Globe Newsmagazine, March 2018, Issue 6, Vol. 89

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THE CLAYTON DINING SCENE Featuring Sardella and Pastaria’s Gerard Craft among other Clayton restaurateurs.

page 21 issue 6, volume 89 Clayton High School. Clayton, MO. March 2018.

T H A N K Y O U TO OUR SPONSORS! The Globe is an entirely self-funded publication. We receive no funding from the school district for printing. Each issue of the Globe costs approximately $2000 to print. We are deeply grateful to our sponsors for their support of our publication. They make our work possible. If you are interested in becoming a sponsor, please email us at globe@claytonschools.net.

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WORLD TRAVELER SPONSORS ($100+ Level) N o r t h w e s t C o f f e e T h e C h o F a m i l y T h e L a G e s s e S t a n t o n F a m i l y T h e Yo u k i l i s F a m i l y T h e S h a r m a K h a n n a F a m i l y The Brennan Family T h e A l t h o u s e r K r u t z s c h F a m i l y The Gatter Family T h e K i m F a m i l y T h e B r o w n F a m i l y T h e H i g u c h i F a m i l y The Joseph Family T h e S t u r m o s k i F a m i l y The Andes Family T h e V a l l u r u p a l l i F a m i l y The Abburi Family J a n e C r o s s T h e C u r t i s F a m i l y E u g e n e C r o s s C h a r l o t t e d e S a u v a g e N o l t i n g B o b a n d B e t s y C u n e o The Stemmler Family M i s s o u r i F o o t 2a n d A n k l e Cursed Bikes and Coffee 2 SPONSORS 3

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contents march 2018 issue 6, volume 89

Locked and Loaded: Gun Culture in Missouri Cover: The Clayton Dining Scene Sophie Thompson: Athlete Profile Opinion: Clayton’s Political Climate

Pastaria has become a local restaurant icon. The Globe profiles Clayton restaurants and restaurateurs on Page 21 (Photo by Michael Melinger).

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CONTENTS

GL

STAFF

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EDITORS-IN-CHIEF

SENIOR MANAGING EDITORS

Noah Brown and M itali Sharma

Madeline Bale

CHIEF DIGITAL EDITOR

M ichael Bernard Charlie Brennan

Lauren Prais s

J acob LaGes se

CHIEF PHOTO EDITOR

SECTION EDITORS

Michael Melinger

Justin Guilak, NEWS

COPY EDITOR

L i l a T a y l o r , F E AT U R E

N e e l Va l l u r u p a l l i

Daniel Cho, SPORTS

CHIEF VIDEO EDITOR

Olivia Joseph, OPINION

Sean Kim

Richard Cheng , RE VI EW

GRAPHICS EDITOR

REPORTERS

Lizzy Mills

BUSINESS MANAGER Daniel Cohen

PAGE EDITORS

Ashley Chung

Sophia Thompson

J osephine Cross

S a m Yo u k i l i s

Camille Curtis

Hongkai Jiang

Sam Fehr

S a n Kw o n

S a m Ze i d

Ka t i e H e

J a n e Ka l i n a

Ke i l a n M o r r i s e y

Ca therine Walsh

Sophie Bernstein

Cody Krutzsch

Laura Par vu lescu

N ikki Seraji

Maddy Ackerburg

Paul Liu

Philip Stahl

Grace Snelling

Lise Dersken

James Malone

Junyi Su

Ka t i e S n e l l i n g

Mariclare Ga tter

Neema Naemi

Victor Wei

Sarah Baker

Gracie Morris

William Redington

Noor J era th

Sara S temmler

Theo Fehr

Leo Thoma s

Za ch a r y Fi s h e r

PHOTOGRAPHERS Synthia Baer

Fiona McGuire

Erin Brown

Alexandra Hardie

Barrett Bentzinger

Jovan Miller

Isabella Clark

Paige Holmes

Elizabeth Cordova

Mallory Palmer

Za ch a r y C o b l e

Xuenan Jin

Alex Darmody

Sophia Ryan

Cindy Combs

Caroline Marsden

Ella Engel

Saniya Sah

Ka t h r y n C o o p e r

Ka t h e r i n e O w i n g s

Catherine Holtzman

Annika Sandquist

Gwen Duplain

Mia Redington

I sheeta Khurana

Emma Siegel

Madison Gudmestad

Madison Rudd

Professional Affiliations: Sponsors of School Publications, Missouri Interscholastic Press Association, Missouri Journalism Education Association, National Scholastic Press Association, Columbia Scholastic Press Association

F R O M T H E E D I TO R 6 p.m. Dinnertime in the Praiss family household.

Every night, Monday through Friday, my family gathers around the kitchen table to share a meal. Whether we eat a home-cooked dish or take-out, this is our family tradition. We unwind by openly sharing with each other the events of our day.

Ever since I was little, I remember sitting across the long wooden table from my two older brothers, Aaron and Zach. We would go down the line from oldest to youngest child telling what happened at school. Being the baby of the family, I always went last and usually ended up having the least amount of time to run through my day. However, in just half an hour, the meal brought my family together.

As the years have passed and my brothers have moved outof-town, the five full chairs surrounding the table have turned to three. As the last remaining child, I finally get to share my day with my parents. However, since Aaron and Zach are still aware of this continuing tradition: one brother invariably calls home nearly every night. No matter how old they are and where they live, my brothers still want to be part of this family tradition.

My family also often comes together for a special dinner on Sundays. With my grandparents living less than a mile away, we invite them to join us for Sunday dinner, along with a good family friend, Bill Gleiber. While eating dinner, it is wonderful to hear stories from their past, or have engaging conversations, discussing politics and local news.

I cherish the dinners I share with family and friends. These are the dinners I will miss the most next year when I am in college. I will miss the moments of storytelling and laughter while enjoying a meal together.

For this issue’s cover story, we highlight the eclectic variety of restaurants in Clayton. I recommend that you take advantage of these restaurants, having a great meal with your family and friends. Reflect on what is happening in your life and simply enjoy the time together.

Whether it’s 6 p.m., 8 p.m., or anytime, share a meal with the loved ones in your life -- these are the memories you will treasure for the rest of your life.

The Globe Newsmagazine exists to inform, enter tain, persuade and represent the student voice at CHS. All content decisions are made by the student editorial staff, and the Globe is an entirely self-funded publication. Not every story that our repor ters write is published in the print newsmagazines . Visit www. chsglobe.com for additional stories and photos and for more information about the Globe itself. We reser ve the right to refuse any adver tisement - for more information about adver tising and subscriptions, please contact our office: Clayton High School Globe 1 M a r k Tw a i n C i r c l e C l a y t o n , M O 6 31 0 5 ( 314 ) 8 5 4 - 6 6 6 8 globe@claytonschools.net

lauren praiss @l.praiss CHIEF DIGITAL EDITOR

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LETTER

The Clayton High School musical, “Sister Act,” starred Iman Jamison as Deloris Van Cartier.

Jamison leads a chorus of her fellow sisters.

Photo by Eric Woolsey

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Clayton Coyotes Recently, wild coyotes have been spotted more frequently in many St. Louis neighborhoods than before, including Clayton. In their search for food and water, coyotes have become more comfortable entering residential areas. Concerns have arisen among citizens as dogs have already been killed by the packs, and police have issued warnings about the coyotes.

(Photo by Christopher Bruno from Wikimedia)

On Wednesday, Feb. 14, a high school in southern Florida was shocked by an attack from an armed shooter. Nikolas Cruz, 19, was a recently expelled student who had participated in white nationalist groups and drills in Tallahassee prior to the shooting. Cruz entered the school with a legally obtained AR-15, pulled the fire alarm and began to open fire on students and teachers moving into the hallway. The shooting resulted in 17 casualties along with 15 hospitalized victims.

The survivors of the shooting have spoken out against the National Rifle Association and are pressing legislature to place higher restrictions on firearms. These students have organized a March for Our Lives on March 14 which will take place in Washington D.C. and just recently traveled to Tallahassee to demand a ban on assault weapons.

While more students were on the bus to join the group in Tallahassee, many of the survivors watched as Florida representatives failed to even give the assault rifles bill a hearing. The students continue to protest, speak out, and push the legislature for change. Sister movements run by high school students are occuring across the country.

Russian Bots Jump on Florida Shooting After the news of the Florida shooting was released, fake twitter accounts with ties to Russia got involved in the U.S. gun control debate. Called “bots,” these accounts sent out hundreds of posts siding with extreme opinions on the gun control issue and used hashtags like #gunreformnow and #parklandshooting.

ARCH MADNESS BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

1-4 MARCH ST. PATRICK’S DAY PARADE

17 MARCH SCHAFLY STOUT AND OYSTER FESTIVAL

23-24 MARCH Students and the community come together for a vigil remembering those lost in the Parkland, Florida school shooting.

(Jim Rassol/Sun Sentinel/TNS)

North Korean Meeting Canceled While in PyeongChang in South Korea for the 2018 Winter Olympics, Vice President Mike Pence had planned to seize the opportunity and secretely meet with North Korean officials. However, according to the State department, the North Koreans backed out of the meeting last minute.

News and Notes

Florida School Shooting

THINGS TO DO

JASON WILSON

A NEWS

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s an African-American entrepreneur, you’re always working overtime to make it work, to secure capital, to gain large contracts,” Jason Wilson, owner of Northwest Coffee Roasting, Clayton parent, faculty fellow at Washington University and candidate

for the School District of Clayton’s Board of Education(BOE), said.

If elected, Wilson would become the first African-American member of Clayton’s Board of Education, but, for him, this title is not a trophy. Rather, it is a dose of reality. The year is 2018, and there has never been an African-American member of the Board; that, to Wilson, is unsettling.

Wilson’s decision to run for a position on the BOE came as he encouraged his sons Julian and Jason to keep it moving.

They had to move past the fact that a student at Captain Elementary had told 9-year-old Jason that he was not attractive or smart because of his race. Even though his son might have been able to shake that off, it was because he, as a child, was not aware of the significance of his classmate’s actions.

“I know what’s going on and I’m not letting it slide,” Wilson said.

“This is third grade. What happened to my son Jason, it brought me to tears.”

To Wilson, this interaction seemed inevitable.

“Every day I’m thinking the conversation about race is going to happen sooner or later, he’s gonna get called a name, someone will say something crazy to him, it’s gonna happen. You’re always bracing yourself for these moments as a parent, as a black parent,” Wilson said.

Experiencing a sort of call to action, Wilson decided that joining the Board of Education would be the best way to take a stand to promote diversity and equity which he sees as areas with potential for improvement in Clayton.

To be clear, Wilson does believe that Clayton is a welcoming community, yet he feels that the racism in Clayton is dismissed for fear of damaging public perception.

The Globe profiles the first ever African-American candidate for Clayton’s Board of Education Despite the liberal, culturally and ethnically diverse reputation that Clayton bears, from Wilson’s experience, the track record tells a different story. As owner of Northwest Coffee, Wilson is no stranger to subtle racism. Shortly after buying the business in December of 2012, Wilson noticed a shift.

“When people found out [the owner] was an African-American man, I definitely started seeing a decline in customers ...

Now I hear these little whispers of conversations taking place, but the thing is, that doesn’t stop me from wanting to be in the game,” he said.

Instead, these experiences motivate Wilson to acknowledge the underlying racial and class tensions that permeate Clayton. In terms of specific goals, Wilson’s main objectives are to establish diversity training in the District and to increase the number of African-American staff.

“From the Board, to the administrators, to the principals, to the teachers, to the custodian supporting staff. I’m not saying they need to all be black, but there needs to be more than one black teacher in the school. Let Jason and Julian, my sons, get a touch of one person in the school that looks like them that is not doing custodial work all the time,” Wilson said. “It’s hard at home to try to communicate things to your kid when he goes to school in a kind of environment where no one looks like him, and his world that he is growing up in is different.”

Wilson is adamant that diversity training will decrease racial and class tension.

“People who are resistant [will] quit, or they’ll do a better job of understanding. They don’t have to necessarily change their personal beliefs, but they need to do a better job of communicating with people of a different ethnicity,” Wilson said.

For Wilson, the push for diversity does not have to stop there. He hopes that he can add to the perspectives present on the BOE. “People are making decisions about a collective that is diverse, but then it is not really a diversified group making the decisions. I want to make sure that African Americans have some ‘say-so’ in this process ... I can communicate some things that are going on, and also be a part of what is going on,” Wilson said.

He further emphasized that he does not want to sit on the BOE for the sake of his own agenda; rather, he feels that he can contribute to the group through representation of minority voices in Clayton.

While Wilson does speak frankly about the existence of class and racial issues in Clayton, he also sees great progress and great potential for future advancement in these areas, but all of that starts with the children. He holds firm in his belief that how we teach our children to treat others impacts them for the rest of their lives.

“Just keep moving. That’s what I do,” Wilson said. “That’s what I’ve always done. You just keep moving.”

Jason Wilson being interviewed inside his Clayton coffee shop, Northwest Coffee.

Photo by Elizabeth Cordova.

MEET THE INCUMBENTS JENARO CENTENO Jenaro Centeno is currently a director of the Board of Education. He was elected to the board in 2015 and is running for re-election this year. Centeno graduated from with a Bachelor of Science, Master of Science, and MBA from the University of Maryland and has two daughters in the school district and one who graduated from CHS.

