Economic Issues

A Place at the Table probes rampant hunger in our land of plenty

St. Louis City-County Announcement: Our Guesses For The Big Development Plan

St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley and St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay are coming together this morning for a media event to "make a joint announcement that will impact future economic development efforts in the region." It's mayoral election season and the ongoing debates about a potential ci ... More >>

Hosed: A plan to overhaul the St. Louis Water Division leaves the Slay administration all wet

Homespun: Jumbling Towers

Jungle's Going to Be on My Mind
jumblingtowers.com

Watchdog Group Has Its Eye On Veolia, City's New Water Division Consultant

Earlier this week, we broke news that the St. Louis Water Division has chosen Veolia Water, a Paris-based company and the largest water services provider in the world, to guide cost-cutting at the utility. The final contract has not yet been awarded, but a longtime employee of the department provide ... More >>

Dancing Dandies and DeLoreans

Wanna Start a Business? St. Louis is One of the Best Places to Do It

With the recession still in full swing and likely to continue for several more years, it seems like it would be a foolhardy proposition to start up a small business. But there is something infinitely appealing in working for yourself -- particularly since that makes you immune to layoffs. And accord ... More >>

Preview "Spanish Lake": A Documentary on White Flight, Section 8 Housing and Decline

Phillip Andrew Morton grew up in Spanish Lake, studied film at Webster University and then headed to Hollywood, where he's produced videos for comic Katt Williams and edited trailers for movies like "Ocean's 13." But now, the 32-year-old is putting the finishing touches on a documentary about his ho ... More >>

Donna, St. Louis Zoo Elephant, Treated for Tuberculosis

This is not an actual photo of Donna.​Oh, you poor pachyderm! The St. Louis Zoo's 40-year-old Asian elephant, Donna, is being treated for tuberculosis. Dr. Randy Junge, director of animal health at the zoo, told the Post-Dispatch that the staff is hopeful Donna will make a full recovery. She's bei ... More >>

Stop Foreclosing on Our Homes! Activist Group Announces "People's Hearing," Tells Banks to Be Ready

The activist group MORE issued a summons to the banks, accusing them of crimes.​It may not be Cairo, but we've had our share of protesting lately, too. Last Friday a throng of activists assembled at the entrance of the downtown branch of Bank of America in support of foreclosure victims and m ... More >>

Food Safety Law Leads to Food Tracking Frenzy

Now that the federal food safety law is in effect, the Washington Post looks at what food producers are doing to meet new criteria for food traceability. The law requires all parts of the food distribution chain to be able to quickly trace where food items came from through electronic records to ... More >>

Busch's Grove Market (Version 2.0) Closing Saturday

www.buschsgrove.com​Busch's Grove, the restaurant, endured for more than a century. Busch's Grove, the upscale grocery store, will have a considerably shorter run: The store announced last week via its email newsletter that it would close for business after Saturday, January 8.(The Post-Dispat ... More >>

Homelessness in St. Louis: A Quick Primer

Daily RFT stumbled across this recently-uploaded student documentary today, and learned -- among other things -- that the nation's biggest shantytowns during the Great Depression were right here in STL. It's worth a look.

Students Protest Speech by Peabody Energy CEO Greg Boyce at Wash U Research Symposium

Photo by Keegan HamiltonWash U students had a message for Peabody Energy's Greg Boyce at the Symposium for Global Energy Future​Greg Boyce, CEO of Peabody Energy, the world's largest privately held coal company, stepped to a podium Saturday afternoon at Washington University's Symposium on Global ... More >>

Dr. Peanut: A St. Louis pediatrician battles child malnutrition in Haiti with peanut butter

Construction to Resume on Shriners Children's Hospital in CWE

Construction will finally resume later this year for the new Shriners Hospital for Children in the Central West End a year after the recession put the project on hold, the hospital's board announced on Tuesday. Image sourceAn artist rendering of the new Shriner's Hospital for Children, if it ever g ... More >>

Cardinals Ticket Prices Up 24 Percent in Secondary Market

​According to SeatGeek.com, a website which compiles data on the costs of tickets for various sporting and music events in the secondary market, the St. Louis Cardinals' overall ticket prices are up 24 percent going into 2010 over the second-half of last year. This should come as no surprise, ... More >>

Cents Less: Budget Cut of $7 Million Would Cost Missouri $38 Million in Federal Funds

Bill would send $38.7 million in federal funds down the crapper.​A budget bill making its way through Jefferson City could have a devastating impact on child care in Missouri.  Legislators in the Missouri House are looking to balance a projected $500-million budget gap for fiscal 2011. In so ... More >>

Holy Crap! Wash. U. Annual Tuition Rises to $39,400

Wikimedia CommonsWould you pay $50 grand a year to go here?​If you want to go to Washington University next year, you should aspire to be one of the following: 1) A stellar athlete, 2) Someone with phenomenal credit, 3) Super-rich or 4) Really good at proving to the people who give government gran ... More >>

Shocking Revelations in MovieMaker Magazine's List of Top 10 Cities for Filmmakers

Surely the people behind a magazine called MovieMaker would have seen Up in the Air. Surely those same people, if they were compiling a list of the ten best cities in the U.S. for moviemakers (or MovieMakers), would have taken note of how well St. Louis plays Omaha and several other middle-American ... More >>

Overhauled South Grand Wins Praise from Urban Planners for Being Completely Great Street

Astute city-watchers will have noticed some changes on the six-block stretch of South Grand Boulevard between Arsenal and Utah in the past few months: fewer driving lanes, new stoplight patterns, wider crosswalks and those weird little bulb things to keep impatient drivers from trying to cut ahead a ... More >>

That Pinnacle Casino Boss Who Tried to"Muscle" a St. Louis County Councilman? His Career Sleeps With the Fishes.

