Check out HandleBar, the new bar/cafe opening up at 4127 Manchester in the Grove. This new establishment will serve local brews, custom drinks, and healthly, local craveable snacks. The bar and cafe is centered around bicycling culture, locality, and community.

There will be a soft opening this Friday, September 3 and after party for Stan Chisholm’s New Pop II art exhibit.

 For more information, read on here.

Congratulations to the Botanical Heights Community Garden, who won a grant through a national competition to receive an orchard from the Fruit Tree Planting Foundation of California (underwritten by Edy’s Fruit Bars). Winners receive funds for fruit trees, berry bushes, and drip irrigation system. Five winners are chosen each month, as determined by an on-line voting process. August was the last month and opportunity for the Botanical Heights Community Garden to win. Thanks to community organizing, led by Nancy Symeonoglou and Barb Snell of the Botanical Heights Neighborhood Association, the community garden received 11,025 votes, leaving them in third place.

Botanical Heights Community Garden is part of an ambitious redevelopment project that is partially sponsored by the Missouri Botanical Garden. Last year, Botanical Heights residents installed a community garden as a neighborhood beautification project and also as a way to make fresh, healthy food available to residents of the neighborhood. An orchard would be a helpful expansion of the garden and would allow members to grow additional produce which would be made available to neighbors. Fruit trees and shrubs would also greatly enhance the garden in a highly visible way and help the neighborhood be a beautiful place to live with adequate green spaces.

The Fruit Tree Planting Foundation will provide high-quality fruit trees and shrubs, organic soil amendments, equipment, planting volunteers, and on-site orchard design work, horticultural workshops, and aftercare training with the goal of improving the surrounding environment and providing a source of healthy nutrition for the community. The foundation will also coordinate all aspects of the planting, and offer an educational experience for volunteers interested in learning more about tree planting. Free community arboricultural workshops are also available the day of the planting. Planting will take place next Spring.

Thank you to everyone who voted for the community garden and made this possible!

Manchester streetscape improvements are underway, but the planning cannot be completed without help and feedback from Manchester street business owners. If you have not yet responded to the following, please send in your response by Friday, September 3 at 5 p.m.

1) Would you like to keep the current trees in front of your business, or would you rather replace them with new, young trees? The tree locations will not change.

2) Are you interested in having a bike rack and/or trash can near your business? Please share your preferences on bike rack and trash can placement.

Please email Chris Colizza at c.colizza@sbcglobal.net with your answers.

Turned down from a loan because of your credit? Make 2010 the year that you increase your credit score! Mission: St. Louis and Justine Petersen are offering a free Credit Building Workshop. The workshop will take place at the Bridge of Hope at 1201 Tower Grove on September 11 from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. 

Topics covered include: how credit is an asset, how to save money with your credit score, how to take care of bad dept, how to apply for a personal loan, and more.

Advanced registration is requried by September 10. Contact Andy Hansen at 314-773-0200 or at andy@missionstl.org to register.

You can learn more about Mission: St. Louis at www.missionstl.org and  about Justine Petersen at www.justinepetersen.org.

Botanical Heights Community Garden is in a national competition to receive an orchard from the Fruit Tree Planting Foundation of California (underwritten by Edy’s Fruit Bars). Winners receive funds for fruit trees, berry bushes, and drip irrigation system. Five winners are chosen each month, as determined by an on-line voting process. August is the last month and this is the last chance for Botanical Heights Community Garden to win!

Botanical Heights Community Garden is part of an ambitious redevelopment project that is partially sponsored by the Missouri Botanical Garden. Last year, Botanical Heights residents installed a community garden as a neighborhood beautification project and also as a way to make fresh, healthy food available to residents of the neighborhood. An orchard would be a helpful expansion of the garden and would allow members to grow additional produce which would be made available to neighbors. Fruit trees and shrubs would also greatly enhance the garden in a highly visible way and help the neighborhood be a beautiful place to live with adequate green spaces.

Currently, Botanical Heights is at the top five in third place, a few votes behind second and several hundred ahead of sixth. However, while this may seem like a comfortable lead, those following the voting progress are well aware of how easily the competition changes. For example, a group from North Carolina coming from seventh place,  in a matter of days, accumulated thousands of votes to move into first.