AMY RUBIN Amy Rubin is currently treasurer of the Board of Education. She was elected to the board in 2015 and is running for re-election this year. Rubin graduated from the University of Georgia with a Bachelor of Arts and received her Juris Doctor from the St. Louis University School of Law. She has two children at Glenridge Elementary School.

samantha zeid @samstl PAGE EDITOR

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NEWS

T H E B A R TO N B A L L A D

All visuals in this story were provided The Barton. etter watch out, Greyhounds; there’s a new softball team in town.

Going by the name “The Barton Ballers,” the team will compete in the City of Clayton’s recreational league in Shaw Park. It will consist of residents of The Barton, Clayton’s newest apartment complex.

Neighboring CHS, The Barton is currently in its final stages of construction. The construction began in early 2016 and is expected to last until this spring, at which point about 100 of the 229 apartments will open. The rest of the building will be finished in stages, with a full completion expected in June.

The idea for the complex, however, has existed for much longer. About seven years ago, the process began with ideas, architecture and design, city approval and, finally, breaking ground.

Considered a “mixed-use space”, The Barton will provide three units of retail space as well as its residential offerings. One of these spaces has been leased to The Exercise Coach, a personal training business. The other two have not yet been decided. The inclusion of retail space in development allows for an increased density of residential spaces, according to the City of Clayton’s Master Plan.

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“These are not your typical apartments,” said Leasing Manager Christine Whittaker. “People walk in and they feel like they are walking into a million-dollar home as opposed to an apartment.”

Beyond the high quality apartments--with wood floors, granite counter-tops, custom shelving and bathroom TVs--the residential amenities also put The Barton a cut above the rest. Everything from a heated saltwater pool to a climate controlled wine cellar helps make this complex more desirable. What distinguishes the Barton from other complexes in Clayton, however, is the sizable green space surrounding the complex.

“No other apartment community in Clayton has that because they’re more city-like,” said Whittaker. “Having a mid-rise community with all the amenities that we offer in the heart of Clayton is hard to do.”

Additionally, the “resident perks” program provides unique benefits and a closer connection to Clayton than any other apartment complex.

“There’s local businesses that said ‘If you’re a Barton resident, you get a discount at out establishment.’” Whittaker said. “No other place has a resident perks program. That’s definitely us creating a partnership with those businesses.” Among the list of partnering businesses are Giovanni’s Kitchen, Tani Sushi Bistro,

Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse and the Curtain Exchange.

Despite having such high-end apartments, The Barton’s renting rates stay relatively inexpensive.

“We’re actually lower than our competition, but yet our quality and product is probably a little bit higher than our competition,” Garcia said. “We did that purposely. We want to be wanted and desired, and when you have the perfect product and the perfect price, it fits.”

The Barton shares a unique connection with CHS. In 2016, The Barton sponsored the CHS annual golf tournament, which helps raise money for the CHS athletic department. According to Whittaker, they plan to sponsor it again this year.

The owners of The Barton at Covington Realty are also familiar with the school district.

Brian Kennedy, one of the partners with Covington, graduated from CHS himself in 1999.

“My experience [at CHS] really prepared me for college and helped me start my career,” Kennedy said. “It’s amazing to have the Barton so close to the high school.”

This familiarity of the area is what propelled Covington Realty to seek to build the Barton in Clayton.

“Clayton is just a desirable location,” Whittaker said. “The owners know how great the area is; they are local St. Louis people. You want to buy a home in a great school district, and Clayton is a great school district.”

The apartment building honors their connection to the city of St. Louis in some subtle ways.

“The Barton is actually the blossoming flower of the dogwood tree, which is the Missouri state tree,” said Whittaker. Additionally, each of the floor plan options in the building is named after

This shows the floor plan of “The Twain,” an 815 sq. ft. apartment located in inward facing corners of the building, such as spot 719 overlooking the pool area. The one bed/bath apartment is named after St. Louis writer and celebrity Mark Twain to honor the city’s culture and history.

a St. Louis celebrity. From ‘The Saarinen,’ after the designer of the arch, to ‘The Twain,’ each apartment honors an aspect of the city’s history.

According to Whittaker, more than anything else, what The Barton prides itself on is its commitment to the development of its own community of residents. There are plans for community service events and gatherings, similar to what the realty company has done at previous locations.

“There is something about charity work,” Whittaker said.

“You’re doing more than just writing a check. It really is getting out into the community and doing those good things.” Clearly this

idea of supporting the city has significant influence on The Barton’s goals, shown by their deep involvement in the community.

“We partner with St. Louis-area food banks, and we do food drives,” Whittaker said. “In the holiday season Salvation Army has this awesome thing where you can adopt families, and they tell us the parents age and their [clothing sizes] and the kids age and their sizes, different toys they want, and the whole community comes and signs up for what they want to donate.”

The Barton also plans to assist US troops overseas by hosting drives and sending care packages. In previous locations, the com-

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NEWS

munity managers gathered ten boxes worth of supplies and sent them along with handwritten notes from the residents.

Taking their community involvement beyond volunteer service, The Barton will also be partnering with its neighbor across Maryland Ave. -- The Women’s Exchange. By supporting a place which provides immigrants with work experience and a source of income, they hope to contribute to the

overall growth of the community.

What guides all of this contribution to Clayton is the basis of what makes living in The Barton different than any competing apartment complex: a “community within a community.”

“Neighbors get to know each other, and off the energy from donating to the Salvation army, they decide to do something a few months later on their own,” said Whittaker. “It’s our residents that help shape it, not just us.”

However, the organized service is not the only form of the Barton community.

From the Barton Ballers to “live/work” entrepreneurs who will use the retail space and live nearby in the complex, The Barton hopes to build a special connection between all of its residents.

“If you’re a Barton resident, you get to be a part of that,” said Whittaker. “Part of the perk when you live at the Barton is that

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you get to be a part of that. We want people to say ‘Hey, I want to live at The Barton. I want to be on the Barton Ballers. I want to help donate and do things with the community.’” This exclusive culture, along with the amenities and perks offered by the complex only make it a more desirable location.

Looking to the future, The Barton only hopes to grow what they already have planned to make.

“The world is really a busy place. When you can stop and do

something kind for another person, it causes a chain effect. There’s really something to that,” Whittaker said.

“We do what we can to help the Clayton community and the greater community. We have 350 people at our disposal. Let’s do some good with them.”

jacob lagesse @jlagesse95 SENIOR MANAGING EDITOR justin guilak @jguilak NEWS SECTION EDITOR

LOCKED & LOADED

A look into St. Louis and Missouri’s gun culture and ongoing political debate

I.

II.nation & state

Jessica Coleman had a one-month old baby when the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut left 26 young children and teachers dead in 2012. Coleman sat sobbing, feeding her daughter while watching the coverage of the massacre.

“I looked down at her, and I’ve always been concerned about gun violence -- it’s something that’s always bugged me -- but when that happened I thought: we just allowed 7-year-old children to get massacred in their school where they should feel safe. And then I watched Congress do nothing about it,” Coleman said.

Desperate to get politicians working to end such gun violence, Coleman came across Moms Demand Action, a national gun control organization founded in 2012 in response to the Sandy Hook shooting. Three years after attending meetings and getting further involved, Coleman became the leader of the St. Louis chapter of the organization.

Although the Newtown tragedy drew her to Moms Demand Action, Coleman’s passion for gun-control advocacy also has local roots.

“Sandy Hook was what got me involved, what keeps me involved is all these mass shootings that we’re seeing, but then also St. Louis. I live in the City of St. Louis and there’s a horrible gun violence epidemic,” Coleman said. “There’s a Sandy Hook in St. Louis every week for a lot of families. I think it’s important for us to remember that it’s the mass shootings which get all the news coverage, but the day to day drumbeat of gun violence, especially in places like St. Louis, is really devastating.”

Coleman continues to hold the reins of the St. Louis chapter with her co-lead, fighting not only for national political action but also change at the state and local levels. However, even with high rates of gun violence in St. Louis and Missouri, and of course, across the nation, gun control remains a controversial and divisive issue.

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On Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018, a 19 year-old ex-student killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. According to Everytown for Gun Safey, it is the 18th school shooting in the U.S. since the advent of 2018 and the 2nd deadliest school shooting ever.

For CHS senior Sol Kwon, who immigrated to the U.S. from South Korea when he was around 5-years-of-age, school shootings like this were a major concern for his parents.

“My mom and dad were very worried about the fact that somebody could just take a gun from the local store and then just use it to shoot anybody with,” Kwon said.

These loose restrictions around gun ownership and the prevalence of American gun violence in newspaper headlines stood in contrast to what Kwon experienced in Korea, and he even noticed this on vacations back in his country of origin.

“When I went back [to South Korea] from time to time, I was rather surprised that there were no reports at all regarding guns even regarding if there’s any murders or suicides that were covered in the national news or local news. Mostly they were not really gun related. I think that was a huge difference that we saw between there and America. [Gun violence] wasn’t really much of an issue,” Kwon said.

Guns are not completely outlawed in South Korea, according to Kwon. Still, the culture and level of restriction on gun usage varies greatly from the American model.

“Some people do actually use guns for hunting and sport, which there isn’t really much in Korea because it’s a really densely populated country. But in such cases like hunting and sport you need to have a special permit for that. And even if you do get that permit for the guns, they are usually kept safely in the local police station,” Kwon said.

According to GunPolicy.org, a global firearm policy and pre-

vention database hosted by the University of Sydney’s Sydney School of Public Health, Korea only had 23 gun deaths in the entire nation in 2012 which amounted to 0.0 gun deaths per 100,000 people. In the same year, the United States had a total of 33,563 gun deaths which is equivalent to 10.69 gun deaths per 100,000 people.

While, as Kwon stated, guns are not fully outlawed in Korea, semiautomatic and automatic weapons are banned. This stands in stark contrast to the gun policies of the United States where the restrictions on automatic and semiautomatic weapons ranges from state to state. These powerful weapons tend to be the ones seen in mass shootings.

From Newton to San Bernardino to Vegas to Parkland, one semi-automatic model dominates them all: the AR-15. Nikolas Cruz, the suspect in the Florida massacre, obtained his AR-15 legally -- the semi-automatic rifles were only banned nationally from 1994 to 2004 and present Florida laws are quite lenient allowing easy purchase of the firearms. In fact, the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, a gun-control advocacy organization, gave Florida an “F” rating for its lax gun laws.

However, in the same annual “Gun Law State Scorecard,” Florida was not listed as one of the ten states with the highest rates of gun deaths. Rather, Alabama, Alaska, South Carolina, Montana, Wyoming, New Mexico, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Missouri made the list.

The openness of Missouri’s gun laws began in 2007 when lawmakers in Jefferson City repealed the permit-to-purchase handgun law which required those seeking to buy a gun to undergo a background check by national or state law enforcement agencies in order to receive a permit allowing this transaction.

“Since that time, our legislature has chipped away at our gun laws with things like open carry and the thing that came in January which was permitless carry and stand your ground, which Governor Nixon had vetoed but they overrode it and that basically eliminated permit and training requirements to carry guns,” Coleman said. “While that hasn’t been explicitly studied yet, we can see that homicide rates have increased, gun assault rates have increased, carjacking rates have increased, thefts have increased so you can’t help but think that the cities are kind of suffering because of what the state legislature is doing.”

Despite the effects of the newest policies loosening gun restrictions not having been studied, the 2007 repeal of permit-to-carry was. In 2013, a study was published by the Center for Gun Policy and Research in the John Hopkins School of Public Health detailing the spike in firearm homicides after a full year of the nonexistence of permit-to-purchase.

According to the study, Missouri’s firearm murder rate remained relatively constant, around 4.66 deaths per 100,000 people per year. After a year of no permit-to-purchase in 2008, the gun homicide rate increased from 4.66 to 6.23 per 100,000 people which was a 34% increase from the original average. This change did not adhere to any national or regional trends, only applying to the state of Missouri.

Such data and the increasing homicide rates have brought gun policy to the forefront of Missouri politics.

Currently there are more than 20 firearm bills proposed by both republicans and democrats in Missouri congress. While the few republican bills are attempting to further remove firearm restrictions, the majority of the proposals are by democrats representing the two main cities in Missouri -- St. Louis and Kansas City -- trying to pass gun control laws. However, Coleman believes that the gun lobby’s influence in Jefferson City will prevent any of these bills from becoming laws.

“We have a supermajority in the GOP and the gun lobby is just really entrenched there: they write these gun bills and then if they get to the floor for a vote, they pass because the National Rifle Association (NRA) is threatening and they will say ‘we’ll come after you if you don’t vote our way,’” Coleman said. “In private we’ve even had legislators tell us ‘I don’t want to vote for this bill but I have to,’ which isn’t how government is supposed to be run.”

The infiltration of the NRA in Missouri politics is evident through the NRA backing of Missouri senator Roy Blunt. Blunt has received $4,551,146 from the NRA -- for donations or to help his campaigns -- according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan research group.

Moms Demand Action, as a nonpartisan organization, is attempting to alter this status quo by connecting with republican members as well.

“We do have republican members here in Missouri and across the nation [although] we don’t have any republican politicians interested in joining us. We are not anti-seocnd amendment and we don’t want to take away anyone’s guns unless you’re a criminal or domestic abuser. We think [gun violence prevention] should be a bipartisan issue because it really already is,” Coleman said.

Especially in states like Missouri with a large rural population, the organization also is attempting to reach out to those communities whose representatives tend to be the ones following NRA interests.