Last week, Daniel Lee, CEO of Vegas-based Pinnacle Entertainment, unsuccessfully attempted to "muscle" St. Louis County Councilman Steve Stenger into voting against re-zoning land in North St. Louis County to clear the way for the construction of a new casino by a Pinnacle rival. This morning, the P ... More >>

Conservation Area Casino Faces Final Vote by County Council Tomorrow

The construction of a sprawling 376-acre resort and casino next to the Columbia Bottom Conservation Area in North St. Louis County faces it's most critical vote yet tomorrow night.The St. Louis County Planning Commission already gave the initial go ahead to rezone the massive swath of land in a floo ... More >>

Review Setlists: Phosphorescent, Will Dailey, Ryan Bingham and the Dead Horses, Lukas Nelson, Jamey Johnson at Farm Aid, Sunday, October 4

The 24th annual Farm Aid started with the old-school gospel quartet harmonies of the Blackwood Brothers and enough warm sunshine to persuade all the family farms in Missouri -- the Show Me State has the second highest number of farms in the Union -- that their summer work is far from over. What Will ... More >>

The Awful Truth: Attn: Wall Street. Michael Moore is a Marxist (but he's still selling the same old shtick).

What to Expect When You're Expecting Economic Recovery

Dorothea Lange, courtesy of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum​In an interesting piece in the October Atlantic, Benjamin Schwarz surveys a collection of books about daily life during the Great Depression in an attempt to glean some lessons from the past about what we can exp ... More >>

That Little Light At the End of the Recession Tunnel is Actually Five Years Away

flickr.com/photos/mickdansforth​Last month, Macroeconomics Advisers, LLC, a Clayton-based economic consulting firm predicted that the recession should be ending just about now, with a significant caveat: We won't actually start to feel any relief until jobs start coming back.Economist Ben Herzon t ... More >>

Forum Tonight to Discuss Eminent Domain, Paul McKee's Northside Development Project

The North Side Community Benefits Alliance is inviting city residents to attend a forum tonight to discuss developer Paul McKee's massive redevelopment project for north St. Louis. ij.orgChristina Walsh​Leading tonight's meeting (6 p.m. at the Shining Light Pentecostal Church) will be Christina Wa ... More >>

Joe's trolley, the suffering of the Jews and a casino on bottomland

Maplewood Official is Cuckoo for Clooney

Yesterday, my colleague Kristen Hinman wrote an open letter to George Clooney after observing the actor dining at Niche restaurant last Saturday.Hinman's letter (published in Daily RFT) elicited a quick e-mail from Maplewood Community Development Director Rachelle L'Ecuyer who e-mailed in to tell us ... More >>

Business is Cooking at Local Crematories. Thank the Recession

Flickr Urn-ing your business.If things keep going the way the are, gravediggers will have to find something else to do with their shovels. As the recession deepens, families in increasing numbers, according to the National Funeral Directors Association, are taking their dead to cre ... More >>

And the Sign Said: Scary Masked People, Need Not Apply

Top 13 Non-Music Reasons to Attend the RFT Music Showcase

Three-Day-Old California Roll

$6.99
Straub’s
302 N. Kingshighway

The Economist on Food Costs

Mid-America Jihad?

Leaders of a now-defunct international aid charity face charges of funneling money to Iraq.

Kris Kristofferson

8 p.m. Wednesday, October 25. The Pageant (6161 Delmar Boulevard).

Lot in Life

William Peppes’ property suffered a plane crash and a murder. But eminent domain proved his toughest challenge.

Doubting Thomas

Alderman Tom Bauer's stealth schemes are raising eyebrows

Dirt Road to Hell

Hard rock steps into overalls

To Dwell in Possibility

A tour of the city with the Landmarks Association's Carolyn Toft presents views of what is and what could be

Base Motives

Well-heeled cities and developers keep TIF reform at bay

Throwing in the Towel

Under mounting pressure, a local nonprofit agency finally agrees to give up its contract to provide Head Start services to 2,500 preschoolers

SEEING THINGS

For a few lucky Wash. U. alumni, home is where the art is

Bringing Down the House

Neighbors want to buy and fix it. A building inspector recommends saving it. And yet the Housing Authority insists on tearing down 5950 Enright. The story of a house -- and a city's demolition craze.

Hotel Tab

The developers of the proposed downtown convention-hotel complex are asking for $116 million in public funding, but they refuse to guarantee that the jobs they create won't be mimimum-wage