Local News

It’s Official, St. Louis Is a Better City Than New York

Published

2 years ago

January 24, 2023

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click to enlarge St. Louis is truly a great city — after all, Twitter said so.

It’s true that New York, New York, is a hell of a town — and, sure, if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere. But when it comes to great American cities, St. Louis has New York City licked.

Witness the results of a very recent, very hotly contested Twitter poll pitting New York (and New Jersey!) against St. Louis. More than 22,000 votes came in — and we crushed the Big Apple into sauce. Final tally was 53.9 percent to 46.1 percent! And everybody knows Twitter polls are never wrong. (Right, Elon?)

The poll was part of an “American cities bracket” dreamed up by a guy who goes by TheSpanishFlu (his official Twitter handle is the equally appealing @_fat_ugly_rat_). This poor Texan decided to pit cities against each other for sport, and apparently assumed buzzy Texas cities like Austin and San Antonio would crush St. Louis.

It’s a good assumption only if you’re not familiar with St. Louis Twitter. St. Louis Twitter is very much a thing. It’s active, it’s passionate, and it’s insistent that only St. Louisans can talk shit about St. Louis, thankyouverymuch. So when St. Louis made a good showing, and TheSpanishFlu responded by tweeting that the city “absolutely sucks” — strangely suggesting the “only good midwestern cities are Chicago, Madison, Lansing, Grand Rapids, and Minneapolis” —- he awakened a digital kraken. It didn’t help when he followed that slam by suggesting St. Louis had a “cool downtown area but the rest is so shit it’s not even funny” — a tweet that had a whole lot of St. Louisans laughing … and which only led to more people seeing the poll and deciding the city’s honor was at stake.Having *a* cool neighborhood doesn’t make it a good cityLike yeah St Louis has a cool downtown area but the rest is so shit it’s not even funny— TheSpanishFlu🗳 (@_fat_ugly_rat_) January 16, 2023
Thus awakened, not only did St. Louis crush Austin and San Antonio, but we clobbered San Diego and moved into the semi-finals against the New York metro area with a big old chip on our shoulder. Even TheSpanishFlu was impressed:
Man St Louis twitter is really annoying but they definitely are dedicated to the bit pic.twitter.com/OnvoM50e7w— TheSpanishFlu🗳 (@_fat_ugly_rat_) January 17, 2023

Now, if you know anything about St. Louis, it’s that we do not let go of beefs. We’re still arguing about shit from 1876, for God’s sake. New York — with all that culture and nightlife and other things to do beyond worrying about a Twitter poll run by an account with 5,000 followers — didn’t have a chance.

Sure enough, even U.S. Rep. Cori Bush and Mayor Tishaura Jones weighed in over the weekend on this one. St. Louis vs. errrrbody! No wonder we won.

Now the true test is at hand. In the finals, St. Louis will go head to head with Chicago. The best-paid showrunners in Hollywood couldn’t have written it better. Can we claim the spot as the No. 1 American city? The competition will be fierce. Bragging rights will be … negligible. But we’re in it to win it — and you can bet we’re going to keep fighting until long after Chicago has collapsed into a pile of drunken vomit (as Chicagoans are known to do). And hey, “St. Louis Is the Greatest American City, Says TheSpanishFlu Poll” certainly has a very nice ring to it.

Scroll down for some of the best Twitter reactions to St. Louis’ Battle of the Century with New York — and surprise victory.

St. Louis. Owners of the gooey butter cake, bread sliced bagels, tasty fake cheese, blues music and hockey, summers in red, and now… TWITTER POLLS!— Dan Buffa (@buffa82) January 22, 2023 I’ve created 287 unique Twitter accounts to stuff the ballot box. Do your part and lead St. Louis to victory. https://t.co/eXuAejuiZQ— Tony (@TonyInStLouis) January 22, 2023 Winning is when your midsized midwestern city beats San Diego in January in a city v. city poll designed by a guy who hates your city. 159K people viewed the StL/SD poll and over 7K voted. It was heavily retweeted. It was low-stakes StL Twitter organizing at its low-stakes best. pic.twitter.com/RNGAB7VVGN— Colette Higgins (@ColetteHigginsE) January 20, 2023 Going to be hilarious when ExploreSTL runs a nationwide ad declaring that “fans of the SpanishFlu vote St.Louis as the best city in American”— Denis Beganovic (@Beganovic2022) January 22, 2023 me normally: st louis is my home but it has some serious flaws on social, political, & economic levels that need a lot of work to address me when stl is in a twitter poll: ON THE 8TH DAY GOD GAVE US ST LOUIS RAHHHHHHH NO ONE CAN STOP US SUIIIIIIIII— gabe, allegedly (@untiloasis) January 22, 2023 NY can still win if Mike Pence has the courage.— Kerthorok 🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 (@Kerthorok) January 22, 2023

Local News

Fenton Man Charged in Sword Attack on Roommate

Published

10 months ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

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A warrant is out for a Fenton man’s arrest after he allegedly attacked his roommate with a sword.

Police say that on Sunday, Angelus Scott spoke openly about “slicing his roommate’s head” before he grabbed a sword, raised it up and then swung it down at the roommate.

The roommate grabbed Scott’s hand in time to prevent injury. When police arrived at the scene, they found the weapon used in the assault.

