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Thanks to everyone who made it to the Housing Happy Hour, I had a blast! While I'm here, I also want to give a shout out to Honey Bee's, Clementines, and Damn Fine Hand Pies (in Shaw) —three entries on Ian Froeb's STL 100 list that were all incredible. The hash brown at Honey Bee's and the breakfast sandwich at Damn Fine both deserve your immediate attention. All that being said, PJ's Smokehouse Chicken Sandwich will always be my #1, (don't worry, baby, I'm never leaving you)
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- Next Wednesday, May 28th, Kirkwood Parks & Rec will be hold its final public input session for the coming 20-year master plan at City Hall from 4-7p. I can't stress how important your participation in this is. Think Kirkwood could use a dog park? A skate park? A whole new park? Show up to this thing and let them know!
- The Meacham Park Neighborhood Improvement Association is hosting a neighborhood clean up this Saturday from 10am-3pm. Volunteer should meet up at 340 New York St in the park and snacks/water will be provided. You can contact Genevieve Hodges at (314) 258-0003 or Ciara De Boise at ciarrdeboise@gmail.com with any questions. Great opportunity to help make Kirkwood a better place!
- Let's check in on City Council:
- A vote on the zoning text amendment that would cut red-tape when it comes to Architectural/Landmark review requirements was pushed again at last week's meeting, this time to June 5th. The amendment was originally supposed to take place on April 15th.
- The June 5th meeting is now jam packed, as the ARB amendment above will join a public hearing on changes to the Floor Area Ratio (FAR) rules and a public hearing Kirkwood's third granny flat on the agenda.
- In an amazing twist, the Planning & Zoning Commission (P&Z) apparently actually voted against recommending the FAR changes because, as I noted a couple of weeks back, they're a big nothing-burger. It's just a way for the Council to look like they're taking action on Kirkwood's affordability without actually changing anything.
- It seems that the developer who was requesting variances from the Board of Adjustment (BoA) in order to build five townhomes at 111-119 W Rose Hill pulled the project from the BoA agenda shortly before last Monday's meeting. Hopefully that just means the developer has figured out a way to make the project work without the variances and not that the developer decided that trying to get a variance for a multifam project approved by BoA was futile.
- A couple of items from the Webster-Kirkwood Times:
- On pg. 1-A, a nice accounting of multiple aspects of last week's water main break, including the heroics from city's employees and the failure of the city's leadership to communicate effectively
- And on pg. 6-A, we got dueling mailbag letters, one criticizing Mayor Gibbons for her failure to communicate about the water main break, and one praising CM Rheinnecker for his communication during it. I completely agree with both writers' takes and it's not a big secret as to how you wind up on one side of the ledger or the other: You just send out a newsletter. The newsletter was one of Mayor Gibbon's most lethal weapons while she was ascending from Council Member to shoo-in for Mayor only for her to largely abandon the tool once she achieved the City's highest office. CM Rheinnecker has now picked up where Gibbons left off, and both Kirkwood and CM Rheinnecker are better off for it. I really hate his policy positions, but the newsletter is good! It's the lowest hanging fruit for being deemed a "good communicator"
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That's it for this week! While I was at home, I found out that 4Hands has an outdoor concert series going tonight from 5-8pm (Riley Holtz) and this Saturday from 1-4pm (the Sean Canan Duo) so go check that out! Have a great weekend!
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