“Our goal is to get as many people involved in the state as we can because a lot of legislators that sponsor what we call bad gun bills are from those rural areas so they really need to hear from people in there districts. People from St. Louis -- our voices might not be as meaningful to those legislators as people in their districts,” Coleman said. “I think there’s this misconception across Missouri that everybody in rural areas is against common sense gun laws which we’ve really found is not the case.”

III.urban & rural For Missouri House District 87 Representative Stacey Newman, who represents Clayton, gun violence prevention has been a major focus of her work in Missouri Congress and Newman has sponsored various gun control bills. The 2018 session will be Newman’s last session after 8 years of representing District 87 in the Missouri house; however, Newman seeks to pass on the torch of firearm control policies to Ian Mackey, who Newman has officially endorsed.

After growing up in Hickory County, Mackey recognizes the need to address the differences in opinion between urban and rural residents of Missouri.

“We’re a big state, and the places we live are very different.

Gun violence is not an issue in Hickory County, gun violence is not an issue in Barry County, and certainly not to the extent that it is here, so we ought to be able to have local laws, and local enforcement mechanisms that allow us to address the issue as a region, particularly the city as a city,” Mackey said. “That doesn’t mean that Hickory County and Barry County and other parts of rural Missouri have to enact the same laws, because they don’t struggle with the issue the way we do.”

CHS student Aaron* also believes that urban and rural areas should have different gun laws. As an avid hunter, Aaron appreciates the freedom to use guns due to the fun memories he has from hunting with his father. Still, Aaron feels that the dynamics of an area should determine the gun laws in that area.

“It depends on where you are. Even in the United States, some places like the bigger cities like New York, they have stricter gun laws, which they should because they have more people and there is no where to hunt in New York City. So, I think there should be stronger gun laws there. But, in Missouri or in other rural places, it is okay to have lenient gun laws,” Aaron said.

Kansas City and St. Louis are the two urban centers of Missouri. According to the St. Louis Police Department, there were 205 homicides in St. Louis in 2017 and there have already been 22 in 2018. Coleman believes that such high levels of gun homicides in the cities is a product of the lax state laws.

“Both [St. Louis] and Kansas City are two similar cities in the state and we’re both seeing gun homicide increasing so relating back to the state laws makes sense to me,” Coleman said.

Mackey is adamant that Missouri putting gun policy in the hands of local governments will be a powerful solution to urban violence.

“We don’t need Jeff City to pass bills to help us, we don’t need to convince everyone in rural Missouri that we need a specific piece of legislation or a specific bill. It would be great if we had the numbers, but we don’t, so rather than do that, it’s trying to get them to take their own advice that government works best when it’s local, big state and federal government is best when it’s small,” Mackey said. “So go ahead and be a small government and step back and let St. Louis create its own policy. That’s really where we stand the most to gain.”

by the numbers THE UNITED STATESre and ongoing po-

U.S. data from the New York Times

CLAYTON HIGH SCHOOLture and on-

IV.guns & teenagers According to a survey handed out to 150 randomly selected CHS students, 40.9% have some sort of firearm owned by their family. For CHS senior Jane*, owning guns is a part of her family’s lifestyle, and she is strongly against a ban on all guns.

“My family uses them for hunting, we’ve done that ever since my dad was little when he shot his first deer, and it’s just an activity we do on the weekends, and there’s shooting practice,” Jane said. “People enjoy guns not just to kill other people, actually a lot people who own guns don’t want to use them to kill other people; they want to use them to protect themselves, go hunting, do another recreational activity, or just have them in their house in case there’s like an armed robber or something.”

However, 77.6% of the CHS students surveyed do support increasing restrictions on gun availability and the types of guns available. Jane also believes that fully automatic guns should not be in the hands of ordinary citizens and recognizes the concern over semi-automatic weapons.

“I don’t see a reason for them to own [any automatic weapon], because you don’t use to go hunting, you don’t use it for shooting practice, it’s a bit unnecessary during a home defense since a shotgun would probably work, a rifle would probably work for home defense,” Jane said. “I know there’s a big problem with semi-automatic rifles. People are using bump-stocks on semi-automatic rifles, which kind of cause the rifle to become more automatic.”

After yet another semiautomatic weapon took the lives of high schoolers in Florida, high school students across the nation are planning to raise their voices in support of increased gun restrictions and against the special interests of the gun lobby.

The Women’s March Youth has organized a national school walkout at 10 a.m. on March 14 for 17 minutes in remembrance of the 17 lives lost in Florida. The survivors of the Florida school

Cover illustration from Los Angeles Times/TNS *students’ names have been changed shooting are also holding the March For Our Lives in Washington D.C. on March 24 and sister marches are being hold in solidarity across the country.

Coleman affirms that the voices of the youth can make a big difference in pushing legislature to pass gun control policies.

“I hope that kids reading this understand that your vote, especially in a state like this, is so important because we need to vote out people who are only working on behalf of special interests and also refuse to listen to constituents and refuse to look at what Missourians want over a gun lobby that’s too entrenched, in my opinion, in our legislature,” Coleman said.

mitali sharma @mitasharma EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

gracie morris @graciemorris827 PAGE EDITOR

with reporting by lauren praiss // chief digital editor

CORBO’S

Photo of David Corbo playing the violin. (Photo by Isheeta Khurana).

“When I played in front of people, I would get so nervous, and my right hand would shake so badly. How it used to be, every note I played would shake,” CHS junior and violinist David Corbo said.

When Corbo first began playing violin at Glenridge Elementary School in fourth grade, a combination of nerves and monotony made the experience underwhelming.

“I didn’t particularly enjoy playing the violin. It was just a daily thing that I really didn’t want to do,” Corbo said.

That all changed when Corbo attended a summer program for musicians two years ago. There, he played the first piece of music that truly made him love what he was doing: Dvorak’s 12th string quartet.

“I listened to it again when I got home, and suddenly everything felt so different. Then I started listening to more symphonies, and I really got into classical music,” Corbo said.

Shortly after developing a passion for music, Corbo began playing for Webster University’s Young People’s Symphonic Orchestra. In an effort to play even more, he also auditioned for the St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra (SLSYO more commonly referred to as YO). But as he mounted the stage of the otherwise empty Powell Hall to play for the judges sitting behind a drawn curtain, the nerves that had previously made it so difficult for him to play music in front of people once again settled in.

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“I struggled the most with playing in front of people. One of the reasons I failed the YO audition that first year was because my hand started shaking and making the notes sound all weird,” Corbo said.

Although he did not receive a place in YO that first year, Corbo went back to audition earlier this year.

“I definitely wanted to be a part of YO, so I immediately knew that I would audition again,” he said.

When he went back to Powell Hall for a second audition, he was no longer nervous.

“I had gotten a lot more practice playing in front of people, and a deep breath before I start always goes a long way. I think that second audition might have been the best audition I’ve ever done,” Corbo said.

The YO judges agreed, and Corbo now plays with the other first violins in the orchestra.

“YO can seem really intimidating and high pressure from the outside, especially during auditions, but once I got into it, I was most surprised by how chill it was,” Corbo said. “The first rehearsal was really intense, but once I got to know everybody, it’s really relaxed. It doesn’t feel too competitive. We’re all in the orchestra, and no one really needs more than that.”

Although the musicians in YO do not feel competitive toward

CHORDS “Ever since I played that first Dvorak quartet, I’ve been excited to practice and improve. I think it was just a matter of finding the right music. And after hearing that quartet, I think I finally started to appreciate how much work true professionals put into their music. I realized that, if I ever wanted to be even close to that level, I had to work a lot harder.” -David Corbo one another, they are all motivated to get as much practice as they can.

Like most of the other YO musicians, Corbo also auditioned for and received a spot in the Webster University Preparatory Program, a community music school designed to augment the music study of string musicians anticipating a future career in music.

Because the Preparatory Program consists of far fewer students than YO’s 100, the instruction feels more intimate for Corbo.

“Each cycle, the organizer puts together small chamber groups. We practice with and get coached by St. Louis Symphony Orchestra members, which is always an amazing experience, but Preparatory Program also makes me a bit more nervous. When you’re playing along with fewer people, it’s easier for everyone to hear everyone else,” Corbo said.

As Corbo learns to become more comfortable playing in front of others, he also grows more accustomed to teaching himself the pieces played by both groups.

“It’s important than people learn the piece by themselves so that rehearsals can be devoted to getting the right musicality. Rehearsals aren’t really for getting the notes down,” Corbo said.

In the process of becoming more self-reliant, Corbo has found a practice system that works for him. Everyday, he practices an average of 1.5 hours. During that time, he uses a practice mute which makes his violin quieter, and he then plays along with audio recordings of the pieces.

“When I get to a specific part that I struggle with, I look at it more closely and figure out the fingering and bowing.”

For that, Corbo does receive help. He recently started working with a new private teacher, a first violinist in the St. Louis symphony. Just recently, Corbo actually got to play alongside his teacher at Powell Hall when the youth orchestra spent their Saturday rehearsal working with the full St. Louis Symphony Orchestra.

Although he certainly enjoys rehearsal, Corbo’s favorite aspect of YO is the performances.

“Before becoming a part of YO, I’d never played in front of so many people. In the first cycle of YO, we played Dvorak’s 8th symphony, and Powell Hall was completely full. I was so nervous, but when we finished the last chord of the symphony and everyone was clapping, it was just so new and so … good,” Corbo said.

When he’s not playing in Powell Hall, it is likely that Corbo is sitting in the stands, watching the adult orchestra play. He attends most performances with his mother, who received formal instruction in playing the flute.

Although Corbo’s father never received formal musical training, he is equally interested in music. Self-taught on guitar and bass, Corbo’s father loves discussing classical and pop music with the rest of his family.

“One of my favorite aspects of David playing classical music is that I have been able to experience and enjoy it all vicariously,” Joseph Corbo said. “Watching David go through all of this has given me a second chance to experience and enjoy music. I love the passion David brings to his music.”

As Corbo immerses himself in music, his family has also noticed the impact that music has had on other aspects of Corbo’s life.

“I think the study of music has taught David self-discipline and what it means to be intensely passionate about a subject,” Joseph Corbo said. “Once you learn that feeling, you can apply it to other subjects in your life. For example, David’s interest in classical music has ignited a related interest in audio equipment. He can talk endlessly about the different electromagnetic mechanisms involved in headphone design and the various acoustic merits of different headphone types. I love the fact that one passion has engendered another in him, and I hope this process continues indefinitely.”

Although Corbo does not plan to major in music in college, he is considering pursuing a minor in music.

“I strongly believe that finding something you love and are truly passionate about is the surest route to sustained happiness in life. Since I want David to be happy in life, it truly pleases me that he has discovered a passion for music,” Joseph Corbo said.

As Corbo plays more and listens more, his passion for violin only grows.

“Ever since I played that first Dvorak quartet, I’ve been excited to practice and improve. I think it was just a matter of finding the right music. And after hearing that quartet, I finally started to appreciate how much work true professionals put into their music. I realized that, if I ever wanted to be even close to that level, I had to work a lot harder,” Corbo said. “That was the moment I started loving classical music.”

maddy bale @maddybale Managing Editor

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FEATURE

G U S ’ T R AV E L S

CHS senior and drone enthusiast Gus Mueller speaks of some of his interesting experiences of 2017. said “yeah,” and he told me what I was doing was illegal, that I was going to be questioned and that I needed to pick up all my stuff.

So what did you think of in that moment?

Well, my first thought was about college, which I was really scared of at first. But basically after that I just tried to play the dumb American and pretended like I had no I idea this was illegal. After that he became a lot nicer. In the end, I got fined.

Originally it was around 1500 Kroner, or about $250 so you know that’s kind of a lot of money. But because I was just an American tourist they kind of pitied me and took it down to about $80. After that I tried to tell everyone in Saint Louis and nobody believed me but, I still have my fine papers so it’s kind of become a meme.

What happened in St. Louis during Winter Break?

My best friend Robert Wald and I, we went to Sasha’s on DeMun to eat some pizza, a chicken sriracha pizza, and we walked back to my house up the street. My parents were asleep and I forgot a key, so we decided to go to Robert’s house, right up an alley. So this red car rolls up next to the alley, and I said “maybe we shouldn’t be walking in the alley at this time” which Robert said was fine.

Was it fine?

Photo of Mueller by Michael Melinger What happened in Denmark this summer?

I went to fly a drone to capture the new opera house in Denmark. I think it’s really beautiful and really well designed. So I went at 11:30 p.m. on my bike, I didn’t think anybody would be there or anybody would catch me. I wasn’t really allowed to fly a drone there. I needed an international FAA license and I didn’t bother to get an one for summer vacation. I just figured it would be okay.

When did the guards come talk to you?

Right, so flying a drone within 150 meters of the queen’s palace is definitely illegal. But the queen’s palace is a public space, you can walk through it. There’s no extreme security like the White House. It just didn’t register for me I was doing something illegal.

So as I’m bringing the drone back,and all of a sudden all the people around me became quiet -- maybe that should have been an indication that something was wrong. So a guard comes up to me with an M16 with the huge hat. He was speaking English. I guess he knew I was international, maybe from the drone. So he asks me if I was flying over the queen’s palace and at that minute I knew I was doing something that I wasn’t supposed to be doing. I basically just

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No. As we were walking up the alley, at about 12:30, the red car comes up and rolls down the window. He had a black ski mask on and a red hoodie and has this glock with a green laser sight on it. So not only is it a gun, it’s just really extra that he has this green laser sight. And he tells us to give us all of our money and everything we have. It was really scary but I dropped my phone and I don’t think he saw it.

