixed feelings about New Town, which I think the article played out very well. We have friends that recently moved there and love it. Out of curiosity we drove out there. After having a great deal of trouble finding it, we were not that impressed. There is no diversity or much creativity. The fact remains that there are places in St. Louis that could have incorporated the already existing developments. This is true in Ferguson, where there is already diversity and character.

As new business owners of a coffee shop in Ferguson, my husband and I are excited about the direction of the city and the ways it is fostering a community. We have a farmers' market, local churches, parades, a downtown district and more. It is possible. But in New Town we see the perfect example of people creating the community they want, where they can do it their way and not foster diversity and creativity.

Good luck to them, but too bad for the dying communities we already have.
Margaret Zamudio, Ferguson

Clarification "Twice Is Nice," Rose Martelli's June 29 review of Mike Johnson's new twin restaurants, Mira and Roxane, stated that Johnson owns Cyrano's in Webster Groves. Johnson has an 8 percent stake in the restaurant, which is co-owned by Charlie and Carolyn Downs. Carolyn Downs, pastry chef at Cyrano's, provides desserts for Mira and Roxane and has an ownership stake in those restaurants.