Celebrate Earth Day at Little Creek Nature Area
Come visit Little Creek Nature Area on April 21 and help to plant trees.
FROM THE NEWS WIRE:
The public is invited to celebrate Earth Day by exploring the wonders of Little Creek Nature Area on April 21.
Little Creek Nature Area is a unique outdoor classroom that offers hands-on science education to more than 11,000 students and several thousand North County community members each year. It consists of 96-acres of prairie, farm and forest land owned and operated by the Ferguson- Florissant School District.
Little Creek’s Earth Day celebration is chock full of adventure for nature lovers. Participants’ first stop is to check-in at the high school building at Little Creek for pastries and coffee before enjoying all or a few of the morning activities. The celebration schedule includes the following:
- 7 to 8am Jog up to five nature trails or bird watch
- 10am to noon Walk the trails
- 8am to noon Plant trees, pull honeysuckle and help tend the gardens
“Our Earth Day celebration gives us a unique opportunity to share all that Little Creek has to offer with the community. Most people wouldn’t expect to find a “natural treasure chest” in the middle of a bustling city, but here we are,” said Eric Hadley, science and Little Creek coordinator, of the area surrounded by urban development.
“We have winding creeks and beautiful ponds. We have prairie, farm and forest land. We are the home to countless living creatures. We even have hiking trails. You can‟t help but feel a sense of peace, calm and connection with the earth when you visit. Everything at Little Creek points to nature, even the names of our landmarks,” he said. That explains why Little Creek‟s newest addition, Discovery Pond, is in good company with bridges named “Raccoon,” “Rabbit” and “Turkey” just around the bend.
“We‟re inviting everyone to come enjoy nature with us,” Hadley said. Those interested in participating should RSVP by April 19 at bstephenson@fergflor.org
Little Creek Nature Area is located at 2295 Dunn Road, 63033.
Cobra Starship headlining UMSL’s Mirthday
The pop band Cobra Starship will perform at UMSL on April 18.
FROM THE NEWS WIRE:
If you can believe Gabe Saporta, he started Cobra Starship when an introspective desert trip turned trippy with hallucinations that followed a venomous snakebite. Supposedly the snake spoke, telling the then lead singer of emo-punk band Midtown to stop taking himself so seriously.
No problem for Saporta, who initially formed Cobra Starship to record a kitschy theme song for the campy Samuel L. Jackson-led film “Snakes on a Plane.” What’s no joke is that Saporta took an apparent one-off side project with a minor soundtrack hit and turned his band of dance-rock jesters into a successful group that has churned four albums and several hit singles.
Touring behind their latest album, “Night Shades,” Cobra Starship will headline this year’s Mirthday concert April 18 at the Blanche M. Touhill Performing Arts Center at the University of Missouri–St. Louis. Breathe Carolina, The Ready Set and Twenty One Pilots will open the show, which will begin at 7 p.m. Tickets are $5 for UMSL students and $20 for the general public.
Mirthday is UMSL’s annual springtime student celebration. The day begins with a carnival from noon to 4:30 p.m. in parking lots C and D (adjacent to the Millennium Student Center on North Campus) and ends with the concert at the Touhill.
Click here or below to view the video to Cobra Starship’s biggest hit, “You Make Me Feel …”
Cheers to Ferguson Brewing on 2 great years!
Six or seven years ago, when Joe Lonero and I would sit in a parking lot somewhere and kick around ideas for downtown Ferguson, I don’t think either of us ever envisioned the day when he would be running a wildly successful microbrewery. But things have a way of falling into place when Joe gets involved, so it’s not exactly a surprise either.
It was his hard work and creative vision that gave birth to Ferguson Brewing Company, and Joe was right there, getting his hands dirty, every single step of the way. Of course, as many readers know, he ran into some health problems last year and is still fighting for a full recovery. But I think it’s a great testament to his leadership and business acumen (and that of his son Mike) that the microbrewery has continued to grow and thrive even without him directly at the helm.
April marks the two-year anniversary of Joe’s brilliant labor of love, and I know I’m not the only who plans to raise a glass and join him in celebrating! This Saturday, April 14, the Brewhouse is hosting a big birthday party from 1-5pm, and I will definitely be there.
