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MARCH 6-12, 2019

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THE LEDE

PHOTO BY THEO WELLING

“We’re here because we’re off work and I’ve never seen it like this in St. Louis before. I’m 31, and I’ve lived here for my whole life.” CHARLIE GRELLNER (LEFT) WITH PATRICK KRAUS (CENTER) AND DAVID D’ANGELO, PHOTOGRAPHED IN FOREST PARK ON THE FROZEN ICE OF THE GRAND BASIN ON MONDAY, FEBRUARY 15

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It’s Down to You

n less than a week, St. Louis voters will begin a new era. Four candidates are battling to replace Mayor Lyda Krewson, and we’ll select the top two through the city’s new approval voting system. It adds an element of intrigue to the primary and is expected to set the stage for the most-competitive general election in generations. As you prepare to make your picks (You are voting, right?), we’ve got in-depth interviews and profiles of all four candidates to help you decide. The new system makes it hard to predict what will happen, and the stakes are as high as ever as we look for a leader to take over the city’s pandemic response as well as long-running issues of crime, social justice, development and generally shaping a city that continues to lose residents. It’s a big job, so flip to our mayoral preview and get on that homework. — Doyle Murphy, editor in chief

TABLE OF CONTENTS Publisher Chris Keating Editor in Chief Doyle Murphy

E D I T O R I A L Digital Editor Jaime Lees Interim Managing Editor Daniel Hill Staff Writer Danny Wicentowski Contributors Cheryl Baehr, Eric Berger, Jeannette Cooperman, Thomas Crone, Mike Fitzgerald, Andy Paulissen, Justin Poole, Theo Welling, Ymani Wince Columnist Ray Hartmann Editorial Interns Jack Killeen, Riley Mack A R T

& P R O D U C T I O N Art Director Evan Sult Editorial Layout Haimanti Germain, Evan Sult Production Manager Haimanti Germain M U L T I M E D I A A D V E R T I S I N G Advertising Director Colin Bell Account Managers Emily Fear, Jennifer Samuel Multimedia Account Executive Chuck Healy, Jackie Mundy Digital Sales Manager Chad Beck Director of Public Relations Brittany Forrest

COVER For Your Approval

C I R C U L A T I O N Circulation Manager Kevin G. Powers

Four mayoral candidates enter. Two leave. A new system of voting hits St. Louis March 2

E U C L I D M E D I A G R O U P Chief Executive Officer Andrew Zelman Chief Operating Officers Chris Keating, Michael Wagner VP of Digital Services Stacy Volhein www.euclidmediagroup.com

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N A T I O N A L A D V E R T I S I N G VMG Advertising 1-888-278-9866, vmgadvertising.com

EVAN SULT Lewis Reed photo by Danny Wicentowski Tishaura Jones photo courtesy of Jones campaign Cara Spencer photo courtesy of Spencer campaign Andrew Jones photo courtesy Andrew Jones

The Riverfront Times is published weekly by Euclid Media Group | Verified Audit Member

INSIDE The Lede Hartmann News Feature Short Orders Culture Savage Love 6

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HARTMANN Missouri’s Uneducated Policy on Vaccinating Teachers BY RAY HARTMANN

he Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services is continuing to honor its solemn commitment to keeping science out of politics with respect to public health in the state. Dr. Randall Williams, DHSS minister of propaganda, proudly announced last week that there’s no way Missouri will join most of the nation in giving higher priority to vaccinating teachers. Or as his boss, Governor Mike Parson, might put it: “Hell no, we ain’t giving shots to the dang teachers’ unions as long as there are real Missourans who want to turn those shots down!” Most of the nation is debating whether to wait to open schools until all teachers are vaccinated. Some say yes, while others — such as Dr. Anthony Fauci and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — argue that schools can reopen without full vaccinations, but only if teachers are moved up the vaccine list as essential workers. But Parson and Williams aren’t having any part of that. Instead, they’re doubling down on rightwing political talking points that denigrate teachers as greedy union members. This approach would qualify as pathetic even if neighboring Illinois and Kansas were not vaccinating their teachers as essential workers. Well, they are. This isn’t any more complicated than wearing a mask in a pandemic. (In fairness, DHSS firmly believes Missouri residents should do that if they want to.) But, in the absence of the erstwhile chancellor of Trump University, abject stupidity in the name of wingnut