What did he take?

So I gave him my wallet with $30 and a debit card, and Robert gave him $15 just right out of his pocket. We had our arms up the whole time as we’re standing in the alley and he’s shouting at us.

And then Robert asks him “do you want our jackets?” and I guess in those situations you do anything to get out of it but I was like “come on,” when the guy said “yeah.” As I’m taking off the jacket he tells us to get on the ground while he points the gun at us. So he says “if you move I’ll kill you,” and drove off with extreme speed.

And the whole time the pizza is just lying on the ground. We then bolted to Robert’s house, and I was really shaken up when I called the police. They came, I think it was two officers, and the cops asked me where it happened. I told them there was a pizza right at the crime scene – perfectly marked. In the end, the guy still hasn’t been caught and I don’t think he will be. So I lost all that stuff but now I can tell people I was mugged.

theo fehr @theowithaccent PAGE EDITOR

INTRODUCING

THE CLAYTON DINING SCENE NORTHWEST COFFEE

JASON WILSON

J

ason Wilson tells the kids he coaches in basketball that “If you work hard, you should get some return on your investment.”

A businessman himself, Wilson knows what it feels like to meet success, failure and all that comes between. First opening Chronicle Coffee up in North County St. Louis in 2012, Wilson was a man with a vision. He aspired to not just open a coffee shop, but also create a community engagement space so that the neighborhood could have a safe place to go and basic fundamentals of a community.

Chronicle Coffee’s slogan was “control the narrative”, which Wilson implies as the idea that the story of North St. Louis can still change; the fate of the community does not have to be sealed.

“I was trying to inspire folks to ‘control the narrative’ instead of being told that your community is lacking all these things… its a food desert, or its just a cesspool for violence. Instead of being told [that], I wanted to inspire folks to be in control of the narrative and start makings things happen. Then you could tell folks it’s not like that,” Wilson said.

He hoped that the revenue could support the community through the creation of economic centers, which could challenge the notoriety of North County, as well as provide tax money for the local school district.

In 2014, Michael Brown was shot in Ferguson, MO, and with the spirit of the community went Wilson’s business, as it experienced a dramatic loss of customers.

“People became nervous...and the tension around race became exacerbated,” Wilson said. “Everybody was on edge. Nobody wanted to be in a community where they know that they could be fought,

by Sam Zeid and Ashley Chung Photo by Elizabeth Cordova

they could be harmed.”

Fortunately, Wilson had bought Northwest Coffee Roasting from its previous owner in the same year, 2012, as he planned to use the best coffee in the city for Chronicle Coffee.

With the roasting facility he bought multiple Northwest Coffee shop locations, and after his other business went under he began focusing his passion on Northwest Coffee and the details of the roasting side of the business.

The two companies, although both coffee shops, provided very different experiences.

“You’re dealing with a different economics,” Wilson said. “[In North County,] people have less money, they purchase things differently, the culture is different, so sitting around a coffee shop isn’t something they do ... You can get someone coming in there that’s in need of money or food.”

Wilson often donated leftover food from the shop to locals that came to the store in need.

Although very different, Wilson saw plenty of value in owning a location in Clayton.

“People like money, they like the idea of money. If you’re in Clayton, people think ‘wow he’s really doing it’ ... that’s the kind of mystique and prestige you get with this idea of being in Clayton and Ladue,” Wilson said.

He takes great pride in his business, specifically in what it offers the Clayton community.

“Classic, timeless, but cool,” Wilson believes that Northwest Coffee provides a space for people to get together and enjoy the simple pleasure of coffee.

zoe Robinson I fratelli� Bar les freres Billie jean

I

t’s more than just feeding people.”

This is how Zoë Robinson, proprietor of numerous restaurants in the St. Louis area, would describe her business.

“I have worked in restaurants since I was 18-years-old.

It’s just something that clicked for me,” Robinson said. “You know when you feel it. I’m passionate about this, this is what I love doing.”

Robinson started as a server, and quickly worked her way up the restaurant hierarchy. She soon realized that the restaurant business was her calling.

“I was attending school, but I quickly learned I was making a whole lot of money in restaurants and I thought, ‘Why in the world am I going to school? This is what I like doing.’ It worked out for me,” Robinson said. “And it suits me.”

By the time she was only 23-years-old, Robinson had already opened her first restaurant - Cafe Zoë (now sold) in Lafayette Square.

“If you’re good at what you do, you get recognized. And you do get moved up,” Robinson said. “I think you have to be vocal about it. If you want that leadership role, let them know that you want it. Strive to get it.”

Robinson recently opened her seventh restaurant: Billie Jean. This restaurant neighbors two of her other locations on Wydown, I Fratellini and Bar Les Freres. According to Robinson, owning restaurants right next to each other is advantageous from a management perspective.

“We can share an ice machine. If I run out of mushrooms at Billie Jean, I can run up to I Fratellini to get the mushrooms I need. It just makes perfect sense,” Robinson said.

According to Robinson, a specific goal was kept in mind

By Michael Bernard and Jacob LaGesse with reporting by Liam Redington

when introducing each of these three restaurants.

I Fratellini, the first of the three Wydown restaurants, was designed to mirror an intimate Italian meal.

“The food is very simple, just like it is in Italy. It’s romantic.

When you walk in the doors of I Fratellini, especially at night, it’s candle-lit, it’s tiny [the restaurant has only 12 tables],” Robinson said. “You can hear the food being cooked, you can smell the food being cooked, it just kind of envelops you when you walk in the door.”

Bar Les Freres, her second restaurant on the Wydown stretch, initially was created to give people a place to sit and wait for a table at I Fratellini. However, it soon grew in popularity and is now a popular destination on its own.

“It’s romantic, but it’s also very festive,” Robinson said. “People are a little more boisterous here, it’s a fun place. We also have a big patio here, very European. We set up the chairs like in Paris where they face out, not one another, so that you can people-watch, and that’s what we do here.”

Her most recent acquisition was Billie-Jean, which takes the spot of the now out-of-business frozen yogurt shop, FroYo. Billie-Jean, named after both of her parents, was fashioned to resemble an intimate New York dining experience: filled to the brim with culture.

“The food has an Asian accent,” Robinson said. “It’s Mediterranean and Asian on the same menu. It is brand new. We are still finding our way there.” The restaurant, which opened in Decem-

ber of 2017, will feature classics from the original menu of Café Zoë.

According to Robinson, it is no accident that three of her restaurants ended up in Clayton. However, when looking at different restaurant scenes in the area, Robinson believes that one should look at St. Louis as a whole.

“Clayton is a wonderful area, but it isn’t the only place to eat,” Robinson said. “I mean don’t get me wrong, I love Clayton, but I don’t think you should look at Clayton as the only place for restaurants. Because [the restaurant scene] in St. Louis is booming right now and it’s certainly not condensed all into one neighborhood.”

Even though Robinson has had much success in the industry, she continues to push herself further.

“I don’t like to just rest on my laurels,” Robinson said. “I always have some kind of creative project going. Each one of my restaurants, especially right now, I feel is like a little art project. Something that I’ve really been able to decorate, design a menu for, hire a staff for, and have them execute my vision.”

Robinson hopes that others can come to see the restaurant industry like she does: more of an art form than a dining service.

“I know that people think the service industry doesn’t have as much cachet as being a lawyer, or being a physician. But really you have to be pretty smart, and you have to be pretty well organized.

That’s a message I’d like to give young people, that working in the service industry [is] hard, it can be very rewarding and it’s a very valid career.”

Photos from Robinson

aaron teitlebaum herbie’s

by Justin Guilak

I

’ve worked in the business since I was 13-years-old. It’s all I know. I went to culinary school for it, then I went to business school for it. It’s my passion. I worked for lead chefs in Manhattan for years to learn it.”

These unique experiences of Herbie’s Owner Aaron Teitelbaum help him to run one of the most popular restaurants in Clayton. However, it wasn’t always so famous.

Originally called “Ballaband’s” and located in the Central West End, Teitelbaum had grown up going to the restaurant. A period of bankruptcy, however, had damaged the reputation of that name and led Teitelbaum to change it when he started his ownership 10 years ago.

“We named it Herbie’s after Herbie Carpe Ballaband,” Teitelbaum said. “Still kind of an homage to the family, but we thought we should change the name to reflect that we were changing it since we were taking a new position.”

Despite the early name change, Herbie’s remained in its previous location in the Central West End until November 2016 when Teitelbaum brought the restaurant to downtown Clayton.

The Clayton facility proved to be an upgrade from the Central West End, offering a hundred-seat outdoor patio which the previous location lacked.

The move to Clayton also suited Herbie’s clientele better.

“More of our clientele is moving out West,” Teitelbaum said.

“Less people were traveling to the Central West End to visit us, so we felt like we were moving a little bit closer to our current clientele. So that was a big piece of it - the location and being closer to the people.”

The increased business which Teitelbaum was hoping for came

successfully with the move.

“We doubled our sales overnight,” he said.

The move also marked a significant change in the career of Teitelbaum himself; he gave up cooking.

Previously a chef at Herbie’s with his experience from culinary school and his earlier restaurant work, Teitelbaum left the kitchen when the restaurant came to Clayton.

His mixed-experience - cooking and business has influenced his ownership throughout the years.

“I have a more diverse training than most restaurateurs because I’ve worked front of the house, back of the house - I’ve worked every position there is,” he said. “It does give me a better position when it comes to owning a business.”

Part of that better position is successfully combining the goals of both aspects of the restaurant - food and profit.

“In [the restaurant] world, it’s not run to be a profitable, good work environment, long lasting piece of the community. I wanted to make sure that we were able to do that. We believe in empowering our employees and treating our guests like family. That is kind of why I wanted to be the owner, so I could make sure that kept going,” Teitelbaum said.

Now that Herbie’s is in Clayton, Teitelbaum and his staff have gotten involved in the community.

“Since we’ve been here, we took an active role with the Art Fair last year. We were a lead sponsor. Same thing with Party in the Parks: we’re a lead sponsor. We have talked with everybody that we have been involved with that we want to be involved as much as we can because I believe being part of the community is a responsibility of every business owner.”

Along with sponsorship of events, Herbie’s participated in Clayton Restaurant Week but extended their another week beyond the rest of the restaurants, donating 10 perfect of the proceeds to Operation Food Search.

While Teitelbaum does own another restaurant in St. Louis Kingside Diner in the Central West End chess campus - he is not seeking expansion of Herbie’s.

“I don’t always think more is better. I think a lot of times you dilute your brand and you dilute your business,” he said. “Herbie’s is a beast of its own. This takes a lot of personal touches and it’s not something you can replicate. It’s great because of my staff and my team and the building and the artwork and all of those things. It’s not something I could take up and make another one of.”

Photo by Mia Redington

Suzanne langois kaldi’s coffee

by Lauren Praiss and Neema Naemi

Photo by Mia Redington

A

cozy coffee house sits on the corner across Captain Elementary School. Walking through the two glass doors, an aroma of coffee beans swirls through the air.

Students accumulate around the small wooden tables, meticulously studying and debating. Others drink their beverages and eat savory dishes by the open windows. This is a welcoming community. This is Kaldi’s Coffee.

In 1994, a Clayton parent, Suzanne Langlois, and her friend, Howard Lerner started Kaldi’s Coffee. They sought to bring coffee to St. Louis and to create a community in the Demun neighborhood.

“At the time in 1994, there was no fun place to go to have coffee. Coffee had not yet come to St Louis. There wasn’t even a Starbucks at the airport. But, in other cities, coffee houses were where you went to hang out,” Langlois said. “So, we really wanted to create a place for people. At the time when we started it was much more about kind of a location for people to come and hang out something for the community that wasn’t a bar. It was more about that than it was about the coffee.”

Langlois and Lerner not only chose the Demun location for the urban environment and pedestrian traffic, but they also wanted to welcome individuals from all cultures. “We also liked the fact that

the East end of Clayton always had a lot of people come from other countries, and they work at Washington University or the Medical Center,” Langlois said. “We appreciated that influence because, particularly people from Western Europe, coffee houses are part of their culture.”

Soon, Kaldi’s Coffee started to grow, branching into a roasting coffee business inspired by the coffee in a cafe at the University of Missouri. “There was a little cafe. Tiny, tiny it was like a coffee window practically in downtown Columbia, and we loved the coffee there,” Langlois said. “We drove down and talked with them.

We said, “how do you get your coffee to taste so good? What beans do you use?” And, [the owner] taught us a lot, and told us the name of his roaster, and that roaster was in Kansas City. So, we started buying coffee from this very small hand roasted operation in Kansas City. We quickly became their biggest customer. So the roaster their called us up and said “you guys should roast your own coffee.” So, we bought a coffee roasting machine.”

In less than a year, Kaldi’s began selling their roasted coffee to other local businesses in Clayton. “We roasted coffee in the store for a couple of years. And then chefs from restaurants starting coming to us and asking “can we buy your coffee?” That’s when we started our second business -- the roasting business,” Langlois said. “We started roasting coffee in addition to our own store for other businesses. We started a second branch roasting coffee for other businesses, and they both took off. [Kaldi’s] was first inspired by the idea of community and then, second, it was inspired by the idea of getting good coffee out here in St. Louis.”

