Scenes from ONSLRG’s Annual Meeting & Potluck Supper

On Monday night we hosted a full house of residents and friends for Old North St. Louis Restoration Group’s Annual Meeting & Potluck Supper.

Board President Tino Ochoa discusses the plans for the Old North Grocery Co-op.

Kathleen Parvis, Marketing Committee Chair, announced plans for a bigger and better Old North House & Community Tour, scheduled for Sat., May 8.

In addition to a slide show of highlights from the past year and a preview of coming attractions, ONSLRG’s members elected 5 individuals to serve on the Board of Directors for the 2010-2012 term.  Re-elected to the Board were Tino Ochoa, John Burse, Johnnie Owens, and Kathryn Bentley.  Also elected was Brian Krueger, one of the most active volunteers at the 13th Street Community Garden and the North City Farmers’ Market. 

The meeting also was an ideal occasion to recognize neighbors who have made significant contributions to the quality of life in Old North over the past year.   Good Neighbor Awards were presented to Graham Lane and Ben Sever, who tirelessly gave of their time to numerous projects, including the Macho Action Group clean-ups, set-up at the North City Farmers’ Market, service on multiple committees, and opening their homes for tours on a regular basis; and to Kathleen Parvis, who took the lead on last year’s House & Community Tour and recruited scores of SLU students to assist with neighborhood clean-up and garden projects as part of their law school orientation week.

As usual, though, the highlight for many was the feast of casseroles, cakes, biscuits, and salads from the kitchens of neighbors and friends, and the chance to share a meal with new and long-time neighbors on a cold, wintery evening.

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Crown Square Wins Development of Year Award

On Friday, Mayor Francis Slay and St. Louis Development Corporation executive director Rodney Crim presented a Development of the Year Award to Crown Square at the city’s annual Business Celebration luncheon.  Crown Square is being co-developed by the Old North St. Louis Restoration Group (ONSLRG) and the Regional Housing & Community Development Alliance (RHCDA).  The $35 million, 27 building redevelopment of the former 14th Street Pedestrian Mall is nearing completion.

Shown on the big screen at the America's Center Ballroom at Friday's luncheon, Mayor Slay (on the left) and SLDC Executive Director Rodney Crim (on the right) presented the award to RHCDA President Stephen Acree, ONSLRG Executive Director Sean Thomas, and RHCDA Project Manager Aaron Burnett.

Celebrating the recognition for Crown Square were ONSLRG's Board President Tino Ochoa, Aaron Burnett of RHCDA, Sean Thomas of ONSLRG, Stephen Acree of RHCDA, Mike Harris, CEO of general contrator E.M. Harris Construction Co., and Phil Krull, Vice President at E.M. Harris.

Watch this site in the coming week for more photos of the progress achieved at Crown Square.

The Crown Square revitalization and Old North also got some attention from the city in the St. Louis Development Corporation’s 2009 Annual Report, which was passed out at Friday’s luncheon and inserted into this week’s edition of the St. Louis Business Journal.   The annual report features a front page photo of Phil Valko, ONSL resident and founder of the Urban Studio Cafe; an inside photo of Crown Candy; and on page, a profile of the Crown Square project (identified as Crown Village) as an example of a new and positive development in the city’s neighborhoods .

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Scenes from Vegtabalooza at North City Farmers’ Market

The following shots capture a little of the spirit and fun of Saturday’s Vegtabalooza at the North City Farmers’ Market.  (Check back to this post later for updated captions of people in the photos)

Fresh veggies from the 13th Street Community Garden

Ray Ray and James of City Seeds kept busy with a steady flow of customers

Contest judges tasting the apple pie entries.

Best vegetarian dish winner

Best Tomato winners

Strangest Looking Vegetable winners

Apple Pie Contest winners

Dickherber family with one mighty big pumpkin

The Lettuce Heads performing for the Vegtabalooza crowd

A good time was had by all.

Although Vegtabalooza is over, the North City Farmers’ Market continues EVERY Saturday morning through the last Saturday in October.  Come back next week for more farm-fresh food, children’s activities, live entertainment, and cool people.

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Come One, Come All to Vegtablooza ‘09 - Sat., Sept. 12!

If you’ve never been to the North City Farmers’ Market, or even if you’ve been every week, this week’s market is one not to be missed!  Come on out tomorrow, Saturday, Sept. 12, from 9 a.m. until noon for a great celebration of farm-fresh food and a taste of a community in the midst of a phenomenal rebirth. 