The sword in question was a katana, which is a Japanese sword recognizable for its curved blade.

This isn’t the first time a samurai-style sword has been used to violent effect in St. Louis. In 2018, a man hearing voices slaughtered his ex-boyfriend with a samurai sword. His mother said he suffered from schizoaffective disorder.

As for Scott, 35, the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office was charged yesterday with two felonies, assault first degree and armed criminal action. The warrant for his arrest says he is to be held on $200,000 bond.

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Caught on Video, Sheriff Says He’s Ready to ‘Turn It All Over’ to Deputy

Published

10 months ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

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Video of St. Louis Sheriff Vernon Betts taken by a former deputy suggests that the sheriff has a successor in mind to hand the reins of the department over to, even as Betts is in an increasingly heated campaign for reelection.

“I ain’t here for all this rigmarole,” Betts says in the video while seated behind his desk at the Carnahan Courthouse. “The Lord sent me here to turn this department around and I’m doing the best I can and I think I’ve done a good job. I’ve got about eight months and I’m going to qualify for my fourth pension.”

He goes on, “Right now I can walk up out of here and live happily ever after and forget about all this…and live like a king.”

The sheriff then says his wife has been in Atlanta looking at houses and that the other deputy in the room, Donald Hawkins, is someone Betts has been training “to turn it all over to him.”

Asked about the video, Betts tells the RFT, “My future plans are to win reelection on August 6th by a wide margin and to continue my mission as the top elected law enforcement official to make St. Louis safer and stronger. Serving the people of St. Louis with integrity, honor and professional law enforcement qualifications is a sacred responsibility, and I intend to complete that mission.”

The video of Betts was taken by Barbara Chavers, who retired from the sheriff’s office in 2016 after 24 years of service. Chavers now works security at Schnucks at Grand and Gravois. Betts’ brother Howard works security there, too.

Chavers tells the RFT that she was summoned to Betts’ office last week after Betts’ brother made the sheriff aware that she was supporting Montgomery. It was no secret: Chavers had filmed a Facebook live video in which she said she was supporting Betts’ opponent Alfred Montgomery in the election this fall. “Make the judges safe,” she says in the video, standing in front of a large Montgomery sign on Gravois Avenue. “They need a sheriff who is going to make their courtrooms safe.”

In his office, even as Chavers made clear she was filming him, Betts told Chavers he was “flabbergasted” and “stunned” she was supporting Montgomery.

“I don’t know what I did that would make you go against the preacher man,” he says, referring to himself. He then refers to Montgomery as “ungodly.”

Betts goes on to say that not long ago, he was walking in his neighborhood on St. Louis Avenue near 20th Street when suddenly Montgomery pulled up in his car and, according to Betts, shouted, “You motherfucker, you this, you that. You’re taking my signs down.”

Montgomery tells the RFT that he’s never interacted with Betts outside of candidate forums and neighborhood meetings.

“I don’t think anyone with good sense would do something like that to a sitting sheriff,” Montgomery says.

Montgomery has had campaign signs missing and on at least two occasions has obtained video of people tearing them down. (Chavers notes that the sign that she filmed her original Facebook video in front of is itself now missing.)

One man who lives near Columbus Square says that he recently put out two Montgomery signs, which later went missing. “If they keep taking them, I’ll keep putting them up,” he said.

Betts says he has nothing to do with the missing signs. In the video Chavers filmed in Betts’ office, Betts says that his campaign isn’t in a spot where it needs to resort to tearing down opponents’ signs.

“If you sit here long enough, a man is getting ready to come across the street from City Hall bringing me $500, today,” Betts says. “I’m getting that kind of support. I don’t need to tear down signs.”

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St. Louis to Develop First Citywide Transportation Plan in Decades

Published

10 months ago

May 21, 2024

Natural Bridge

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The City of St. Louis is working to develop its first citywide mobility plan in decades, Mayor Tishaura Jones’ office announced Tuesday. This plan seeks to make it easier for everyone — drivers, pedestrians, bikers and public transit users — to safely commute within the city.

The plan will bring together other city projects like the Brickline Greenway, Future64, the MetroLink Green Line, and more, “while establishing new priorities for a safer, more efficient and better-maintained transportation network across the City,” according to the release.

The key elements in the plan will be public engagement, the development of a safety action plan, future infrastructure priorities and transportation network mapping, according to Jones’ office.

The overarching goals are to create a vision for citywide mobility, plan a mixture of short and long-term mobility projects and to develop improved communication tools with the public to receive transportation updates. In recent years, both people who use public transit and cyclists have been outspoken about the difficulties — and dangers — of navigating St. Louis streets, citing both cuts to public transit and traffic violence.

To garner public input and participation for the plan, Jones’ office said there will be community meetings, focus groups and a survey for residents to share their concerns. The city will also be establishing a Community Advisory Committee. Those interested in learning more should check out at tmp-stl.com/

“Everyone deserves to feel safe when getting around St. Louis, whether they’re driving, biking, walking or taking public transit,” Jones said in a news release. “Creating a comprehensive transportation and mobility plan allows us to make intentional and strategic investments so that moving around St. Louis for jobs, education, and entertainment becomes easier, safer and more enjoyable.”

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