People & Places >>

• Best St. Louisan of 2002
  Bob Jamerson
  The large man wearing fishnet tights, a pink tutu and a drum majorette's hat received a much warmer reception when he led the Pride Parade in Tower Grove Park this June than he did when he crashed the Hibernian parade in Dogtown on St. Paddy's Day. For some reason, the bagpipers in the... More >>
• Best Community Garden
  Soulard Community Garden
  There are so many pretty flowers planted in the Soulard Community Garden, located in the very depths of the Soulard jungle. The little rusty-cockle Spaniards are on the verge of emerging to shoot their fall fireworks; soon their berries will glow blue blue electric blue. Then they'll die -- they... More >>
• Best Local TV-Ad Personality
  Becky, Queen of Carpets
  The Schnucks guy? Terry Crouppen? Don Weber monotoning, "No money down!" In an audio-visual tar pit of car dealers, lighting specialists, clock-makers and personal-injury lawyers, one leader stands above this pack of personae, and she's Becky, Queen of Carpets. With a tiara that's quite... More >>
• Best Proof of Our Brilliant Genetic Ancestry
  Bellefontaine and Calvary Cemeteries
  Grab the tracing paper, charcoal sticks and fixative spray and head out to the Bellefontaine and Calvary Cemeteries for some of the oldest and most ornate gravestones around. Founded in 1849, in the Walnut Park area of North St. Louis, Bellefontaine contains more than 300 acres of old... More >>
• Best Talk-Radio Personality
  Charles Jaco, KMOX (1120 AM)
  Whether he's addressing the war on terror or child abduction, Charles Jaco just sounds authoritative -- he must know what he's talking about. And he does, because Jaco's been there and knows a few people there. "The man can talk about any subject," says fellow KMOX broadcaster McGraw Milhaven,... More >>
• Best Excuse for the Existence of John Ashcroft
  Missouri Heavy Metal
  The United States attorney general, the sword of the Lord leading the charge against al-Qaida and our Bill of Rights, is a genuine Missouri product, through and through. He's as much a part of our indigenous culture as mule-ass stubbornness, corncob-pipe-makin' and roll-throwin'. He was our... More >>
• Best Newspaper Columnist
  Richard Callow
  Although Mayor Francis Slay's favorite poison-pen PR assassin never gets a byline, it's impossible to read a Jerry Berger column these days without stepping into item after item shoveled into the maw of Bergermeister's prime newsprint pit by none other than the Callow One. Truth is, spotting the... More >>
• Best Street-Corner Preacher
  The Reverend Cecil Rogers
  Another sweltering day at Delmar and Kingshighway. People wait on buses, cars stop at traffic signals, an ambulance screams by. Above this din, one voice rises, the voice of the Reverend Cecil Rogers, fervent and booming. There's no ignoring him -- this man is broadcasting. Moved by the spirit... More >>
• Best Local Politician
  Richard Gephardt, U.S. Representative, 3rd District
  If Dick Gephardt is good enough for everybody else, who are St. Louisans to argue? The House minority leader and presidential candidate is often the go-to guy for the Sunday-morning network chat shows as one of the talking heads who does most of the talking for the national Democratic Party.... More >>
• Best Place to Seek Forgiveness
  From a Priest Who's Sinned
  The marble pedestal has crumbled, the pulpit's sunk below pew level, the flying buttresses can no longer support the weight of conscience. Truth tumbles down all over the Archdiocese of St. Louis: Our Roman Catholic priests are mere human beings -- a few of them outright criminals, others no... More >>
• Best Place to Stay Cool
  Meramec Caverns
  It's the oldest tourist trap on Route 66, and if you miss one of its umpteen trillion billboards along highways north, south, east and west, then you shouldn't be behind the wheel of a car. Meramec Caverns is an in-ground labyrinth of mineral deposits and caves that trail off into unique... More >>
• Best Weathercaster (1 Comment)
  Kent Ehrhardt, KMOV (Channel 4)