So, what is a Vegtablooza?  This special event is our city’s “first festival celebrating fruits and vegetables”, with great musical entertainment, free food tastings and cooking demonstrations, and contests galore - including prizes for best apple pie, best tomato, best vegetarian or vegan dish, strangest fruit or vegetable, biggest fruit or vegetable.  If you’ve got a great recipe for a delicious apple pie, bring your pie and enter it in the contest.  If you’ve got something else that might qualify for any of the other contests, please bring it along, and who knows, you might go home with a prize!

Feel free to click and save this flyer and forward to everyone you know!

Come on by to buy some food (you’ve got to get your groceries anyway, so why not get something healthy and fresh, and support a good cause and have fun all at the same time?) and stay for the festivities.  This week’s food will include watermelons, tomatoes, fingerling potatoes, okra, banana peppers, acorn squash, delicata squash, basil, mint, coriander, and much, much more!

In addition to our usual live music (starting at 9:45 a.m.), we’ll have children’s activities (including face painting and pictures with the Giant Carrot) and free health screenings by Grace Hill Health Center’s mobile health van. 

Tell your neighbors, bring the kids, and join in the celebration!  The market takes place every Saturday morning along the south side of the intersection of N. 14th Street and St. Louis Avenue, right across the street from Crown Candy Kitchen and at the edge of the Crown Square redevelopment of the former 14th Street Pedestrian Mall.

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Congratulations to the Cox Family for Most Enhanced Award

On Friday evening Landmarks Association of St. Louis presented their annual “Most Enhanced Awards” for redevelopment projects that are worthy of attention and praise for preserving and restoring historic properties.  And once again the good folks at Landmarks directed that spotlight toward Old North St. Louis - this time to the property at 1416 Hebert, owned and redeveloped by James and Luz Maria Cox.  In fact, the alley house at 1416 Hebert was featured on the cover of the program for the award celebration.

Before and after shots of the alley house at 1416 Hebert, on the cover of the Most Enhanced Awards Celebration program

A good crowd of Old North residents and friends joined James and Luz Maria at the awards ceremony to show their support for the individuals and families who have and are continuing to make Old North St. Louis a great place to live.

Ben Schartman, Matt Fernandez, Tom Tschetter, Luz Maria & James Cox, Jeanne & Ernie Stanley on Friday evening.

The investments made by James and Luz Maria represent yet another example of how Old North is changing for the better, sometimes one property at at time or one block at a time.  The photos below show the changes on just one block, with 1416 at the far right.

Just a few years ago, the 1400 block of Hebert was marked by many vacant, deteriorating buildings.

Now, the 1400 block of Hebert is one of the most solid in Old North St. Louis.

Congratulations to James and Luz Maria and all of their friends, neighbors, volunteers, and contractors who made their home worthy of the Most Enhanced Award.

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House & Community Tour - Just 3 Days Away! And Some Good Media Coverage Too

Word is spreading like wildfire, with a lot of media folks starting to pick up on how impressive everything is in Old North St. Louis - and how all of it will be on display this coming Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Old North St. Louis House & Community Tour.   See below for some links to recent media coverage, but first we would like to offer a sneak preview of one of the buildings along Crown Square that will be open on the day of the tour:

The historic rehab of the building at 2607 N. 14th is almost complete. It will offer some phenomenal apartments and fantastic commercial space.

In March of 2008, the building was in pretty sad shape.

This type of redevelopment is winning support from all over the place.   Just this morning, Charlie Brennan had some very kind things to say about the great progress being achieved in Old North St. Louis on his KMOX radio program.  As of today, you can find a link to his interview with Sean Thomas, ONSLRG’s executive director, on the KMOX webpage - or you can click right here to listen: charliebrennanshow050609reonslhousetour

The KMOX website features a link to today's show with comments about the Old North St. Louis House & Community Tour.

Meanwhile, a publication called St. Louis Construction News and Real Estate not only commends the Crown Square development, they have decided to present the development team with their Regional Excellence Award for Neighborhood Redevelopment.  You can read more about that on their website by clicking here.  The judges noted that Crown Square is “one of the largest and most exciting neighborhood redevelopment projects in the city.  In addition to breathing new life into the abandoned buildings along the former mall, this development will restore the 2600 and 2700 blocks of  N. 14th Street as a drivable but pedestrian-friendly street.”  Congratulations to all, including Old North St. Louis Restoration Group’s co-developers, RHCDA, our general contractor, E. M. Harris Construction Co., and architects, Rosemann & Associates.

Come see what the buzz is all about on Saturday, May 9 at the Old North St. Louis House & Community Tour.  Click right here for more details or to purchase your tickets online.