With Kaldi’s Coffee expansion over the years, Langlois remarked that Clayton is also experiencing an increase in restaurant businesses and entertainment. “Certainly downtown Clayton used to be very sleepy,” Langlois said. “Clayton was very deserted after five, a lot of government workers. But, now the restaurants keep people there and bring people in, and that used to not be the case. When you have a lot of restaurants all together it becomes a destination for entertainment. But, when you have a whole bunch of them it’s a lot more lively ,and we’ve noticed the same thing here.”

Ultimately, Kaldi’s Coffee brings authentic coffee to the table, while also providing a welcoming community within Clayton.

gerard craft Pastaria sardella

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By Noah Brown, David Higuchi, and Sara Stemmler

Photos by Michael Melinger

s a child, Gerard Craft had practically no interest in fine food or fine dining.

“Growing up I was not that into food, to be honest. My entire family was into food except for me. I was the kid eating spaghetti-o’s and fast food hamburgers,” Craft said.

Craft’s life trajectory - and his food tastes - would change for good after getting in trouble at school.

“I ended up in a boarding school in Northern Idaho and the food being served in Northern Idaho was like grade-D meat, scary, scary stuff. I had to spend a month in the desert where they rationed you and you had to eat and cook out of a peach can,” he said. “All the sudden, anything good tasted really good to me. I actually got really adventurous as a result. When I left that high school, I’d eat just about anything in the world, which wasn’t my start into cooking, but at least it made me a less picky human being. “ After graduating high school from the northern Idaho boarding school, Craft left for Salt Lake City, where he would attend college and take photos of professional snowboarders in his freetime.

“I was kind of doing school and on the side I was doing photography work for local pro snowboarders for their portfolios and stuff like that,” Craft said. “Unfortunately I spent probably too much time snowboarding and not enough time studying and ended up dropping out of college as a result.”

Craft found himself searching for a job that would be more financially lucrative and stable than the part-time snowboard photography gig. He washed cars during the day and cooked at a pool hall during the night.

“I wasn’t a big food guy per se but I really loved working in that kitchen even though it was like a craft beer hall. I really loved the camaraderie in the kitchen; it was just a fun place to work,” Craft said.

Realizing a newfound interest in cooking, but remaining somewhat uncertain with regard to his future and aspirations, Craft met with a career counselor – a meeting that would profoundly alter the course of his career and life.

“The career counselor kind of told me not to go back to school.

He was like, ‘look, you might just be beating your head against the wall doing the same thing over and over. You like cooking, so why don’t you try culinary school?’ So I went to the local community college and enrolled in some culinary programs,” Craft said. “I really liked it, enough so that I ended up meeting a kid there that got me a job in a fancy restaurant up in the ski resorts.”

The transition from cooking in the pool hall to working in a high-scale restaurant environment was an eye-opening experience for Craft.

“It was tough. It went from thinking I was a hot shot at this little sports bar to these high end chefs screaming at me and throwing things at me and just going home near tears every night,” Craft said. I thought a line cook was just a line cook. And I didn’t belong on their line. I think they were trying to get me to quit, to be honest. They said, ‘Look, we can’t have you on the line. There’s guys making the same money as you and they’re 10 times as good as you.” They said ‘Either leave or we’ll give you a prep cook job in the basement kitchen.’”

With little hesitation, Craft elected to take the basement job, an experience which would prove one of the most important decisions of his life.

“They would time me peeling onions and time me cleaning the coolers and yell at me, but it was honestly the best experience of my life,” he said. “I learned how to do everything; I ended up quitting culinary school. Not because I was failing but because I was learning so much in that basement kitchen. So sucking it up and accepting that demotion was the greatest thing that’s ever happened to me in food.”

Craft then participated in a work-study program, allowing him to explore the food culture in Paris, while cooking at the Paris Ritz-Carlton. There, Craft would acquire an understanding of the creative approach to cooking that would eventually define his own style.

“I grew up a graffiti artist so when I saw all these kitchens that were using savory items like tomatoes in desserts or using savory ice creams on savory dishes. This kind of ‘no rules’ approach to cooking blew my mind and that ending up shaping what Niche became initially,” he said.

After stints working in various restaurants on the East and West coasts, realizing the city’s untapped potential, Craft and his now-wife relocated to St. Louis, Missouri.

“I found some cheap real estate online and there were some cool things happening around here, so I thought it’d be really cool to be part of developing a culinary scene, helping it grow and be

kind of more on the bottom floor than going to New York and fighting yourself upstream,” he said.

Craft’s observations of the dining scene in St. Louis upon his arrival were a source of inspiration in finding the niche he – and his restaurants – would eventually occupy.

“You looked at how people dined in this town. There was already a food magazine. A lot of places didn’t have food magazines and still don’t have food magazines. It’s morphing a lot,” he said.

Although Craft had an appreciation for higher-end restaurants such as Larry Forgione’s An American Place, Kevin Nashan’s Sidney Street, and Michael and Tara Gallina’s Vicia, he was inclined to style his restaurant towards the other end of the spectrum in terms of ambiance.

“Back then it was a lot of fine dining. There weren’t a lot of people doing the fresher looking spaces, a little bit more relaxed, and not quite as expensive and not quite as pretentious,” he said.

Craft’s inclination to style his restaurant in this way was a direct result of his own preferences in dining experiences. Craft opened Niche in 2005 with the intent of providing a dining experience different from the mainstream at the time.

“I’m covered in tattoos; I’ve always felt uncomfortable in dining rooms. I don’t like going out and wearing a blazer or a sport coat,” he said. “Now there’s a lot more people that accept the casual side of dining. That’s where Sardella, Pastaria, Brasserie, Taste came in.”

After an 11-year run, Craft decided to close Niche in the summer of 2016. Sardella is one of Craft’s most recent projects, which he opened in Niche’s place. Just up the street, on Forsyth, is Pastaria, Craft’s take on simple Italian dining. It is Clayton’s unique location that make it such a rewarding place to operate restaurants in.

“It’s such a great central area, it’s close to so many different neighborhoods,” he said. “You have Clayton and then right next to it Richmond Heights and Ladue, and U-City. It’s such a great central meeting point for so many people, including the fact that we have built-in business in the afternoon” In addition to his focus on customer satisfaction, Craft places immense value and emphasis on the work environment he fosters in his restaurants.

“We don’t have a company banner anywhere but we have 5 values and first is hospitality. But it’s beyond hospitality and guests.

It’s about treating your coworkers right, treating your vendors and farmers right. And then honesty. It’s about being honest with your peers. [It’s about]talking about very hard topics and being honest about all of those things.”

Failure is another one of Niche Food Group’s five values – a word that Craft acknowledges seldomly appears on company banners or mottos, but a word that nonetheless defines his approach to his work and life.

“Failure [is the next one] which you don’t expect to see in a list of values. But I fail everyday, like a lot. I think they’re really important to growth. If you’re afraid to fail, if you don’t do anything in life because you’re afraid to fail, then nothing good happens.”

ANN gallardos

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nn Gallardos, the owner of the City Coffeehouse and Creperie, has created a hospitable welcoming for all customers. “I really believe in great food and great service. Those are the two main things that go side by side.

You can’t have good food with bad service. You need both.

No matter how great your food is, if your service is bad, people are not going to come back. That’s what I really try to work on in regards to quality,” Gallardos said. “We can’t have a hit and miss days. The food and service have to be good consistently.”

This warm environment is largely thanks to Gallardos’ commitment to have a consistent presence at the restaurant. “I have been there for 23 years and I’ve been hands on.

I think that makes a huge difference. If you’re the owner, the more you’re at the restaurant, the better,” Gallardos said.

“The customers and your employees all want to see you there. You have to care about and love what you’re doing.

You have to have a passion -- if you don’t, it’ll show.”

Despite owning and running the restaurant for over a decade, Gallardos has shown an unfaltering dedication to her craft. “I love working there as much as I did when I opened it, if not more. Now, I have a family with both my employees and the customers,” Gallardos said. “So, to create that after a period of years, that’s what we tried to achieve.

That closeness not only with my employees but with my customers. They come back for that reason. Good food, good service.”

Andrew Ellison, a regular at the City Coffee House, confirms the excellence fostered at the restaurant. “It’s pretty unique. There’s not many places that I know of where you can get crepes as good as here, or crepes in general,” Ellison said. “It has a different atmosphere. It’s not fast casual, but pretty close. I’ve always had great service.”

Photo by Mallory Palmer

by Daniel Cho and Daniel Cohen

cITY COFFEEHOUSE

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The City Coffeehouse has garnered many fans throughout the Clayton community. Gallardos believes that opening her restaurant where it is was the right move. “Clayton was a good location because it was growing. There were a lot of businesses,” Gallardos said. “It’s a community with a lot of homes, families and students.”

Yet, the reality is that on a business standpoint, restaurants can’t be successful if they rely only on the business of one confined area. Therefore, the City Coffeehouse has succeeded in luring a wide audience of customers from the St. Louis area. “Clayton was a good location because it was growing. There were a lot of businesses. It’s always good when you can see a lot of growth.

Not only does Clayton thrive on business, but it’s a community

Photo by Mallory Palmer

maX protzel Protzels' deli

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rotzel’s Jewish Deli, nestled in the corner of Wydown and Hanley, has remained a staple since the 1950s. Selling the essentials--knishes, matzo ball soup, and of course sandwiches-- to the Clayton and greater St. Louis community.

This family owned establishment has been passed down for several generations. Max Protzel and his sister Erica Protzel are the current owners. “My grandfather bought it in ‘54. It was for sale as a grocery store and he turned it into a deli,” Max said.

Max’s father, Alan Protzel, who formerly owned the deli, now works part time, stocking shelves and keeping inventory.

“It was my grandfathers then my dad’s and his brother and

with a lot of homes, families and Clayton High School.”

Given the success of her restaurant, Gallardos has had some thoughts about expanding her restaurant. “Maybe we will open something else in the future. I was born in St. Louis and I grew up here. I love the city and I would love to do whatever I can to help it grow,” Gallardos said.

But in the end, her commitment to the quality of her restaurant outweighs her personal ambitions. “I’ve always wanted to expand, but refrained from it because it’s so hard to be at two places at the same time. It’s important for me to be present at the Creperie everyday,” Gallardos said. “That’s important to me.”

by Olivia Joseph, Nikki Seraji and Charles Brennan now my sister and I. So it’s third generation. My mom will work during the holiday times, but mainly my sister and I are working here,” Max said.

Max believes that his location has increased business due to his selective consumer base. “There’s a big jewish population in Clayton and that helps,” Max said.

Protzel’s makes an effort to accommodate its customers requests. “Parents [of Washington University students] call and say ‘My kid’s sick. Do you sell matzo ball soup? Can you deliver matzo ball soup?’” Max said. “Since we are the only jewish deli around here and delis are still big on the east coast, they call, and its five minutes away. Sometimes the trickiest part is finding the dorm, but it works. We do a lot of soup orders.”

The unique relationships that Prozel’s shares with customers has been a growing characteristic of the business.

“It’s good to see customers that you can really talk to. Every Sunday, there are three guys that come in and we talk,” Max said, “I’ve got some third generation customers.”

Protzel’s first gained their popularity due to their uncommon grocery store-candy shop combination. “When we first started here, grocery stores weren’t open on Sundays and there weren’t different sandwich shops,” Max said, “[But] as time went on, the grocery stores started doing what we do. Now you can go to the grocery store to get anything.”

Despite the constant changes in the restaurant business, Protzel’s has maintained its success by continuing their distinctive aspects. By making their own meat and keeping stock on the trademark candies, Protzel’s upholds the special experience that keeps customers coming back for generations. “We have to keep up and keep changing and separating yourself from that,” Max said.

Protzel’s is open six days a week, opening at 7:30 am till 5:30 pm on weekdays and 3:00 pm on weekends. Even though Max works long hours, running the store is what he enjoys most. “But it’s fun, I get to see people and talk to them. It’s good to see customers that you can really talk to,” said Max. The loyalty of customers has remained extremely strong over the years. In spite of the frequent coming and goings of Wydown and the unpredictable nature of the restaurant business, the legacy of Protzel’s transcends generations and will last for many more.

ben poremba parigi

by Mitali Sharma, Katie He and Bridget Walsh

Photo by Michael Melinger

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ight in the heart of downtown Clayton, overlooking Shaw Park, sits Parigi, a classy convergence of Italian cuisine and Parisian ambiance. The restaurant is the brainchild of St. Louis chef and restaurateur Ben Poremba.

Poremba, originally from Israel, has been engulfed in the dining business since an early age.

“My mom was a chef and she owned a couple of food-related businesses so I guess you could say I had the bug. I always liked cooking, I’ve cooked since I was very, very young,” he said.

After moving to St. Louis to study philosophy at the University of Missouri, Poremba got a job as a nanny for three young girls -this job being the propelling force to fix Poremba’s name in the St. Louis dining industry.

“I also did all the cooking in (the family’s) house, and from there I started catering events for that family and for their family friends, and before I knew it I had a little small catering business,” he said.

From the catering business, Poremba went on to design several restaurant concepts. Olio and Elaia, both Mediterranean/Israeli-inspired, opened in 2012. Nixta, a modern take on Mexican cuisine, and La Pâtisserie Chouquette, a French bakery, are also

under Poremba’s ownership. Parigi is one of Poremba’s latest ventures and what he considers to be his “dream restaurant.”

The inspiration for this dream came from the romance between Marcello Mastroianni and Catherine Deneuve, two iconic European actors.

