Local News

North City Residents Blast McKee, Support Eminent Domain on His Holdings | St. Louis

Published

2 years ago

January 31, 2024

[ad_1]

click to enlarge SCREENSHOT VIA YOUTUBE Ernestine Stewart airs her frustration with developer Paul McKee at a meeting on January 30, 2024.

Ernestine Stewart has lived in her home for 42 years and used to only see racoons in more rural areas of the county.

Now her north city neighborhood boasts entire racoon families that make it difficult to walk to her front door thanks to the untamed lawns of developer Paul McKee’s vacant properties.

These vacant homes boast grass taller than Stewart, she told St. Louis aldermen at Tuesday’s Housing, Urban Development and Zoning Committee meeting.

“I can’t get to my house sometimes and I called the city, what did they tell me? ‘Oh, that’s their habitat,’” Stewart said. “We shouldn’t have to live like this.”

The committee, made up of chairperson Shameem Clark Hubbard, Anne Schweitzer, Michael Browning, Alisha Sonnier and Shane Cohn(who wasn’t present), heard public comments regarding Board Bill 174 sponsored by Alderman Rasheen Aldridge. The blight redevelopment bill would impact 821.4 acres in the St. Louis Place, JeffVanderLou and Carr Square neighborhoods.

The bill aims to approve a redevelopment plan and blight study for the area, a swath of north city that consists mostly of vacant land, unoccupied buildings and buildings in poor condition, according to the proposal.

Approximately 71 percent of the properties in this area declined in value over the last 12 years, according to Aldridge’s bill.

The majority of these decrepit buildings and vacant lots are owned by McKee as part of the developer’s long-stalled NorthSide Regeneration project.

The legislation would tee up the city’s use of eminent domain on McKee’s NorthSide properties around the new location for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency campus, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

While residents of the area are wary of eminent domain and some have been traumatized by the process before, by working with Aldridge and holding community discussions, they have come to support Board Bill 174 and the protections it provides for them.

The bill would not allow eminent domain on any houses or businesses that are currently occupied unless they want to sell, and would provide 15 years of tax abatement for current residents.

Sheila Rendon was born in her family home on Mullanphy street in 1972 and lived there her whole life — until the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency moved into McKee’s development area in 2023.

Rendon was forced out of her home through eminent domain made permissible by a 2009 blighting study.

Rendon has moved into a different residence in the neighborhood but remains worried for her neighbors.

“We realized that we could be eminent domained again so we took action,” Rendon said.

She said the community is tired of waiting for action and promises of redevelopment that are not fulfilled.

Barbara Manzara’s home has shared a lot line with a vacant McKee property for the past 18 years. She said McKee is profiting from the destruction of her neighborhood.

Manzara, along with co-plaintiff Keith Marquard, sued the state in 2011 to prevent McKee from getting tax increment financing that would take away their neighborhoods’ self determination, she said.

Manzara and Marquard lost their lawsuit but she said she and her neighbors aren’t done fighting McKee.

“We have been through hell, however, we are still here,” Manzara said. “We are still maintaining his properties, I mow his property, I garden his properties, I board up his properties and so do my neighbors.”

Manzara said that while McKee owns vacant properties, the community is unable to grow economically.

There were 14 individuals who spoke at the meeting; most were residents of the area that would be impacted. The only two who spoke in opposition to the proposed bill were McKee’s lawyers.

(McKee’s own absence from the meeting drew comments from other attendees.)

The bill was passed out of committee with a recommendation of do pass during the hearing.

[ad_2]

Source link

Local News

Fenton Man Charged in Sword Attack on Roommate

Published

1 year ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

[ad_1]

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.

[ad_2]

Source link

Local News

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

Published

1 year ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

[ad_1]

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.”

[ad_2]

Source link

Local News

St. Louis to Develop First Citywide Transportation Plan in Decades

Published

1 year ago

May 21, 2024

Natural Bridge

[ad_1]

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.”

[ad_2]

Source link