At the moment, Botanical Heights Community Garden needs everyone’s support during the critical final voting period. Please help the garden win this competition and help the neighborhood be nationally recognized for something positive.

Voting is easy, just follow these simple steps:

• Go to:  www.communitiestakeroot.com
• Click on:   Vote for a Community
• Select:   List By State
• Select:   Botanical Heights Community Garden
• Enter your name and email address (you will NOT receive any marketing or solicitation emails).  You also must type two validation words.
• Click on “Plant My Vote” to cast your vote.
• You will receive a confirmation email.  You MUST click on the link to validate your vote.

You may vote once a day (per email address), and the final voting period is until midnight PST August 31st.

Alderman Roddy introduction

Brent Crittenden presents the Green Redevelopment plan

Olga Symeonoglou explains voting for the Botanical Heights Community Garden

Park Central Development and Alderman Joe Roddy hosted City Talk yesterday, August 23. The event featured speaker Brent Crittenden, who presented a new Green Redevelopment project on the 42xx block of McRee in Botanical Heights. Crittenden showed projected models of to be constructed homes, as well as streetscape improvements for McRee Ave such as rain gardens and facade improvements. The development project will serve to stabilize the western portion of Botanical Heights. Crittenden also presented a proposed streetscape plan for Tower Grove Ave, which would take advantage of the street as a major thoroughfare in St. Louis and encourage commercial development, as well as create a walkable and liveable street which would include single lane traffic, parallel parking, and separated bike lanes.

Volunteers from Botanical Heights also set up laptops and helped people at the event vote for the Botanical Heights Community Garden in an online voting competition for a grant that would provide money for fruit trees, berry bushes, and a drip-irrigation system. Thanks to everyone’s help, the community garden has risen from 8300 to 8600 votes in the past day. However, voters are encouraged to continue voting every day until August 31 at www.communitiestakeroot.com.

Last Friday was the FPSE Back to School Neighborhood Bash. The purpose of the event was to bring the Forest Park Southeast community together as well as get children and families excited for the beginning of the school year. The event drew over 100 people, including students, families, and community members, and included food, local bands and children’s activities. Donations were given by Mission St. Louis, Park Central Development, Atomic Cowboy, Bridge of Hope, and Schnucks. A special thanks to Mission St. Louis for staffing volunteers and Layla Maines, volunteer and Forest Park Southeast resident, for organizing the event!

Chris Colizza joined Park Central Development as Executive Assistant last week. Chris brings a variety of community planning experience to his position at PCD. In Cincinnati, Chris worked at SmartMoney Community Services, where he assisted low-income residents with homeownership counseling and business coaching. Chris also has done business coaching and HIV/AIDS education in Ethiopia, where he served as Peace Corps Volunteer for 2 years. He has also done planning work with OKI, the Regional Council of Governments in Cincinnati and the City of Charlottesville, VA.

Chris has a Bachelor’s from the University of Virginia, and a Master’s (Urban Planning) from the University of Cincinnati.

He, his wife Liz, and his dog Curdis, live in Tower Grove South.

This Friday, August 20 is the Forest Park Southeast Back to School Neighborhood Bash, an event for the community and school-aged children to celebrate the start of the school year. The free event will include food, drink, live music, children’s activities such as games and face-painting, and much more.

FPSE Back to School Neighborhood Bash will take place starting at 4 p.m. at Adams Elementary (1311 Tower Grove). It is supported by Mission St. Louis, Park Central Development, Bridge of Hope, Atomic Cowboy, and Schnucks.

Volunteers are needed! If interested in helping out with set-up or break-down, contact Layla Maines at layla.maines@missionstl.org or (618)514-2745

In September, Virginia Publishing will produce the second ever Forest Park South Community Directory, which will list businesses and contain information about Forest Park Southeast, Botanical Heights, Kings Oak, and Cheltenham.

You can be a part of this annual directory by advertising in the booklet, which will be distributed to residents and businesses throughout the area. It’s a great way to give your business a full year of exposure with just one ad.

If interested, please click here for the form and return it to Tammy Brownfield at 1436 Gregg, St. Louis, MO 63139.

Deadline is Friday, August 13, though late submissions may be accepted.