“In the 60s and 70s they were, you could say, the Brad and Angelina of that time. He was handsome; she was gorgeous,” Poremba said. “He was Italian and she was French and they lived in Paris, and I adored and admired both of them. I always tried to image what a Italian restaurant, because he’s Italian, owned by both of them in the heart of Paris would look like -- and hence the name: Parigi is Paris in Italian.”

Poremba’s vision manifested into a restaurant serving quintessential Italian food, with everything from the antipasti to the pastas to the steaks of the secondi piatti, all in the atmosphere of a French bistro.

Allusions to Mastroianni and Deneuve’s relationship can also be found in Parigi’s looks. For example, Poremba specifically made the fabric of the booths to be the same color of Mastroianni’s ferrari from the sixties. The concept also drove Parigi’s location, which stands apart from Poremba’s other restaurants -- all of which are located on Tower Grove avenue in the historic Botanical Heights neighborhood.

“We played a major role in reviving (the Botanical Heights neighborhood) and it’s a place that’s very easy to fall in love with.

It’s cool and it’s not presumptuous and it’s got a really interesting aesthetic,” Poremba said.

The decision to place Parigi outside of this colony and into the heart of Clayton was a deliberate one, shaped by the luxurious nature of the European duo’s iconic romance.

“I think that kind of a concept required a space that felt like a lobby of a hotel. It required a space that overlooked a park, that had a sort-of urban feel to it, a big city feel to it, and also required a space that had tall ceilings and an expensive kind of feel,” Poremba said. “And you know that’s the clientele that would be a little bit more receptive to the finishes and the look.”

Poremba has also found challenge within the Clayton community, however.

“It’s a tough community in the sense that it’s a community that by and large is well-traveled and has a good point of reference.

They’re very demanding,” he said.

Nevertheless, with its unique design and dedication to the classic Italian cuisine, Parigi has been well-received and recognized in the Clayton community.

EVER! I am sad I live in California, I debate moving to Missouri just to be closer to Taco Buddha!”

Kurt Eller, who began leasing the restaurant last April, is the owner. Although this is his first and only restaurant in St. Louis, he was previously partnered with multiple establishments in Austin, Texas. “[I was involved with] all kinds of different restaurants.

Of the ones I was partners with, one was a fine dining restaurant that had fusion food and another one was a music venue that had more southwestern food,” Eller said.

Eller moved to St. Louis in 2005, mainly to pursue his corporate job at the time. However, passing by the building that would eventually become Taco Buddha each day encouraged him to join U-City’s restaurant scene.

“Taco Buddha, I’ve been playing with it for the last three years, catering to weddings with a food trailer, not food trucks, but more of an on-site catering. We were doing big wedding receptions, about five or six a year. I lived a block and a half away and watched this place, walked by this building every day. I always said if I got back in the restaurant business I would do something really simple, not a lot of moving parts. I just kept checking [this building] out and it was available, so I couldn’t pass it up. That’s why I’m here. Sometimes the best things just present themselves to you and you’ve gotta make a choice to go,” Eller said.

The inspiration behind Taco Buddha stemmed greatly from Eller’s childhood experiences. When he was in his sophomore and junior years of high school, Eller moved to a town in India with his father. He became very fond of Indian cuisine, especially southern Indian dishes, given that he lived on the southeastern coast of India.

“So that [living in India] just kind of inspired me to do street food, like tikka masala or tandoori, which they put in an Indian bread called naan, and it’s something very similar to a taco. It’s funny how all of those different geographic areas boil down to food and a piece of bread,” Eller said.

According to Eller, business at Taco Buddha has been plentiful since its opening, and Clayton’s ever-fluctuating restaurant scene has supported its growth.

“I think with Centene coming in and seeing the changes that are happening ... the culinary scene is really growing in Clayton,” Eller said.

One factor that has helped Taco Buddha to attract customers amongst a sea of other St. Louis Mexican-fusion joints is its ability to introduce the unexpected.

Although one would assume that a taco joint would cater mostly towards the lunch and dinner hours, Eller is attempting to bring the Texas trend of breakfast tacos to the Clayton dining experience.

His slogan for this campaign questions, “Why bring donuts when you can bring breakfast tacos to work?”

“In Austin, Texas, everybody eats breakfast tacos ... We’re trying to grow that business and get people used to it. We’re finding a lot of law firms and this HR software development company are buying lots of breakfast tacos and bringing them to their folks on Saturdays or Fridays and such. We’re having to train St. Louis on this great thing (breakfast tacos) not being sweet and sugary.

Seems like we’re doing well in that,” Eller said.

Whether one is looking for a unique lunch or a savory breakfast, it’s worth a stop at Kurt Eller’s taco enterprise.

Photo by Michael Melinger

KURT ELLER

TACO Buddha

by Grace Snelling and Josephine Cross

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ocated on Pershing Avenue in University City, Taco Buddha is a small but welcoming restaurant with a refreshingly clean and well-lit interior and an outdoor seating area adorned with their logo; a smiling Buddha holding two peppers and seemingly declaring, “Eat with Peace!”.

The restaurant has only been open since August 24th, 2017, but it has already managed to attract quite a large clientele with its worldly cuisine and ever-changing menu.

One of 66 Yelp reviewers (the restaurant has 4.5 out of 5 stars on the site) wrote of Taco Buddha, “Cute location and decor, friendly service and THE BEST TACOS

KNIGHT FIGHTS Michael Knight enters his first year as the head coach of the Clayton High School girls’ varsity basketball team.

Twenty-nine years. Just last year, the CHS girls’ varsity basketball team ended their 29 year drought and were Class 4 District Champions, the first time since 1988.

As the new head coach of the girls’ varsity basketball team this year, Michael Knight has had massive shoes to fill.

Knight grew up playing multiple sports including basketball, football, and baseball. Of the sports he played, he realized that there was one which he truly loved.

Knight began playing basketball at the age of five and played all through high school and won all-state honors. He was fortunate enough to further his basketball career and play in college at Truman State and then Westminster College.

Immediately after college, Knight traded in his jersey and sneakers for a whistle as he became a head coach at a small high school in northeast Missouri.

From there, Knight moved to Southern California for non-basketball related reasons. However, while there, he continued to coach. In California, Knight coached some of the best players he has ever had an opportunity to work with. One of his players went on to play Division I collegiate basketball for the University of Miami and another went on to be a four-year starter at Boise State and currently is an assistant coach there.

Knight decided to move to St. Louis after his time out west.

Upon coming back to the Midwest, Knight got a job coaching basketball at CHS after learning about the job from a family friend who taught science and also coached basketball at Clayton High School.

After coaching at CHS for a couple of years, Knight decided to try his hand at coaching at the collegiate level and become an assistant coach for the men’s team at Washington University in St. Louis. At Washington University, Knight had the opportunity to see the game in a new light as he had never before been a college coach.

“At the college level, for everyone basketball is a passion. However, at the high school level, there are some players who just want to be part of the team and know they won’t play beyond high school. The college level there is more passion for the game and the game itself is more intense. There’s a greater finesse to the game. You can do more things at the college level because players have more experience,” Knight said.

Knight decided to transition back to the high school level after having great success as a coach at Washington University and helping his team win a national championship in 2008.

Back at the high school level, Knight realized that he could no longer take certain skills for granted. Thus, his focus as a coach changed towards developing the fundamentals.

Although he began to focus on different skills than he had focused on at the college level, his passion and motivation for coach-

CHS girls’ basketball coach Michael Knight during a timeout (Photo by Kate Lay). ing remained the same.

“I enjoy somewhat being a father figure to my student athletes and helping them make decisions and seeing them achieve,” Knight said.

During the 2016-2017 season, he helped assist the CHS boys’ basketball program.

Over the summer, Knight was promoted to the position of head coach of the girls’ varsity basketball team at CHS. Understanding that he has huge shoes to fill from the head coach of last year’s district champion team, Knight looks to use his decades worth of experience with the sport to continue the excellence of the program in the future.

“Last year’s team was very senior dominated and we graduated quite a few of them. There’s only two seniors on the team this year and they both have been hurt for parts of the season,” Knight said. “So, this year has been somewhat of a rebuilding and learning year. Hopefully we can get our numbers up in the future because if we do, we could be a stronger team.”

daniel cohen @danielc_52 BUSINESS MANAGER

ATHLE TE PROFILE:

SOPHIE THOMPSON Photo by Michael Melinger “Swimmers, take your mark.” Since she was 6-years-old, swimmer Sophia Thompson, a freshman at CHS, has heard these four words more times than she can count.

Thompson began swimming on the Algonquin summer swim team. After enjoying her time on the team, she decided that swimming was her passion and wanted to tryout for Clayton Shaw Park swim team (CSP).

Fortunately, Thompson made the team and began to swim year round. And the rest is history.

From the first time Thompson jumped into the water, she realized swimming was the sport for her.

Growing up, Thompson has played multiple sports. Before high school, she played on a recreational soccer team and ran cross country and track. Now, in high school, she is a member of the CHS golf team in the fall and plans to join the track team in the spring. Understandably, swimming has been her favorite sport thus far.

“I have just been swimming all my life, I’ve just grown to love it. Days when we don’t have swim practice, I go home and I have nothing to do. I like getting a work out and pushing myself,” Thompson says.

Through swimming, Thompson has been able to become friends with people who she otherwise would not know. Everyday, Thompson looks forward to CSP practice as she knows she will have an opportunity to see her friends from other St. Louis area schools such as Ladue and Webster.

Now in high school, Thompson juggles being on two different swim teams and commits a significant amount of time to the sport.

When CHS swimming is not in season, she swims for her club team two hours, six days a week. In the summer, the amount of time she spends in the pool doubles as she attends daily morning and evening practices. However, when it is CHS swimming season, Thompson makes an effort to be dedicated to her high school team.

To remain committed and passionate about swimming for nearly a decade, Thompson has looked up to various swimmers for motivation and inspiration. When she was younger, Thompson’s role model was Missy Franklin, a two-time Olympian on the United States swim team. Just like Franklin, Thompson’s primary stroke is backstroke.

However, now, Thompson’s role models are older girls she has met on her club team. Specifically, Thompson looks up to a swimmer she used to swim who swam at the Olympic trials and now is a freshman swimmer for the University of Texas.

Fortunately, Thompson has not needed to overcome many

challenges or obstacles during her swimming career so far.

Though, last year she questioned her passion for the sport.

“I went through a phase last year in which I didn’t really like swimming and going to practice at all. I dreaded it,” said Thompson.

Thompson was able to quickly exit this phase and once again looked forward to going to practice.

As a freshman on the high school team, Thompson is excited to begin a new chapter in her swimming career. So far, she has really enjoyed being part of the team and she has become a better swimmer.

Thompson says, “On the high school swim team, I have met a bunch of people I would not have otherwise met. So, meeting these people has allowed me to become friends with people in other grades, which is really nice.”

In addition to becoming a better swimmer, Thompson’s presence effects other swimmers on the CHS team.

“She is a hard worker and leads by example on every set. Having her in the pool has helped the swimmers around her realize that they are capable of increasing their pace in practice resulting in improved performances by all,” David Kohmetscher, the head coach of the CHS girls’ swim team, said.

Thompson is already seeing her hard work and dedication over the past several years pay off. She qualified for the Missouri swimming and diving state meet in two different events, the 200 yard individual medley and 100 yard backstroke, which is an outstanding achievement in itself, especially as a freshman.

In the future, she looks to continue swimming for CSP and the CHS team. With regards to the high school team, Thompson looks forwards to having an opportunity to act as a leader and motivate and inspire other student-athletes.

Thompson hopes to continue her swimming career after high school and swim at the collegiate level.

Senior Elizabeth Cordova said, “I could tell people really looked up to Sophie and she also kept her lane and the lanes next to her on task just because she always worked hard in practice. I would not be surprised if she broke a couple [school] records. I could see her really leading the team in future years.”

daniel cohen @danielc_52 BUSINESS MANAGER

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SPORTS

The Center of Clayton Stay active all winter with membership.

Resident rates available for all Clayton School District families.

(314)-290-8500 www.centerofclayton.com

Center C C The Center of Clayton

VIntage Ventures

vintage GRACE SNELLING AND ANNA STURMOSKI Explore the best thrift stores in St. Louis

Found by the pound (4.5/5) Found by The Pound was our favorite thrift store that we visited. It’s obvious that the store searches for valuable and often even trendy items to display. Unlike Goodwill, this is not just a second-hand store; its a place that one can go when searching for higher quality and truly vintage pieces.

They offer a wide variety of clothing staples for people of any gender, including a large selection of sunglasses, army jackets and jeans. Prices are relatively good when compared to the quality of the clothing that is offered, and the store almost always has a 25 or 50 percent-off discount on certain items. For reference, a tee shirt at Found by the Pound is typically between eight and 10 dollars, while a pair of jeans may be 15. Additionally, the staff are very helpful, coming around to each customer to explain pricing, always refraining from seeming pushy.

Overall, we had a great buying experience and picked up several nice pieces.

Angel Boutique (3/5) Angel Boutique seems to be a somewhat trendier version of Goodwill. The store, though the floor was creaky, was well-lit and clean, and had a nice atmosphere. The prices were overall quite low for what was being sold. As an example, most pairs of jeans were around five dollars. The prices of the shoes were similarly low. Even a large wooden entertainment center cost only 125 dollars. The store additionally accepts donations of clothing, furniture, and even infant care supplies as an effort to support the Guardian Angel Settlement Association, a charity which provides countless community services for the needy. Despite having a less diverse selection of items than some other locations that we visited, Angel Boutique is a good thrift store to shop at for those who are looking to give back to the community.

