– Riverfront Times, July 27, 2021 –

Charles Wagstaff likes to water the plants lining the patio of Pizza Head on South Grand. It’s not his patio or his restaurant — he just does it.

Armed with translucent gloves and a face mask, the 88-year-old tends to the well-kept patio that lies under the second-floor apartment he has called home for 30 years. And he wears those gloves when he goes on the bus, too.

“I wear the gloves because everybody touches the overhead rail and the poles, just trying to take care of me and everybody I come in contact with,” Wagstaff says.

It’s an ethos that officials urged people to adopt as St. Louis and St. Louis County returned to mask mandates on Monday in hopes of curbing a new surge of COVID-19 cases. As of Monday, those aged five and older, with some exceptions, are required to wear masks indoors and on public transportation in the city and county.

“We came together once to protect each other, and I’m confident we can do so again,” St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones said Monday at a news conference.

But not everyone sees mask-wearing in the same way as Wagstaff. Political opponents of Jones and St. Louis County Executive Sam Page immediately announced plans to fight new mandates. Attorney General Eric Schmitt filed a suit against the city and county, claiming that the public health orders were “unacceptable and unconstitutional.”

It was another sign of the divide that persists across the region and state, even as outbreaks of the delta variant have turned Missouri into one of the country’s COVID hotspots.

In Creve Coeur, Conway Road at North Ballas is usually calm on Sunday nights. The intersection borders Mercy Hospital St. Louis, and aside from night-shift traffic, you might see a few pedestrians from the wealthy St. Louis suburb.

But this past Sunday night, the intersection was blaring. Keep Reading / Image by Me

– Riverfront Times, June 30, 2021 –

Marian Amies biked around the streets surrounding Tower Grove Park in 1992, feeling like she could be forgotten.

“Well if I fall off my bike now, nobody’s gonna know,” she recalls thinking.

Amies, who is originally from England, was 52 at the time and fresh off a divorce that ended a 26-year marriage. She was enjoying her newfound independence, but her bicycle rides around St. Louis made her realize how much she wanted companionship, too.

“I used to ride my bike in Tower Grove Park at six o’clock in the morning, and maybe I’d stop at the diner on South Grand and have breakfast,” she says. “And it was — sometimes it was dark. And then I would sometimes go to the Bread Company, and I would feel so single when all I could see was sort of like couples everywhere.”

So, she decided to put a Person-to-Person ad in the Riverfront Times, hoping to find a guy interested in some of her favorite things. She included a list: “… dance music, exploring the countryside, cafe, eclecticism, rubber chickens ….”

The personal ads ran from 1979 into the 1990s under one name or another — functioning like Tinder, way before someone could swipe left or right on a smartphone screen. They were ads where someone could publish a passage about themselves — physical traits, passions, romantic interests — in hopes of finding a friend, lover or partner. Then, respondents to an ad would call an extension number and be charged a few dollars per talk minutes.

Amies’ ad, which she says cost “£50,” before correcting herself — it cost $50 — ran in the October 27, 1992, issue of the RFT. At the end of the ad, Amies wrote that she wanted to meet a man in his 40s or 50s who would make a great companion for “fun and adventure.” Keep Reading / Image by Erin McAfee

– Heights, May 27, 2021 –

The president of Boston College Republicans, Thomas Sarrouf, spoke at a Climate Justice of Boston College (CJBC) protest in response to the administration’s handling of racial, gender, LGBTQ+, and environmental issues on campus—which he said was too many issues.

“Here we have a number of angry warriors fighting a crusade against the administration, for what exactly?” Sarrouf, Lynch ’22, said. “The email said you could protest anything. Honestly, what? When you protest everything, you end up protesting nothing, and you undercut the moral force of any argument that you’d give at any real injustice.”

The May 7 protest on the Quad centered around student speeches and came after an off-campus protest advertised—but not officially hosted, according to club leaders—by CJBC, was canceled on May 3. 

On May 3, Associate Vice President for Student Engagement and Formation Tom Mogan emailed leaders of CJBC early in the day, writing that the organization’s University-sponsored status could be revoked if it moved forward with the demonstration.

All events sponsored by student organizations must be approved by the Office of Student Involvement (OSI), Mogan wrote in the email. He also wrote that off-campus events would not be approved by OSI due to concerns surrounding COVID-19.

Audrey Kang, CJBC vice president and MCAS ’22, said at the May 7 protest that the administration is often uncooperative with CJBC. 

“What I want to talk about specifically, once again, right from the heart, is the administration’s inability to work with us,” Kang said. “Now this can apply to every single issue on campus [that] gets shut down at every corner. And I think it comes to this point where you don’t know what there is left to do.” Read More / Image by Aneesa Wermers

– Heights, October 31, 2021 –

The chic bakery and cafe chain Tatte opened its newest location in Newton Centre on Wednesday, bringing along long lines with its global pastries and upscale atmosphere to a neighborhood already crowded with coffee shops. 

“I think it’s very popular,” said Newton resident Amanda Yu. “People [want to] come here.”

Tatte is not just another cafe conglomerate. Through the around-the-clock laboring of its founder Tzurit Or, a self-taught pastry chef from Israel who stepped down as CEO of the company in July 2020, the company made its start locally through a Brookline location in 2007, according to its website. 

Tatte, which has now expanded beyond Brookline, operates out of 18 Boston-area locations, another four in metropolitan Washington, D.C., and as of Wednesday, a new one in Newton Centre, according to the website.

Aside from its made-to-order items, Tatte sells dozens of baked goods, ranging from puffy classics like the croissants to Israeli-inspired items like a Spinach Labneh pita. Its drink menu also rivals the likes of any coffee shop. 

An iced vanilla latte at the bakery is what you want it to be. Espresso flavors, while rich, do not overtake subtle splashes of real vanilla flavors. It costs just 50 cents more than the Starbucks alternative. Keep Reading / Image by Me

– Riverfront Times, June 28, 2021 –

A St. Louis County man killed and another was wounded after a broad-daylight double shooting Sunday afternoon in the Mark Twain neighborhood of the city, police say.

And they don’t know who did it.

Officers responded to a shooting call at 3:08 p.m. in the 4900 block of Rosalie Street, between Kingshighway Boulevard and Euclid Avenue. There, they found Chris Brown, twenty, in a car suffering from a gunshot wound. Brown died there, police say.

Another victim, an unidentified 21-year-old man, was found by police near the car, suffering from a gunshot wound to his torso. EMS transported him to a hospital where he was listed in stable condition, according to police.

Investigators suspect occupants of another car fired into the victims’ vehicle while driving near the 4600 block of West Florissant Avenue. The stretch of road borders Bellefontaine Cemetery.

The suspected shooters are unknown, police say. The homicide division of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department is handling the investigation.

The shootings come during a violent summer in St. Louis. Read More / Image by RFT Staff