  We wake to weather, wade in its excesses, duck its surprises. We want it to be predictable so that we can organize our lives around it. We also want it to be unpredictable so that there's still something larger than we are, something majestic enough to overpower us, winds and rains torrential... More >>
• Best-Managed Government Office
  St. Louis Medical Examiner
  You'll never hear any complaints about this St. Louis government office, at least not from the people it was designed to serve. Yes, it is kinda hard to bitch when you're dead, but still, and that's not the only reason the St. Louis medical examiner's office gets our vote. It has a professional... More >>
• Best Place to Drive Slowly
  Off I-44, near the Shrewsbury exit
  Ah, the beauty of quilt-patch urban sprawl. Among a plethora of cities that arm themselves with radar guns to catch speeders doing 38 in a 35-mph zone, some should really be avoided. For years, Marlborough and Rock Hill were ranked speeders' enemies Number 1 and Number 2, costing precious points... More >>
• Best Reason to Live in St. Louis
  Ghosts
  There's no place like home, there's no place like home, but what makes us want to live here and not there? What makes us come back after an absence? What keeps us here after we've earned a diploma or completed a job? Why do some of us never leave? Try ticking off the reasons -- and it's... More >>
• Best Non-News Event That Received Saturation Coverage
  Hell's Angels party, Kountry Corner Tavern, Millstadt, Illinois, June 15, 2002
  The St. Louis Post-Dispatch ran no fewer than five stories in the days before, after and during the big event, which featured sloppy joes, hotdogs, potato chips, a live band and all the beer you could drink for $10. Three Posties worked together to cover the party itself. The Belleville... More >>
• Best Place to Shop for a Wedding Dress
  Tower Grove Park
  If ever you are waltzing through Tower Grove Park on a Saturday afternoon, you may happen upon a curious vision. As you walk amid the flora, fauna and din of parties and picnics, soundtracked by the soulful bleating of car stereos -- hark!, what white through yonder limos breaks? It's a... More >>
• Best Place for a First Date
  Fairmount Park
  It's only appropriate to spend a first date at Fairmount Park, because both are definitely a gamble, with the odds against you. Pick a horse, plunk down some money and then enjoy two minutes of wild excitement while you wonder whether your pony will prevail or peter out. As for the awkward... More >>
• Best Urban Myth
  How Dogtown Got Its Name
  It's a puzzler. Was it a pack of stray dogs that patrolled the streets in the 1800s and swept away small children? Did a sudden crime wave prompt resident coal miners of this working-class neighborhood to keep guard dogs in their back yards? Or the most widely held belief: Could it have been the... More >>
• Best Place for a White Guy to Work
  Rent-A-Center
  If Rent-A-Center could've gotten away with it, the company might have placed "help wanted" ads seeking young white men with college educations to help drive female employees from the company. Job requirements would've included a firm grasp of derogatory language; the ability to harass and... More >>
• Best Member of the Loyal Opposition
  Jeanette Mott Oxford
  In one corner stood the mayor, the Board of Aldermen, the governor, billionaire baseball owners, Dick Gephardt, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Jack Buck, Ozzie Smith and the best lobbyists money can buy. In the other corner stood opponents of a publicly funded baseball stadium for the St. Louis... More >>
• Best Thoroughfare for Dodging Traffic at Any Hour
  Arsenal Street
  St. Louis traffic is mild compared with that in Chicago, New York or Los Angeles when it comes to transportation planning and managing urban sprawl. Still, there are a couple of totally annoying elements of the daily asphalt grind: way too many four-way stops and looooooong stoplights. Zip a... More >>
• Best Place for a Last Date
  Lobby, Ritz-Carlton