Tickets are $25 and include beer samples from 15 different local breweries - Augusta Brewing Company, Crown Valley Brewing, Buffalo Brewing, Morgan Street Brewery, William K Busch Brewing, Square One Brewery, Perinial Artisan Ales, Griesedieck Brothers, Charleville Brewing, 4 Hands Brewing, Urban Chestnut, Kirkwood Station, Trailhead Brewing, Cathedral Square, Six Row Brewing, and Ferguson Brewing. You can also enjoy light snacks, live music and a souvenir glass.
So what do you say? Wanna join me in a toast of North County’s first and only microbrewery? You can grab your tickets right here.
Another North County first: Jones vs. Mayer
What happened on this North County street in the 1960s changed the course of civil rights legislation for the entire United States.
Forty-four years ago this week, Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated at a Memphis motel. Riots erupted. National Guard troops surrounded the Capitol building in Washington. And with much of the nation on edge, Congress decided to act quickly on a new civil rights bill, passing the Fair Housing Act, which outlawed discrimination in the sale or rental of a home.
This landmark legislation continues to have a major impact today, regulating the behavior of every single homeowner and real estate agent in the country. But what many Americans forget is that there was also a second “fair housing” milestone in 1968, solidifying anti-discrimination laws in the US Constitution, and it resulted from a Supreme Court case that started right here in North County.
In 1965, a social worker named Barbara Jones fell in love with a display home in Paddock Woods, a new subdivision being built by the Alfred H. Mayer Company in unincorporated NoCo. She and her husband, Joseph, who owned a bail bonds business, found their perfect lot on a street called Hyde Park (not far from Parker Road) and proceeded to make an offer of $28,195 – about $192,000 in today’s dollars.
Unfortunately, there was a hitch…
Joseph & Barbara Jones in 1968 (Photo by Buel White/Post-Dispatch)
Because Joseph was black, the Mayer Company refused to sell to the Joneses.
Eventually the couple purchased another home, three miles away in Florissant’s Las Lomas subdivision, but not before filing a lawsuit against Mayer with the help of a local activist group. Citing the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which guarantees the right of all citizens to inherit, purchase, lease, sell, hold, and convey real and personal property, their lawyer argued that the statute applied not only to transactions with the government but also to private parties.
He initially lost that argument, first in the Eastern District Court of Missouri, then in the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. But in April 1968, the case was finally heard by the US Supreme Court and the Joneses were vindicated. The court ruled in their favor and they settled for $2,000 from the Mayer Company, plus legal costs. But the story doesn’t end there.
For one, Joseph and Barbara divorced soon after. She moved to Nevada with their daughter, and he remained in the home at 2030 Valencia in Las Lomas, where sadly he was stabbed to death by his brother in 1974.
Alfred H. Mayer, on the other hand, lived until 2002, and it turns out he may not have been quite the villain he was made out to be. Although he never denied discriminating against the Joneses, recent interviews with his family members reveal that Mayer actually welcomed the lawsuit.
The builder of several North County subdivisions, including Paddock Forest, Paddock Estates and Wedgewood, he was one of the few St. Louis developers who would sell homes to black people in the 60s. But it came at a cost. As soon as he sold to a black family, white families would move out, and Mayer reportedly longed for the day when other builders could no longer discriminate.
Perhaps that’s why he did a curious thing in 1965. When the local activist group that helped Joseph & Barbara Jones sent out an appeal for funds, they received a $100 check from none other than Alfred H. Mayer. Attached was a simple, hand-written note: “I hope I will lose this case.”
He did lose, of course, but change was slow to come. In fact, a full 30 years after the Jones vs. Mayer decision, in 1998, one of St. Louis’ largest real estate firms, Gundaker, was sued by the Metropolitan St. Louis Equal Housing Opportunity Council and the city of Florissant for racial discrimination.
During an audit for the case, it was determined that five out of seven North County real estate offices (including two owned by Gundaker) were repeatedly “steering” African-Americans to certain neighborhoods. Ironically, one of those neighborhoods was Paddock Woods, where Joseph & Barbara Jones were turned away in 1965.
Thanks to Mira Tanna of the St. Louis EHOC for some of the information in this article.
Are you getting ready for the big day? NOCO is a proud sponsor of the 3rd annual Live Well Ferguson 5K