Matt Marcinkowski
JOURNALIST TO FOLLOW
Kathy Gilsinan
It’s not often that we see Missouri covered in a national magazine, but thanks to Kathy Gilsinan, we do. Is it “Missouri Is the Next Front in the COVID Culture War” in The Atlantic, where Gilsinan is a contributing writer? Yes, but we’ll take it. Gilsinan’s writing is often farsighted. Who is Senate candidate Lucas Kunce? we wondered in May. Oh, Gilsinan had a Politico story on him at the end of 2021, complete with surname pronunciation. For her keen sense of knowing what we need to know months before we know we need it and for her compelling book, The Helpers: Profiles from the Front Lines of the Pandemic, we’re telling you: Gilsinan is one to follow. theatlantic.com.
COLUMNIST TO FOLLOW
Tony Messenger
We said it back in November: the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Tony Messenger might be the only columnist whose beat is the poor who are preyed upon by public officials. We turn to Messenger for his columns on heavier issues facing our community (“St. Louis case highlights Missouri parole system’s failure to protect rights”), but now we can also get the Pulitzer Prize winner in two other formats: his new book, Profit and Punishment: How America Criminalizes the Poor in the Name of Justice, and his video series with fellow Post-Dispatch columnist Aisha Sultan, The Chat Room. stltoday.com.
RADIO SHOW WE CAN’T GET ENOUGH OF
Erin Joy Talks Business
It’s the radio show and podcast we needed as the world continues to grapple with the economic effects of the pandemic. On Erin Joy Talks Business, on KMOX, business consultant and coach Joy interviews some of our favorite women in business—Tamara Keefe, Napheesa Collier, Katie Collier—about success and entrepreneurship. Joy is also working on earning her doctorate in business psychology from The Chicago School of Professional Psychology. You might expect her advice to sound like something you’d hear in a stuffy lecture hall. It’s anything but. erinjoy.com.
RESEARCH WE’RE TRACKING
Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly
In 2022, we’d love nothing more than to put the pandemic behind us, but there is such a hell called long COVID-19, and for the latest on that, we’re turning to Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly and his team at the VA St. Louis Health Care System. Thanks to his research, we know that people with COVID-19 might be at greater risk for heart failure and kidney damage. Most recently, Al-Aly published research that revealed that COVID is associated with a higher risk—40 percent—of developing diabetes in the year after infection. If you’ve managed to go two-plus years without catching COVID, you might not think this is important to you. But as we’ve learned during the pandemic, everything is connected—just think of the resources needed to treat millions of people with diabetes, which is often a precursor to increased risk of stroke, heart disease, and eye disease.
courtesy of Andy Bass
WARMEST WELCOME
Refugee Support
Between the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban and Russia’s war on Ukraine, the International Institute of St. Louis has been working overtime the past year. There are other St. Louisans who have stepped up as well. St. Charles resident Andy Bass helped three Afghan women to safety in Kabul and gave them a home while they transitioned to life here. The St. Louis Community Foundation started the St. Louis Welcome Fund to meet resettlement needs. Then there’s Congregation Shaare Emeth, who helped resettle an Afghan family. And St. Louis’ vision for these new arrivals extends beyond the resettlement process: The International Institute, together with the Archdiocese of St. Louis and other area organizations, announced a new program to help build up the Afghan community, including purchasing a block of affordable housing to keep arrivals together. The catalyst for the program? Arch Grants’ Jerry Schlichter.
THE F-LIST
Elias Stein
Relax, it stands for Funny List. Because we’re living through what feels like the End Times (roughly 2020–present), we now more than ever appreciate a good laugh. And the past year delivered some great ones. Are these A-List worthy? Never. Did they still make us smile? Totally. Here we have listed a few, in order from chuckle to, as the kids say, “I’m weak” (laughing so hard that you can’t move).
1. We’re celebrating the return of the kooky Riverfront Times column St. Lunacy (formerly known as Unreal), for which other people do stuff we’d never attempt. Please see: “So We Decided to Break Into the Jefferson Arms Building.”
2. We didn’t think that we’d see the day that Snoop Dogg played the Family Arena of all places. Know your audience, we guess.
3. Earlier this year, SLM editors received a curious email from a publicist: Did we have a music editor named Jim Twombly, who requested two press passes for the band Tool? We do not, but the audacity and the alias piqued our curiosity. In the ensuing months, we received more emails from publicists about similar requests from the imposter. Annoying, maybe—but definitely hilarious. “Jim Twombly,” who are you?
4. There are more images on the St. Francois County seal than in some sections of this magazine. An incomplete list would contain: a bald eagle, an American flag, a shovel, a pickax, a Bible, and a cross. We first became aware of the seal when it was posted to Reddit and then went viral for being a design inspiration. We hate that they launched a contest to redesign it.
5. Brawls have no home here, but we have to admit that there’s something funny about watching Cardinals reliever Giovanny Gallegos jump over the bullpen fence during an on-field fight with the New York Mets that broke out during a game in April. My man, the stairs were right there.