  Endings should not melt into sticky grudges and shapeless self-pity. Endings should be as airy as molasses puffs, their memories as sharp and pleasant as bittersweet chocolate. But to guarantee civilized behavior, one requires civilized circumstances: a place where no one dares slap or cuss or... More >>
• Best Place to Slip an Out-of-Towner Some Acid
  City Museum
  Holy Hunter S., man. Little goblins dressed up as children scream and run past you. A freaky nightmare snake coils around the balcony -- did you hear what he just said? The bathrooms have a coat of armor created from stainless steel, like, steam-table pans -- it's sooo smooooth, man -- and you... More >>
• Best Example of Wasted Taxpayer Money
  Angela Coffel
  Imagine someone so dangerous that she must be guarded by two people 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Someone so frightening that she has her very own wing because another prisoner or mental-health patient might be her next victim. Meet Angela Coffel, the 24-year-old HIV-positive woman whose... More >>
• Best Concept to Boost Civic Pride
  St. Louis Litteracy Project
  When we saw him in April during the opening of the Fort Gondo Compound for the Arts, Galen Gondolfi was hunched in a small cage, wearing a thrift-store suit and begging for biscuits. The performance artist was a bad dog that evening; he spilled his water. Now he's making up for his misbehavior,... More >>
• Best Place to Watch Virile Kilted Men
  St. Louis Scottish Games and Cultural Festival
  Anyone who's suffered a steamy St. Louis August day waiting in the interminable potato-pancake line at the St. Louis Strassenfest or melted into a pool of sweat trying to focus on any one of a dozen outdoor activities can appreciate the sensibility of these noble Scots. Not only did they time it... More >>
• Best Hair on a Local TV Personality (Female)
  Jennifer Davis, KTVI (Channel 2)
  Sometimes we don't see Jennifer Davis for weeks at a time -- she's a general-assignment reporter, not an anchor-twit, so her schedule's not fixed -- and even though we know she's probably off on some girl-reporter-type adventure, we often find ourselves worrying that she's been whisked away by... More >>
• Best Way to Raise Funds for Eastward Delmar Loop Expansion
  Jack Up the Price of Parking Meters
  Go to most cities of comparable or larger size than the Lou, and you will find that a quarter in a parking meter will buy you fifteen minutes -- if you're lucky. Yet, pull your rig curbside on the action-packed Delmar Loop, on both sides of the University City border, and a quarter gets you... More >>
• Best Historic Attraction
  Daniel Boone Home and Boonesfield Village
  To get a different view of the heritage of this region, venture outside the city and see what Lindenwood University has undertaken. It's created a National Center for the Study of American Culture and Values at the university and has gathered and reconstructed a wilderness community behind the... More >>
• Best View of Downtown
  Poplar Street Bridge, 4:30 a.m.
  The city in its splendor is meant to be viewed from the east looking west. And even with the spectrum reduced by half, there are still plenty of awesome outlooks. Coming in on I-64 just before the juncture of I-55, you go over a rise and, suddenly, there she is, shimmering in the sun like El... More >>
• Best TV-Sports Anchor
  Martin Kilcoyne, KTVI (Channel 2)
  The "St. Louis stranglehold" that Martin Kilcoyne talks about has nothing to do with professional wrestling, though it has about the same depth. When it comes to sports, most viewers watch Mike Bush on KSDK (Channel 5) or Steve Savard on KMOX (Channel 4). But Kilcoyne isn't sweating... More >>
• Best Exposé by a P-D Vet
  Theater Sneaks
  When Lou Rose -- dead ringer for TV's Columbo -- retired, the job of being the Post-Dispatch's intrepid ink-stained snoop fell on Michael Sorkin, one of the paper's toughest cookies. Sorkin did the down-and-dirty with the best. His only handicap? He was stuck at the P-D. With Rose, Sorkin helped... More >>
• Best Hair on a Local TV Personality (Male)
  Larry Conners, KMOV (Channel 4)