Revolve (3.5/5) Revolve’s atmosphere is a mid-way point between that of Found by the Pound and May’s Place. The store is very clean and well-organized, with separate sections for jewelry and accessories, as well a wall of free books (that’s right, free). Prices tend to be on the lower side, although some of the items that the store carries are new and made by other local boutiques, which makes them quite a bit more expensive. However, for those searching for a great bargain, there is additionally a large clearance rack. Teens might not find too many appealing pieces here, but the store does offer trendy clothing options for adults, as well as other antique items that might appeal to anyone. For those who love thrifting and vintage pieces, it is worth a stop at Revolve.

Goodwill (3/5)

Mays Place (2/5) ) We were rather disappointed by what we were greeted with at May’s Place. The store, as it happens, is less of a thrift store and more of what one would picture when conjuring the image of an antique sourcing spot. The clothing and items are all genuinely vintage, and therefore more valuable.

However, even some of the rarer items were priced far too high. For example, a Rolling Stones 1989 tour tee shirt, while relatively rare, cost 50 dollars, and a plain black shirt that had been purposefully

Goodwill is always a great option for those who are looking for trendy vintage clothes on a tighter budget. Unlike most of the other stores that we visited, Goodwill does not necessarily sort through clothing to choose the best quality pieces, as its aim is to provide very cheap items for anyone who may be in need. Many people are daunted by the perceived uncleanliness of shopping at a second hand store like Goodwill. However, as we discovered, with some persistent searching it is very possible to find trendy and even high-end pieces at Goodwill. In one instance, we were able to find multiple pairs of Ralph Lauren jeans, all for around five dollars.

distressed and bleach-stained was only five dollars cheaper than that. However, there were some interesting and fairly cheap lapel pins, as well as a shelf of vinyl records with some good finds in the mix. The store, with its retro 1970s aesthetic, is certainly interesting, but it might not be worth a stop unless you’re willing to shell out a lot of cash for slightly higher quality items. @its.grace.s @moonage_nightmare

BRIGHT: A NETFLIX NEWBIE Was Netflix's first attempt at a blockbuster film a successful one? The company’s new movie, Bright, with a budget of $90 million, was no small project. The movie’s director David Ayer had tackled projects of this magnitude before, but never one without a movie theater release. The mishmash story was confusing and even awkward at times, but the at-home convenience of Netflix made the film an enjoyable and worthwhile experience.

The movie takes place in a fantasy world that is full of characters resembling those of Lord of the Rings. In the alternate reality, humans, orcs, and elves all live in present day Los Angeles, each representing a seperate class, with elves being upper, humans middle, and orcs lower class.

The story follows cop Scott Ward (Will Smith) who had recently been shot by an orc and is making his return to the force. His partner Jacoby (Joel Edgerton) is the only orc on the force, and with the tension between cops and orcs this puts Ward at risk. The turning point in the film is when the two cops respond to a call that turns out to be more than they bargained for. What they find is a magic wand, which is an extremely rare and deadly weapon used by a class of people called “Brights,” hence the title. It then becomes a transport movie where Ward and Jacoby have to move the wand from one side of the city to the other. During this sequence there is a mishmash of characters, a lot of violence, and an overall unsatisfying ending. However, the overall experience was still worth it.

What makes it worth it is Netflix, and the convenience of watching the movie right in bed or on the couch, all the while not having to spend any extra money. The strong acting performances and gripping fantasy world are enticing enough to keep the audience entertained. The action sequences are exciting enough to stick around for as well. Overall, Bright is an average movie on an above average platform, and that is what makes it a worthwhile experience.

cody krutzsch @codykrutz16 REPORTER

REVIEW

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THE SHAPE OF WAT E R richard cheng Review Editor Richard Jenkins, director Guillermo del Toro and Sally Hawkins on the set of “The Shape of Water.” (Kerry Hayes/Twentieth Century Fox) The Shape of Water, one of 2017’s most acclaimed films, is a monster movie, a fairy tale, and overall a successful film. The movie, set during the Cold War, begins when a amphibious, semi-human beast, referred to as “The Asset,” is captured and hauled into a Baltimore government research facility.

Richard Strickland, played by Michael Shannon, is responsible for torturing the harmless creature, usually with his choice cattle prod. The protagonist, a mute woman named Elisa, is a janitor for the lab, and she’s usually accompanied by her fellow janitor Zelda. When Elisa discovers the beast in a tank, she instantly feels connected; she eventually begins to give it eggs, dance in front of it, and play music for it. The strange emotions the two feel for each other gradually evolves from a simple friendship into actual romance.

In a whirling series of events from a heist to an encounter with Soviet hitmen, The Shape of Water houses plenty of drama, all centered around the bond between Elisa and the beast.

The major controversy that sounded concern with audience members was the brave moments of passion shared between the couple. However, while there is a certain shock factor when the romance between Elisa and the amphibian begins to develop, it feels natural as the movie progresses. Del Toro keeps in mind that the movie is a fairy tale: a genre associated with princesses falling for beasts and even frogs. While both of the characters can’t speak, the beauty of their relationship in the movie speaks volumes and is actually an asset to the film rather than a detractor.

Another strong point for the film is its exceptionally high production value. The sets throughout the film exceptionally draw viewers into the world Del Toro paints.

Watchers can almost smell the mildew surrounding the damp, greenish research laboratory. The omnipresent rain and wetness in the entirety of the film creates a mood of clammy routine.

Not only are the sets spectacular, but the amphibious creature is outstandingly beautiful.

Artfully created, the beast is genuine, real, and truly mystical.

Movie goers can’t help but feel massive surges of empathy for the poor animal as Strickland wantonly inflicts cruelty on the alluring wild beast. Not only is the character aesthetically pleasing, the production team did an outstanding job capturing the humanoid aspect of “The Asset;” it becomes easy for the viewers to understand that even this amphibian can feel emotions.

Because of the human quality of the beast, the connection between Elisa and the beast instantly feels more intuitive.

The acting also delivers on all fronts. Notably, Michael Shannon excellently captures his character, Strickland. Not only does Shannon convincingly distort himself into a cruel, heartless villain, he also draws empathy through the genuine human characteristics Strickland outputs, making it harder for viewers completely hate him despite his despicable actions.

Next, Sally Hawkins, who portrays the protagonist Elisa, does not vocal cords to translate her emotions onto the screen.

Hawkins is able to brilliantly create a comprehendible heroine without uttering a single word.

Where the film sometimes does fall short is its pacing.

The Shape of Water, especially in the second half, feels lengthy and choppy.

The conflict in the film starts to feel awkward as well; even though the complexity given to the cruel Strickland contributes to the movie, the resolution to the conflict at the end of the film seems overly simplistic and cliched. Perhaps this was part of the fairy-tale genre that Del Toro wanted to capture in The Shape of Water.

In comparison however, these shortcomings pale to the mastery of the rest of the movie.

Overall, The Shape of Water, while sometimes bogged down with choppy, episodic subplots, delivers as one of the best films of 2017.

O u r m i s s i o n i s to p rov i d e s ta te o f t h e a r t m e d i c a l a n d s u rg i c a l t re a t m e nt of t h e fo o t & a n k l e.

WITH THREE CONVENIENT LOCATIONS Arnold

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Mercy Medical Mercy

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Medical - Clarkson Valley

T H E DA N GE RS O F A LIBERAL BUBBLE

When you imagine the best learning space for young people, what comes to mind? I think most would agree that an open-minded, inclusive space comes to mind.

While Clayton High School prides itself on these characteristics, it is not always true. In many cases, Clayton is an open-minded, inclusive space. However, this is not the case for some particular groups at Clayton High School.

Clayton is often criticized as being a bubble. The bubble of Clayton is criticized for being affluent and out of touch with the surrounding areas. While this may be true, another bubble also exists in Clayton. The City of Clayton is very liberal in comparison to surrounding areas.

Due to this disproportion, a lot of Clayton is shielded to the opposing viewpoint, that of a conservative.

At Clayton High School, the majority of students side more with the left end of the political spectrum.

Additionally, many of the teachers at Clayton High School seem to lean towards the left of the political spectrum as well.

While there is no problem with the side of the political spectrum that one chooses to affiliate with, it is dangerous when a group finds no push back from the opposing side.

In this high school, it is looked down upon to be conservative, and even more frowned upon to speak up for your conservative beliefs. For example, the Young Republicans Club tries to stay as quiet as possible because they are looked down upon by many other students.

This is unacceptable.

Liberals pride themselves on being the accepting and open-minded group. If they want to call themselves accepting, they must accept everyone including those with different political beliefs.

While students are entitled to speak their mind about their political beliefs, teachers do not have the same ability. Teachers can drastically influence the growth of students.

Teachers are entrusted with a very large amount of responsibility to prepare students for the real world. A teacher has the responsibility to teach the material involved with their class.

In many cases, modern day political events have little to do with the material teachers are tasked with teaching.

In the cases that politics are involved, the teacher has the responsibility of presenting the facts and keeping their personal bias out of the presentation.

One’s political beliefs should be their personal beliefs. When a teacher presents their own opinions as it pertains to politics, this can greatly influence the personal decision that young people should be making on their own, solely based on the facts presented to them.

The trouble with Clayton High School’s liberal climate is that it is not representative of the world in which most students will one day live and work.

In the climate of Clayton High School, students with liberal beliefs routinely do not face any skepticism or criticism of their beliefs. On the other hand, a conservative comment in most cases cannot go undisputed. But, at the end of the day, this benefits the conservatives at Clayton who must constantly learn to defend their beliefs and argue for what they deem to be right.

One of the goals of Clayton High School is to prepare students for the real world. However, the real world is not a liberal community with no opposition to their beliefs.

The true bubble in Clayton is not one of affluence. The real bubble that exists in Clayton is the bubble of liberals with very little opposition from conservatives.

Opposition must exist. People must have the ability to compromise.

As observed in Hitler’s Nazi Germany where he imprisoned those with political views contrary to his own, a lack of opposition causes radical beliefs to manifest.

If Clayton High School students are not exposed to differing political viewpoints, they will be in for a rude awakening.

damien stahl @damienstahl REPORTER

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OPINION

Love, The Globe a column

introduction

We put a lot of emphasis on love at the Globe. We’ve tried to keep this focus on love a central part of our paper. We continue to have touching conversations, build community and encourage love for human storytelling and observation of the world around us. And we’re taking a step to expand the realm of this philosophy of ours.

Greatly inspired by the New York Times’ “Modern Love” column, Globe is following suit and presenting a “Love, The Globe” column. Each issue from now on will feature a commentary following one writer’s story with any form of love. In a world where the news can get heavy and dark, we hope these stories will help the light of love shine a little brighter. mitali sharma @mitasharma EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

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or a while it was me, my mom, my dad and my sister. Then it was just me, my mom and my sister. It was just the three of us for a long time. We never had a big Christmas tree. We didn’t have giant Thanksgivings and rows of family at our

concerts and plays. We didn’t have Sunday brunches and weddings to attend. But we didn’t need any of these things. We had each other. We had inside jokes and old VHS tapes. We had my mother’s parents and we had our dog. All of us were happy and life was good.

One day, when I came home from school, I saw a bouquet of fresh, purple flowers sitting on the dining room table. My mom smiled bashfully when I asked who they were from, sidestepping my question. Then, at one of my softball games, I climbed up the Shaw Park hill to find my mother. There, I was introduced to a tall stranger, a boy my age, and two little four year olds––one covered by a black cape, and the other underneath an astronaut helmet.

The tall stranger turned out to be the one who was sending the flowers. The tall stranger became more familiar with each passing day.

Every night, he would lie on top of my pink quilt and tell me a

bedtime story. Most little third grade girls get to hear Cinderella or Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. I got to hear tales like Roadhouse, smiling as I learned about Patrick Swayze and his bar fights. I listened to the story of Harrison Ford and his adventure in the Fugitive, on the run after being accused of murder. I drifted off to the entire Lord of the Rings saga, a story that took over four consecutive nights to tell.

Many stories later, my sister and I were sat down at the dining room table by my mother and the storyteller. There was going to be a wedding. It would be my first one, and I was going to be the maid of honor. I was going to have brothers. I was going to have eight grandparents. I was going to have a second father.

With my short bob and my buck teeth, I strutted down the aisle, bouquet of daisies in hand, puffy white dress bouncing as I walked. My sister walked in front of me, tossing rose petals into the air with a smile on her face. I read my speech and handed out the rings alongside the young boy who would become my big brother in a few minutes time. The two four year olds squirmed in their argyle sweaters as my sister sat patiently in her chair on the pleasant October day. Promises were made to make one another laugh and to always be a family––promises sealed with “I do’s” and a kiss that marked the beginning of a new family.

Seven years later, the two four year olds are now eleven. With much persuading on my part, they’ll still let Art by Lizzy Mills me stroke their hair on long car rides.

Seven years later, and my big brother, while he may deny it if asked, will watch cartoons with me in his room and get us pre-dinner fries.

Seven years later and we are still eating cinnamon rolls on Thursday mornings. The tall stranger is another father, my softball teammate is my cousin, but my mother is still my mother and my sister is still my sister.