6. Every February (a.k.a. The Worst Month) needs a hero, and this year ours came in the form of two coveralled dudes, whom St. Louis Post-Dispatch photographer David Carson interviewed on video as they sledded down Art Hill on Dumpster lids. (Hey, they promised to clean and return them.) Carson asked the men their names. One replied: “This guy’s a scab. He does HVAC. [He’s] non-union, but he’s still my buddy. Kevin.” Gold.
7. C.W. Gardner’s U.S. Senate campaign “Pot for Potholes” (using tax revenue from marijuana sales to pay for pothole repair) started as satire, but then people got so sick of the state of the streets that they started to take it seriously. When Fox 2’s Andy Banker asked him “How much of this is real?” Gardner replied, “That’s a good question. I can’t answer that. … I don’t know where we’re going with this. I’m just kind of riding the vibe.”
heidi drexler
ANCHOR-TURNED-ADVOCATE
Michelle Li
When 5 On Your Side news anchor Michelle Li received a racist voicemail from a viewer calling her “very Asian,” she managed to turn it into a positive. She shared the story on Instagram, and it blew up, with others contributing their stories with the hashtag #VeryAsian. The story caught the attention of Ellen DeGeneres, who invited Li on air to share her story and presented her with $15,000 to fund work to spread awareness of Asian American and Pacific Islanders’ stories. Now, Li has launched The Very Asian Foundation to fund work that stops AAPI hate. hashtag-very-asian.myshopify.com.
BEST OUT-OF-STATE CHEERLEADER
The Brookings Institution
The D.C.–based think tank recently released a report that calls St. Louis one of the “rising stars” in the post-pandemic tech landscape, thanks to growth in tech jobs here. We’re not Silicon Valley yet and we may never be, but we love that someone’s out there tracking the labor market data and giving us some credit for trying. brookings.edu.
FOODIES ON A MISSION
Food Outreach
Eighteen percent of the St. Louis area population lives in a food desert, according to the USDA. But for those who are sick, living a half mile or more from a grocery store in urban areas is a challenge that can seem insurmountable. Enter Food Outreach: Since 1998, it has been delivering meals designed by registered dietitians to HIV and cancer patients who earn less than $40,000 a year. This year, Food Outreach is aiming to return to serving 2,000 clients, their pre-pandemic clientele. foodoutreach.org.
Michael Thomas for thestl.com
NEW FAVORITE HOLIDAY
314 Day
When we first heard about 314 Day—the March 14 regional holiday that celebrates all things St. Louis—we were a little worried that they were coming for 3.14 “Pi” Day, the day we eat pie in faux reverence of the mathematical constant. But worry not: There are plenty of treats associated with 314 Day as well. (Hello, $3.14 large concretes at Lion’s Choice.) The mid-March celebration is quickly becoming one of our favorites, timed perfectly between the winter holidays and spring, right when we need a little pick-me-up. This year, we celebrated with an 80-vendor pop-up market. Next year? It’s too soon to tell, but we’ve marked the calendar—the holiday grows a little bigger and a little more jovial each year.thestl.com/314day.
BEST 44-STORY IDEA
A Downtown Vertical Farm
We sat up straight when an email hit our inbox earlier this year from architect Peter Tao, who had a “VERY interesting concept” regarding the then-vacant AT&T building. The all-caps grabbed our attention, but Tao’s idea—a massive indoor vertical farm, the equivalent of a 48-acre outdoor farm, inside the abandoned office building—made us think: Huh, why don’t we have that here? Maybe we will one day. Even though the AT&T building sold, the St. Louis Controlled Environment Agriculture Coalition, a group convened by the World Wildlife Fund, is wrapping up the second phase of a study that would explore a site for a project from AeroFarms, an indoor farming company that currently owns the world’s largest indoor vertical farm.
Orbon Alija / E+ / Getty Images Plus
COMMUNITY HEALTH WITH A VISION
BJC HealthCare
When the COVID-19 pandemic started two years ago, we saw how some St. Louisans were at a greater risk for contracting the virus and experiencing a severe case based on factors like who they lived with, where they worked, and whether they had other medical conditions. Today, we know that education, job, income, and ability to build wealth are health interventions, and BJC HealthCare and Dr. Jason Purnell, BJC’s vice president of community health improvement, recently launched a new plan to fix some of these inequities. It includes addressing diabetes, access to healthful food, infant and maternal health, and health and wellness in schools. BJC is also putting its money where its mouth is: It’s making deposits at Midwest BankCentre locations in 20 low- and moderate-income ZIP codes. In turn, the banks will do more lending for people who would otherwise be considered too risky to get a business loan. bjc.org.
MOST INNOVATIVE WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT IDEA
STL.works
The future of the workforce in St. Louis? We’re too busy, well, working to consider it. Luckily, STL.works, a workforce development collaborative that the Regional Business Council and St. Louis Civic Pride Foundation launched in 2019, is on top of it. Its architect is Dr. Art McCoy, formerly the superintendent of the Ferguson-Florissant and Jennings school districts. To address the skilled labor shortage, McCoy and STL.works are partnering with 12 public school districts to connect students with opportunities that don’t require college degrees across five skilled labor areas: technology, healthcare, advanced manufacturing, trades, and public safety. stl.works.