  With his few remaining silver-flecked chestnut strands pushed discreetly back and trimmed closely at the sides, Larry Conners isn't just bald, he's unrepentantly bald. No comb-overs, no deep side parts, no sad toupées, no drastic Hans Wiemann-style turf-plugs for him, no sirree. Clearly... More >>
• Best Men's Room
  Ritz-Carlton Hotel
  For anyone who finds himself in the position that he has to make a pit stop and he can hold it in long enough to reach the Ritz-Carlton, we wholeheartedly recommend the hotel's crappers. As you enter the ground-floor green-marbled sanctum sanctorum, you'll be pleased to note the individually... More >>
• Best Nondenominational Hitching Post
  Piper Palm House
  Rachel Topfer, events coordinator for Tower Grove Park, says a love of quaint surroundings is the most frequently cited reason for scheduling nuptials in the 134-year-old park. "Many times," she says, "I hear, 'It's the garden setting I've always wanted.'" The Piper Palm House, situated near the... More >>
• Best Media Power Couple
  David Clohessy and Laura Barrett
  If you didn't see David Clohessy's name in print or his face on the 10 o'clock news this year, you weren't paying attention. Clohessy was the point man for the Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests, and local and national media beat a path to the humble Maplewood abode he shares with his... More >>
• Best Porches
  Edwardsville, Illinois
  Edwardsville has its share of mansions with balconies and verandas, but mostly the town is dominated by modest, tree-shrouded bungalows and crackerbox houses. When the cicadas reach mid-July fever pitch, nearly loud enough to drown out the whir of fans and air conditioning, the homes seem like... More >>
• Best TV-News Anchor (1 Comment)
  Vickie Newton, KMOV (Channel 4)
  Snatching a newsreader with big-market chops to replace Myriam Wright, who quit, was a coup for our local CBS affiliate. Vickie Newton, who made her Lou debut in January, now shares boob-tube time with Larry "M*A*S*H" Conners and Julius "Jabba the Hutt" Hunter. And, according to early returns,... More >>
• Best Addition to the St. Louis Zoo
  Capybaras
  The capybara is a rodent Rorschach test. Hang around the enclosure they share with the giant anteater for a while, and you'll hear much speculation as to what manner of beast this be. Children tend to the cuddly end of the spectrum, whereas adults tend to know a brother rat when they see one.... More >>
• Best Ladies' Room
  Plaza Frontenac
  On the bottom floor of Plaza Frontenac, tucked beneath a staircase, sits a marvel of modern invention: a proper ladies' room. Back in the days when department-store shopping was a white-glove event and floorwalkers attended shoppers, the ladies' room was a plush place for the weary shopper to... More >>
• Best License Plate
  FOGHAT
  A mid-'90s black Pontiac, containing a forty- or fiftysomething white man and woman (surprise, surprise) was spotted, moving slooow and taking it really easy, no doubt because the occupants choose to live the Foghat Life. It's one thing to like Foghat, dig their classics -- "Slow Ride," "Fool... More >>
• Best Innovative Idea by a Politician to Be Killed by a Judge
  Making Public Records Accessible Over the Internet
  When St. Louis Circuit Clerk Mariano Favazza came up with the idea of making public court records accessible over the Internet, it was a stroke of genius. A public servant actually doing something to serve the public was enough to give the most coldly cynical taxpayer the warm fuzzies. But St.... More >>
• Best View From Work
  Light-Bulb Changer Chuck Kalert
  While executives vie for cushy views from power lairs in the Metropolitan Building and judges gaze on lovely vistas from the new Eagleton Federal Courthouse, one man's job affords him a 360-degree panorama. For eleven years, Chuck Kalert has been the primary light-bulb changer at the Gateway... More >>
• Best (and Only) Trailer Park
  Mid-Lin Trailer Park
  Mid-Lin has the distinction of being the only trailer park listed in the greater St. Louis phone book, but it wins our "best of" for all mobile home communities, ranches, villages, acres, estates, courts and manors. The trailer park that's not afraid to call itself such is located near the... More >>