Seen in St. Louis

Over the past week or so I’ve started hanging out at the Bread Co. downtown working on my masters thesis while D.J. stays at our place at the Syndicate and does his day job (mostly teleconferencing with other people from the think-tank he works at; sometimes it seems all they ever do is talk, lol). I am in love with the vibe of BreadCo as we call it (the free WiFi helps). While I’ve been to many Panera Bread locations from Buffalo to Tampa, here in St. Louis (where the chain originated and is still called St. Louis Bread Co.) it has a hometown, locally-owned-and-operated feel that makes their over 50 locations in the area real neighborhood hot spots.

Over the next few weeks, I will continue to spend some time here working and enjoying the atmosphere and hopefully I can get some good old-fashioned blogging in as well.

Comment On This Post

St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay, who is one of the leading forces for the revival of downtown St. Louis, attended the Syndicate’s ribbon-cutting yesterday afternoon. Many other St. Louis big whigs also came out for it, including Jim Cloar, Craig Heller, the developer George Sherman, etc. etc.

Highlights of the various talks include George Sherman’s celebration of the fact that living in the Syndicate means you can live carfree, and suggested that this is just the beginning; he just returned from a vacation in Europe where gas is something like $12 a gallon and people drive very little, out of necessity. It was also good to hear about all the new awards St. Louis and the Syndicate are getting nationally, and the announcement by Craig Heller that within the one block around the Syndicate, something like 50,000 square feet of new retail space is opening up within the next year, including the new Schnucks, a bookstore, a sports bar, a chocolate bar, and a music venue.

The Mayor was all aglow during his speech about why downtown revitalization is working and how the Syndicate building is one of the centers of downtown’s success.

One impressive and telling thing about the event was when the blow-up picture of the city fell over during Jim Cloar’s talk (it was just leaning on the podium) and the Mayor jumped in and started trying to right it. I imagine lots of other city executives in other cities would find that sort of thing beneath them. It was nice to see the Mayor’s humility and servant leadership right after his rousing talk about the great future of St. Louis

I would estimate that 100 people attended the event, but they were asked to remain inside the foyer for the ribbon-cutting since it was drizzling outside. I snuck out anyway with my dinky camera, and took pictures along with two busy and legit photogs. Pictured are the Mayor Francis Slay, Alderwoman Phyllis Young, Loftwork’s president Craig Heller, Minneapolis developer George Sherman, Deputy Mayor Barb Geisman, Downtown St. Louis Partnership’s Jim Cloar, etc. etc.

Comment On This Post