FREE IDEAS
courtesy of HOK
Two things can be true: We appreciate the people and places that make our A-List each year, and we have ideas for how to make our city better. Here are just a few. Take ’em or leave ’em.
1. We have a feeling that the Beyond Van Gogh tent at the Saint Louis Galleria is here to stay. But we want even more immersive experiences. Dial it up to a 10. Dunk us at the St. Louis Aquarium. Dangle us over some giraffes at the Saint Louis Zoo. Dip us in the hot fudge at Ted Drewes. More is more.
2. As the region considers whether we should give the airport a makeover, here’s an idea: Turn part of it into a coworking space. There’s plenty of parking, a food court for lunch, excellent people-watching, and, depending on your line of work, the pre-meeting security checks could be a bonus.
3. Ever since City Foundry STL opened, we have been gung-ho on food halls. What about turning every empty building into one? We’ll know we’ve overdone it when the new thing is to turn food halls back into empty buildings.
4. With the St. Louis CITY SC stadium coming together in Downtown West, we have to highlight the fact that, starting in 2023, there will be six big sports venues within a 12-minute drive of each other. Here’s an idea: A day-long east-to-west cascade of sports events starting with Chaifetz and ending at World Wide Technology Raceway. Rise and shine for some college hoops. Head to a soccer game at the new MLS stadium by mid-morning. Catch the Blues at Enterprise Center at noon. By 2 p.m., Simone Biles has flown in for a floor routine at America’s Center. Rally for a late-afternoon Cards game at Busch. And cap the evening with a race at WWTR as the sun sets behind the Arch. Yep, we’re geniuses.
5. OK, we know the Loop Trolley has its issues, but hear us out: aerial tramway. Imagine hopping on a sky gondola for a day trip in Illinois. Could we thread it through the Arch?
6. Speaking of, what if we made a second, bigger Arch?
Matt Siedel
TASK FORCE WE APPRECIATE
St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force
During the height of the pandemic, we regularly tuned in to the task force briefings to learn about hospitalizations, trends, and what all the stats mean. Sure, the news was frequently not good. But it was news. When Dr. Alex Garza, its incident commander and chief community health officer for SSM Health, was deployed to Kuwait as part of his duty as a member of the Army Reserves, Dr. Clay Dunagan, BJC senior vice president and chief clinical officer, stepped in to cover. When Garza returned, Dunagan stayed, and the two co-hosted. Blessedly, case numbers have declined, but you can still find hospitalization numbers posted to Facebook weekly.
TECH FOR GOOD
“St. Louis Digital Divide” Report
When schools went virtual in 2020, stories of children doing homework on iPhones or in the parking lot of a library with free Wi-Fi were everywhere. Suddenly everyone was aware of the term “digital divide.” That resolved itself when children returned to in-person learning, right? Nope. A new study by the Regional Business Council and the St. Louis Community Foundation lays bare the troubling stats: About 150,000 households in the city and county struggle to afford broadband, and about 90,000 households in the city and county cannot afford the devices they need. Now the groups are plotting next steps to try and use federal funding to narrow the gap.
Matt Marcinkowski
MOST INNOVATIVE POTENTIAL ECONOMIC ANCHOR
World Wide Technology Raceway
After reviving the raceway in Madison, former racecar driver Curtis Francois teamed up with World Wide Technology and Jackie Joyner-Kersee to bring more STEM programming to kids in East St. Louis. Francois also has a vision to turn the track into an economic anchor. With the NASCAR Cup Series in the books, he might be on his way. wwtraceway.com.
COOL STARTUP WE’RE WATCHING
Whistle
Are we in the Great Resignation or the Forever Resignation? Whatever the case, Whistle, a St. Louis–based startup that focuses on helping companies with employee onboarding, productivity, and retention, is on it. It offers three products, but we’re most intrigued by Whistle Payments, which makes it easier for companies to incentivize employees. As Whistle acknowledges, “mandatory fun”—think: forced pizza parties—is out. Smaller and more frequent rewards are in, and cash is king. Sounds good to us. wewhistle.com.
Hayri Er / iStock / Getty Images Plus
COOLEST INDUSTRY WE FINALLY UNDERSTAND
Geospatial
As we inch closer to the opening of the Next NGA West campus (2025, be there), our region is capitalizing on the opportunity to make St. Louis a center for all things geospatial. First came educating people about just what in the heck geospatial is. Second, creating a GeoFutures Strategic Roadmap detailing how we can become a leader in the field. And then there’s the recently announced Taylor Geospatial Institute, funded by Andrew C. Taylor, the executive chairman of Enterprise Holdings Inc. and founding chair of Greater St. Louis Inc. The institute will focus on research in the areas of environment, food security, and national security, among others. St. Louis isn’t throwing away its shot.