I loved the years the three of us got to spend in our own, private

world. I’m still loving and experiencing these years I get to share with them, alongside an even bigger family. We have a tree on Christmas. On Sundays, we host brunches. There are weddings and dinners and birthdays and vacations. I get to come home to a house filled with noise and chaos and joy. I’ve always known what family meant. Now I get to know what a big family means. A big family means traditions. Little brothers mean responsibility and kindness. A big brother means a sense of humor. A sister means everything. My family means cinnamon rolls on Thursday mornings.

lila taylor @lilataylorr FEATURE SECTION EDITOR

PRO/CON: LAMBERT AI Airport privatization would enrich the local St. Louis economy, simultaneously increasing customer convenience during the travel experience.

Nearly two years ago, an initiative led by former Mayor Francis Slay and visionary investors, brought forth a plan for St. Louis to not only acquire an Influx of cash but to become an innovator in the aviation field.

Just last month, the city declared that it is moving forward in its plan to privatize St. Louis Lambert International Airport by meeting with a team of consultants to “discuss sealed bids and related documents.”

Airport privatization is a contemporary idea in the United States, with Lambert being the second privatized primary airport if the plan moves through following San Juan Luis Muñoz Marín airport in Puerto Rico that underwent privatization in 2012.

Our aviation infrastructure is comprised of the Air Traffic Control (ATC), managed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the commercial airports owned by state and local governments.

Consequently however, there has been increase in aviation on a projected growth of 3.4 percent per year brought on by increases in airplane technology, safety, and afford-ability. However, this increase in volume has overwhelmed the outdated ATC and has lead to over congestions and frequent delays.

To support this heavily used infrastructure, American airports and the ATC rely on federal taxpayer subsidies as a primary source of funding.

However, in Europe, the model of the city having ownership of the airport and leasing it to a private operator, as proposed for Lambert, is common, with 47 percent of airports in the 28 European Union countries being private with Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, and Brazil following by privatizing a majority of their airports.

In these privatized locations, the ATC has been reorganized to become independent organizations from the government and the airports rely on revenues from travelers, airlines, and other hospitality and concession corporations.

Airport privatization has worked incredibly well aboard for many reasons and America should look across the pond for inspiration to revamp public interest and approval of airports.

The Journal of Economic Literature found that “benefits of privatization include greater operating efficiency, improved amenities, and increased capital investment.”

These improvements would serve great help to America where the American Society of Civil Engineers recently reported an abysmal grade of D in a recent report.

Other government services such as the postal service have trended towards gross incompetence and failure to reform with the ever evolving world due to a lack of free market competition.

PRO/CON

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Privatization has shown in instances such as Britain to revitalize the aviation industry by increasing competition between privatized airports leading to “significant volumes of invest-

ment in necessary infrastructure, higher service quality levels, and a commercial acumen which allows airport operators to diversify revenue streams and minimize the costs that users have to pay” according to a study by the Airports Council International (ACI).

In an industry where timeliness is essential for success, the efficiency and productivity of the management team is crucial.

Research from Oxford University in a study of 109 airports worldwide found that management were more passenger friendly at privatized airports and had increased productivity than their government bureaucrats.

Lastly, the opening of airports for private investments will increase the amount of private aid available to handle the high costs of airport remodeling and maintenance and can move the financing and risk management away from the hardworking taxpayers and towards financial experts in the private sector.

St. Louis is in a demanding situation as our airport has experienced a growth of travelers by 10 percent in 2016 and government funds do not increase proportionally as a region grows.

Useless government regulations have not helped in aiding our cities airport.

St. Louis is looking for other incentives to raise its appeal, but FAA regulations say that airports must use “non-aeronautical revenue” to pay for those incentives and privatization can eliminate some of these horrible regulations that are hampering the progress of our city.

Ultimately, the privatization of St. Louis Lambert International Airport can serve as the model needed in the necessary shift of moving the airport industry towards private enterprise that is necessary to evolve with today’s fast paced, market based economy and overcome the crumbling infrastructure facing our current airports.

neel vallurupalli @nvallurup COPY EDITOR

I R P O R T P R I VAT I Z AT I O N The prospect of airport privatization puts the stability of the St. Louis economy at risk.

St. Louis is currently in the process of deciding whether or not to privatize St. Louis Lambert International Airport. This idea was first suggested by previous Mayor Francis Slay and is now being continuously investigated and advocated by current Mayor Lyda Krewson. This push is primarily motivated by the belief that the airport has continued to struggle since its loss of hub status for TWA and American Airlines in 2003.

However, since then, the facts have shown the opposite.

In fact, in recent years, Lambert has been gaining stability.

In November of 2017, Fitch Ratings affirmed its upgraded rating of Lambert’s $325 million airport revenue bonds. Fitch cited the airport’s stable financial status, saying Lambert shows “continued emplacement growth in conjunction with a renewed airline agreement providing full recovery terms (which) will allow Lambert to maintain stable debt service coverage ratios.”

The upgraded rating represents that the airport is doing for St. Louis what it should do: providing a steadily increasing stream of revenue for the city.

Lambert Airport, according to their ratings, is financially stable and facing very little in the way of competition from other airports. Thus, if left alone, all the current data on Lambert shows that the future should mirror the continued improvement of recent years. In 2016 alone, the number of passengers traveling through Lambert increased by 10 percent.

In fact, December 2016 marked the airport’s 28th consecutive month of passenger growth. Finally, in fiscal 2017, Air Cargo increased over 6 percent.

This data begs the question: why fix what is not broken?

The benefit of privatization is said to be hundreds of thousands of dollars that could be brought into the city. However, this benefit has not been presented to the city in any sort of quantifiable way.

When the airport currently has so much evidence that its current system is functioning better than ever, any suggested “improvements” to its structure must be brought to the table only with explicit long term plans that show benefit for the city.

As of now, no such plan exists.

In a city that is desperate for more cash flow, the offer of privatization is a tempting one, but with any offer such as this one comes risk.

There is unnecessary risk involved in the city relinquishing some of its power to a for-profit private entity whose actions are influenced very little by public interest.

Privatization can work well when it is incorporated into a competitive industry in which competition will naturally discipline managerial behavior; however, there is little to no competition among airports.

So why take a size-able risk for only the chance to improve a city asset that is already stable and making gains on its own?

Privatization of Lambert Airport would mean selling the airport to the highest bidder without limitations or competitive motivators to regulate how the money brought in was spent. The issue is less the overarching value of privatization, but in which cases the conditions are such that privatization will set up business owners to be inclined to act in the public’s interest. In the case of

Lambert Airport, the lack of competition makes this inclination exceedingly unlikely.

Historically, privatization has been beneficial for cities on a very short term basis.

The initial boost in revenue from the sale gives the city a temporary surplus of cash to work with, but this potential temporary gain is not nearly enough to overthrow the current evidence of long term growth if the airport remains public.

Objectively, the case for privatization lacks enough quantifiable evidence to make it the smart choice for the city. As of now, privatization is only the riskiest choice for a city in need of stability.

Art by Stella Monshausen mariclare gatter @mcgatter PAGE EDITOR

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PRO/CON

One of the views from the new Bears Ears National Monument. (Stuart Leavenworth/McClatchy/TNS) 100% of the Globe staff is in support of this piece.

S TA F F E D : T H E T R U E N AT I O N A L TREASURE The Globe staff comments on the importance of National Parks amid recent threats posed by the Trump administration.

National parks today are defined as a scenic or historically important areas of countryside protected by the federal government for the enjoyment of the general public or the preservation of wildlife. Although our national parks are considered one our greatest decisions as a nation, we are seeing attempts to exploit national parks for capital gain, we as a country need to make a definitive stance against this mishandling of our Nation’s Parks.

It is important, however, to recognize the history of how our Nation’s Parks were founded. National Parks originated in the mid 1800s with the belief that forever preserving America’s greatest historical, and natural treasures for future generations to observe would be in our nation’s best interests.

George Catlin, when voyaging through America in the 1800s, developed the idea of a national park, he imagined it as “a magnificent park ... a nation’s park, containing man and beast, in all the wild and freshness of their nature’s beauty!” These ideas spread to many explorers, writers, and painters who saw Yellowstone as a haven of natural beauty. Thus many explorers and artists such as William Henry Jackson and Thomas Moran attempted to protect Yellowstone from exploitation. Their paintings and photographs eventually inspired Congress and Ulysses S. Grant to sign the Yellowstone National Park Protection Act and thus Yellowstone became the nation’s first national park in 1872.

Throughout the years we’ve seen very few attempts to alter the size national parks. Regardless of who’s president or which political party controls the house, the majority of politicians respect our nation’s national parks, with the notable exception of our current administration. We’ve seen under our current government an attempt to reduce the size of some national parks and limit their funding.

President Trump proposed in December to reduce the size of two of Utah’s largest national parks, Bears Ears by 85% and Grand Staircase-Escalante by half which would open the gained land for oil extraction and drilling. By abusing the Antiquities Act, which allows presidents to modify the sizes of national parks given

that their main objective should be to protect important sites and use the smallest amount of land possible, Trump is resizing these national parks. Previously, presidents have only used the Antiquities Act for small land reductions, or large reductions in hopes of gaining land to develop and test military weapons or to obtain resources desperately needed during times of war.

Trump is being challenged by conservationists in court to disallow him from reducing the size of national parks. Many defenders of the national parks argue that the land Trump wants to cut contains hundreds of thousands of sites of archaeological importance in the deserts landscape.

By going through with their extreme reductions of Bears Ears, Trump has set a precedent for future presidents to be able to reduce the size of national parks for industrialization and development.

The way our current administration is handling national monuments has infuriated members of the National Park Service panel leading the majority of them to resign. Carolyn Hessler Radelet who resigned from the board was quoted saying, “From all of the events of this past year I have a profound concern that the mission of stewardship, protection, and advancement of our National Parks has been set aside.”

We, the Globe, as an organization strive for the protection and preservation of our national parks, we believe any attempt to reduce or eliminate them purely for financial gain is a malicious one that should be challenged.

National parks provide a place of protected nature that shouldn’t be imposed upon for financial gain. They provide educational resources for students to learn more about our environment through class materials, field trips, and historical monuments. Additionally they preserve biodiversity and promote areas of nature untouched by pollution and human developments. National parks need to be protected, without our nations support these lands will be reduced and sold to the highest bidder.

FELPS ON ICE

Educational Technology Intern Melissa Felps spent years skating for Team USA. Sundays were from 3:30 until 10:45. They were long and very early (figure skaters tend to get the earlier ice because hockey players tend to take priority). When competitions got closer we did have practice every day, so it was seven days a week, 3:30 mornings all the time. It was a good mix of on-ice and office. Off-ice you do things like running and endurance, but a lot of it is cleaning and polishing, so making sure that everybody’s head is turned the exact same direction and exactly on “count 1”. It’s a very precise thing and it’s a little bit of dance-type stuff about movement and everything.

Photo from Felps Q: How did you get involved with ice skating?

A: When I was about nine, which is kind of the age of try-everything, I was at the rink all the time, because my dad and my brother both play ice hockey. I was like, “Okay, guess that’s next,” so I signed up for some classes and that ended up being what I did forever.

Q: How did you end up on Team USA? A: I skated out of St. Peters, Missouri, which isn’t too far from here, and I competed in both the recreational/competitive side, and then the more competitive side both individually and on a team. The team stuff, which is synchronized skating (16 people on the ice at the same time), was always my favorite. I loved that it combined all the different parts of skating, and I thought it was really cool. During my undergrad I had actually stopped skating (I took two years off), but I had an opportunity to try out for a Team USA synchronized skating team, so I went into the rink every day for probably three weeks and then sent a video in for a video audition and they were like, “Congrats, you made the team!” I guess in a weird way I had kind of decided that I was done with skating, and then an opportunity presented itself and I went back.

Q: How often did you have to practice when you were on Team USA? A: We had practice every day except Friday morning. We had practice from 3:30 AM until 6:45 AM every day. Saturdays and

Q: What was your best experience/memory that you had while ice skating?

A: I have two that are tied. One of them is super cliché but when I was on Team USA, one of our competitions was in Scotland and we won the silver medal. We were actually there with another Team USA team and they took first, so Team USA took first and second and we were on the podium, our flags were up, the national anthem was playing, and we got our medals, and that was just a very breathtaking, but makes-you-feel-kind-ofsmall moment. I would say that actually almost greater than that was growing up, I used to compete in what was called “Worlds”. We would travel all over the United States from coast to coast every summer. It was a week long competition, but I would get to compete against people who were from Hong Kong and other places. It was always a blast to see the different programs from everywhere. I would say that the opportunities to travel to so many different places, and learning from and meeting so many different kinds of people. Realizing that the sport is something that is the same everywhere is weird. We don’t eat the same food, we don’t speak the same language, we don’t take the same classes, but you’re competing at the same level as me and doing all the same things and our programs aren’t that different, which is kind of cool.

Q: What is the greatest lesson that you have learned from skating?

A: This was a hard lesson to learn, but never rooting for anyone to do a bad job. That translates into so many different aspects of life. If you win something, you want to win it when everybody’s had their best day. It kind of takes you a while to learn it. You watch your competitors and they fall, and you think, “okay, I’m safe now,” but then you would place higher than them, or your score would be greater, and it didn’t feel that good. But when you competed against someone who had a perfect, flawless program and the crowd went crazy, and then you have to skate, and the pressure pushes you, and then you have an amazing skate. Learning that you can healthily push other people and still want them to do their best, and still want to win, was probably the greatest thing that I got from skating.

gracie morris @graciemorris827 PAGE EDITOR