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Old North called “one of country’s best revitalization stories”

For the the third time in less than a year, Kaid Benfield has taken note of the revitalization under way in Old North St. Louis.  As the director of the Smart Growth Program at the Natural Resources Defense Council, Kaid has spent considerable time looking at and studying cities across the country, and he regularly shares his perspective on good policies and effective strategies for achieving sustainable development.  Last week Kaid used his blog to highlight the progress being made in Old North.

Kaid mentions that he could barely contain his enthusiasm last year when he discovered what has been going on in Old North, and offers his take on the neighborhood’s redevelopment: ”it is being brought back in a thoughtful, inclusive, diverse, grassrootsy sort of way, but with some terrific organizational support from the Old North Restoration Group and financial investment from the Regional Housing and Community Development Alliance, among bevy of supporters.”

In highlighting the success of Old North, Kaid makes his case that “no other single category of activity is more important to sustainable development thant revitalization.  When done properly, it’s great for residents old and new, great for cities, and great for the environment.”   

You can read Kaid’s full blog entry on the NRDC website - and take a look at some of the pictures of ONSL that he’s discovered and re-posted…and then you can come see it all for yourself at the Old North St. Louis House and Community Tour on Saturday, May 9.

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Old North on MayorSlay.com

Old North St. Louis is the subject of the most recent St. Louis Traffic video on MayorSlay.com. St. Louis Traffic is a series of videos produced by Carson Minow. Interviews include ONSLRG Executive Director Sean Thomas and neighborhood residents Michael Allen and Johnnie Owens. You can download the video directly here, or check out the rest of the videos here.

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Mullanphy Emigrant Home Wins "Best Of" Award

The Mullanphy Emigrant Home has won the Best Lost Cause in the annual Best of St. Louis edition of the Riverfront Times.

While far from an actual lost cause, here is what the RFT had to say.

The Mullanphy Emigrant Home

www.savemullanphy.org

Built in 1867 to house the Mullanphy Traveller’s Aid Fund, the Mullanphy Emigrant Home has played many roles during its 140-year history: schoolhouse, warehouse, motorcycle repair shop, cause célebre. The building’s most recent turn came on April 2, 2006, when a fierce storm collapsed its south wall. The landmark’s imminent demise prompted a small knot of historic preservationists to launch a campaign to try to save it. But on March 31 of this year, a second storm further damaged the building, sinking portions of the north and east walls. Still, the preservationists have, well, persevered. They now estimate that it will cost $350,000 to repair the walls. Fundraising efforts had raised $57,000 at last check. The good news: The west wall appears to be holding up. For now.

Now we will just wait for our award check. Oh, that’s right, there is no award check. Well, we certainly could use a few checks for Mullanphy (although the RFT article is already out-of-date, since our contributions now total $63,000). If you would like to make a donation to the cause, or just learn a little more, head over to http://www.savemullanphy.org/. And every dollar we collect for the cause will make it that much more likely that the Mullanphy building will be recognized as the “Best Comeback” in the RFT’s 2008 “Best of” awards.

By the way, we would argue about the winner of the Best View of Downtown, but we won’t hold any grudges.

Congratulations also go’s out to Old North’s Michael Allen.

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ONSL’s Phil Valko Honored as One of “30 Under 30”

Congratulations to ONSL resident and ONSLRG Board Treasurer Phil Valko for his selection as one of the St. Louis Business Journal’s “30 Under 30” for 2007. The annual list honors St. Louisans under the age of 30 who are making a mark on our region through their careers or community involvement. The selection committee took note of Phil’s work as active living program manager at Trailnet, his founding of The Urban Studio, and his service on the Board at ONSLRG. Take a look at the full profile of Phil in this week’s issue of the St. Louis Business Journal.

Among the comments that made their way into print were Phil’s observations on why he has chosen to live in ONSL:

“I am rehabbing a beautiful 145-year-old stack of sticks and bricks in Old North St. Louis. Old North has an incredible sense of community; it’s diverse, full of creativity, and it is in the process of a remarkable, resident-driven revitalization. Plus, I can hop on my bike and be in downtown in 10 minutes, on the Riverfront Trail in five minutes or at the North City Farmers’ Market in two minutes.”

The full story (including details about the other “30 Under 30” honorees) can be found in the print edition of the St. Louis Business Journal, and online for subscribers.
On most Saturdays Phil can be found at the North City Farmers’ Market, coordinating activities of The Urban Studio or engrossed in a game of chess.

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