MARQUIS FEB 2024

MARQUIS • Serving St. Louis’ Near Southside Neighborhoods 2 FEBRUARY 2024 Publisher: Jeff Fister Sales Director: Tammy Brownfield Editor: Beth Concepción Production Director/Design: Ben Pierce The Marquis is published four times a year by STL Programs LLC on behalf of the Lafayette Square Neighborhood Association. Originally founded by Lafayette Square Restoration Committee as a small newsletter, the paper has grown into the voice of St. Louis’ strong near southside neighborhood groups. Submissions, including articles, photos and story ideas, are highly encouraged, but the editor reserves the right to edit for grammar, space, clarity and appropriateness. Deadline for submissions is the 18th of the prior month. Contact the neighborhood liaison at newsdesk@lafayettesqr.com . For advertising info, contact tammyb@ stlprograms.com or call 314-644-2501. 5974 Columbia Ave. St. Louis MO 63139-2919 Editor’s Note It is the goal of the Lafayette Square Neighborhood Association and those who support it to bring you the news about our neighborhood. This is our news, and we want to do our best to bring it to you in the most accurate and professional manner possible. We’re always happy to receive article submis- sions, photos, press releases or story ideas from anywhere in our coverage area, and we’ll do our best to include them. Editorial deadlines and delivery dates can be found on the calendar. As your neighborhood newspaper, we want your contributions and input. Feel free to contact me at any time. — Beth Concepción Neighborhood liaison marquis@lafayettesquare.org would be an additional tax of $499 to the existing real estate tax bill. At this rate, the funds allocated to the neighborhood would be about $450,000 annually. There are also income restric- tions, with a lower tax rate for those who qualify. “It is important to note that passage of the taxing district will not result in a cut in funding currently allocated to the neighborhood,” said Karen Boul- ware, also part of the steering group. “However, as with many other local governments, the City of St. Louis is struggling to fully staff its police, forestry and trash departments. The funds raised by the new tax each year would help fill in gaps and address the needs of the neighborhood.” Visit www.LafayetteSquareSBD.com to look up the tax for a specific property or to get themost current tax information. Tax District From Page 1 Happy 2024, neighbors! I hope that everyone had a great holiday season and that the new year is off to wonderful start. I am truly pleased to begin my term as the Lafayette Square Neighborhood Association President. I am grateful for the opportunity to help lead this venerable organization. I hope that I can meet your expectations and continue the association’s great work for the neighborhood. I would be remiss if I failed to thank last year’s president, Christina Ryan. Christina spearheaded a number of initiatives during her tenure, including establishing the 8th Ward Consortium, and the herculean effort of developing and documenting our asso- ciation’s business practices. Christina’s tireless efforts significantly improved how our organization operates and set us up for further successes in 2024. Your LSNA Board discussed and approved our vision and goals for 2024. These include: Updating the Lafayette Square Strategic Plan, increasing membership, increasing charitable donations, improving our advocacy on important issues, making volunteering easier, and improving our website. We will provide updates on these efforts at our regular monthly meetings. There are many opportunities to get involved and help out with projects and events this year. Your participation not only helps to accomplish important tasks, but it is also a great way to meet new friends in the neighborhood. Please watch for volunteer opportunities announced at the monthly neighborhood meetings, as well as on social media, and get involved where you can. The Holiday House Tour was a major success this year. Big thanks are due to Jill Peckinpaugh and Bev Murphy for leading this complex event. We also want to thank all our neighbors who turned out to support the holiday events. Finally, we said goodbye to several board members at the end of the 2023 term: Sarah Hurst, Matt Negri, Megan Biegacki, ChrisWaldbuesser and Nicole Ewing. Our thanks go out to these neighbors for their hard work over the year. Once again, I hope that the other board members and I can lead us to another great year for the LSNA. Happy New Year, and thank you! One of the great things about living in St. Louis is being part of shared experience— a shared understanding of what makes the city cool (and also a little crazy). Many of you know Missouri Avenue resident Vincent Volpe. His son, Andrew, has been the lead singer and songwriter for alternative rock band Ludo (Ludo- rock.com) since 2002. He spent a number of years in Los Angeles but now lives in Highland Park, Illinois. The band no longer tours but they come back to The Pageant in St. Louis every Halloween weekend to play several sold-out “HalLUDOween” concerts. They also played House of Blues in Chicago a year ago. Maybe you know all that. Did you also know that Andrew Volpe is credited with creating a YouTube video about St. Louis that went viral? Google “How Does St. Louis Do It? (We Got Range).” Watch it and smile knowingly about the good, the bad and the ugly of this city we call home. Hope to share some experiences with you soon. Beth E. Concepción Editor, The Marquis A Publication for Lafayette Square marquis@lafayettesquare.org Letter from the LSNA President B y C hris B udde Letter from the Editor B y B eth E. C oncepción