Report from the 28th
Last night's fundraiser for 28th Ward Alderman Lyda Krewson was a capacity crowd at Joe Edwards' Pin Up Bowl in the Delmar Loop, raising an estimated $30,000 for her spring 2007 re-election campaign.
The event marked an early burial for potential challengers. In her brief remarks, Krewson highlighted the projects and improvements in the 28th Ward over the past few years, and to big cheers, reported that the owners of the Chase Park Plaza had announced more than $140 million additional investment into the Park Plaza scheduled to begin in the next few months.
Greeting guests at the door was Mayor Francis Slay, assisted by Krewson's kids, Taylor and Jack, and UMSL political science professor Lana Stein.
The crowd included a veritable who's who of the 28th Ward's Skinker DeBaliviere and CWE neighborhoods including stalwarts Marge and Brad Weir, Pete Littlefield (whose wife once ran against Krewson) with Daughter Susan; Lu Green, Art Perry, Marv Nodiff, Nancy Rice, Dr. Fred Couts; Committeewoman Betul Ozmat with husband Billy Handmaker; Chief Joe Mokwa;Tom & Karleen Hoerr, Bob Dolgin, former First Lady Lois Schoemehl and Mayor Vince, former Mayor Jim Conway, Regional Arts ED Jill McGuire with former Alderman Dan; Gregory Smith; Richard and Jill Claybour; Vince Bennett; Tricia & Lou Hamilton; Patrick McCarthy, Committeeman Joe Kaveny, Harvey Citerman, AL and Shirley Polk; Eugene Wallace; former committee people George and Rose Storey and scores of other neighborhood activists.
Among the other movers and shakers were Tom Reeves, whose Pulaski Bank recently acquired Central West End Bank; Developers Pete Rothschild and Mark Jaffe; Aldermen Lewis Reed, Steve Gregali, Jennifer Florida and Steve Conway; Brandon Jones, aide to Pres. Jim Shrewsbury; Patrick Deaton, lawyer-husband of Shrewsbury aide Pam Ross; Attorney Mark Levison, Muny Chief Denny Regan; Impresario David Zeiser; Bob and Recorder of Deeds Sharon Carpenter; Collector of Revenue-in-Waiting Gregg Daly; Russ Carnahan aide, and 6th Ward Alderman hopeful Kacie Triplett with her dad "BIG JOHN" Triplett, political director for the Pipe fitters Union Local 562; Building and Construction Trades Council President Jerry Feldhaus; Taxi Commission Director Mike Tully and his wife Nancy; and of course blogger and valet vigilante Steve Patterson.
Simple correction: Lana Stein is the Department Chair of Political Science at UMSL and she has authored St. Louis Politics: The Triumph of Tradition, City Schools and City Politics: Institutions and Leadership in Pittsburgh, Boston, and St. Louis, and Holding Bureaucrats Accountable: Politicians and Professionals in St. Louis. She is also a resident of the 28th Ward.
Posted by Douglas Duckworth on Thu., Oct 5, 2006 at 1:07 AMWhy is Patterson supporting Krewson? She is a backer of CORTEX and the Forest Park lease, not to mention someone who voted against the civilian oversight board.
Posted by asking on Thu., Oct 5, 2006 at 11:50 AM"Why is Patterson supporting Krewson? She is a backer of CORTEX and the Forest Park lease, not to mention someone who voted against the civilian oversight board."
Krewson invited me to the event but I told her I would not be making any financial contribution. I was not there to hob knob or pose for photos with the power elite. I used my time there to bend ears on issues important to me.
Krewson supports things I do not support but I am able to dialog with her in a way that few others in office are open to doing. That said, I had a good conversation with Ald Conway and Ald Reed, neither of whom I had previously met. I have been critical of both in the past yet we were able to have a good dialog over issues. I also exchanged pleasantries with Ald. Florida and Ald Gregali, two that I have been highly critical of.
My presense at an event does not indicate support anymore than Dave Drebes or another from the ACC or Antonio French from PubDef indicates they support a function they are covering.
Posted by Urban Review on Thu., Oct 5, 2006 at 2:00 PMAsking: What is the problem with Cortex? I'm not being rhetorical or argumentative, I truly don't know what the objection is. Can you explain?
Posted by Mary Riley on Thu., Oct 5, 2006 at 4:28 PM"What is the problem with Cortex?"
CORTEX is a massive blighting of land with the right of eminent domain. A very attractive and historic warehouse building is about to be razed within the district and because of the provisions of the plan the Preservation Board is unable to review the merits of the building and potentially prevent domolition.
The area is mostly south of Forest Park Parkway and east of BJC hospital complex.
Posted by Urban Review on Thu., Oct 5, 2006 at 11:21 PMCORTEX reminds me of Earth City.
Posted by Douglas Duckworth on Fri., Oct 6, 2006 at 11:01 AMOf course, one might also quibble with the fact that Lyda Krewson works for an urban-planning consulting firm called PGAV (Peckham, Guyton, Alberts & Viets) that makes lots of money off suburban "blighting" and TIF deals of questionable economic benefit to the St. Louis region as a whole and declaring open season on tons of affordable housing in the suburbs.
Then again, her job there is as a senior-level accountant, not as a planner. So you can't really say she has much to do with the decisions about what jobs the firm takes. She just happens to work there; maybe she even privately criticizes their urban-planning work, I don't know.
Posted by Joe Frank on Sat., Oct 7, 2006 at 11:44 AM
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