politics is now a matter left to the states. Say this for Parson, his administration and the Republican-owned state legislature: They are consistent. Under their leadership, such that it is, Missouri ranks dead last in America — by a rather shocking margin — in per-person public-health spending. At virtually every moment since the COVID-19 pandemic began ravaging the nation, Missouri has passionately pursued a race to the bottom among states in either denying or ignoring the publichealth crisis. Remember how it started here? We covered it almost a year ago in this space: “On March 19, fully eight days after the World Health Organization issued its official declaration that COVID-19 was a global pandemic, Parson uttered these astonishing words: ‘I don’t think there is a doomsday for the state of Missouri or the United States over COVID-19,’ Parson told the Kansas City Star. ‘It’s something we have to be concerned with. But to try to put that into a fear category is wrong. This is like viruses we’ve dealt with before. ‘It’s going to take us some time to be able to treat that virus and come up with a vaccine at some point,’ Parson said. ‘But if people will follow simple instructions, they can sure slow the process down of COVID-19.’” It has been pretty much downhill since then. Those prescient words about not allowing COVID-19 to fall into the “fear category” were followed by scandalous acts of ignorance or ineptitude. From Parson’s early refusal to close schools when virtually all states had (individual Missouri schools and school districts did it for themselves), to refusing to institute a mask mandate, to prohibiting state enforcement of public-health laws, to slow-walking COVID-19 relief to communities, to DHSS’s tragically inept information systems, to the current gross incompetence and unfairness in vaccine distribution — that’s a partial list — Parson and his DHSS have placed politics above public health at every turn. In Williams’ case, it’s actually impressive that the scandal of his COVID-19 failure has approached his previous claim to fame, which is to have maintained a spread-

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, Missouri has passionately pursued a race to the bottom among states. Under Parson and the Republican-owned state legislature, Missouri ranks dead last in America — by a rather shocking margin — in per-person public health spending. sheet of the menstrual cycles of women who went to Planned Parenthood. It’s not every day you can match that sort of creepiness. Williams shamelessly promoted a false choice in defending the state’s inaction on elevating the priority of teachers, as it should be doing. “Those people who are more likely to get sick, and bluntly, to pass away if they get COVID, continue to be the governor’s focus and my focus and all of our focus,” Williams said during Parson’s weekly media briefing. “So the answer is that’s what’s guiding us and will continue to guide us.” On the positive side, this is one of the first times Parson and Williams have shown an active interest in the sick and dying during the pandemic. So there’s progress. In proclaiming his unwillingness to move teachers up from their current status as Phase 1B Tier 3, Williams said the goal was to begin vaccinating them in mid-to-

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late April. If DHSS’s track record means anything, teachers will be lucky to have shots in arms by next fall. Even if one accepts the CDC view that vaccinating all teachers is not a prerequisite for opening schools, it defies common sense to prioritize school opening and not prioritize giving vaccines to teachers at the same time. But at Parson’s direction, DHSS remains far more interested in politics than sound policy as it pertains to the pandemic. There’s a welcoming audience for this attitude in Missouri — especially outstate in rural areas — as the governor’s landslide victory last November would attest. That doesn’t make it right, and Parson’s failure to make unpopular choices is the very definition of weak leadership. The consequences are obvious. Williams is enthusiastic about promoting the fact that teachers won’t be moved up in the line. He’s not so forthcoming about subjects such as mask-wearing mandates and protective gear for teachers and students or organizing classrooms in smaller pods or other direct public-health measures. It’s this precise mentality that has made Missouri a follower throughout the pandemic. The falsehood that personal freedom and sound public-health policy are mutually exclusive has been a hallmark of the Parson administration. By defying the science and rejecting the advice of national health experts on everything from mask mandates to prioritizing vaccines for teachers, the DHSS strategy is beyond irresponsible. It exposes a total lack of passion and imagination on the part of state health officials in addressing the largest health crisis in a century. And it’s a bit ironic. You’d think that when it comes to strategies for reopening schools, Missouri’s teachers and students would be entitled to more than an uneducated guess. n Ray Hartmann founded the Riverfront Times in 1977. Contact him at rhar tmann1952@gmail.com or catch him on Donnybrook at 7 p.m. on Thursdays on the Nine Network and St. Louis In the Know with Ray Hartmann from 9 to 11 p.m. Monday thru Friday on KTRS (550 AM).

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NEWS

Ex-KMOX Broadcaster Pleads in Child Porn Case

Ex-Papa John’s CEO Backs Ex-Pizza Employee’s Racism Claim

Written by

DOYLE MURPHY

Written by

n the radio for more than four decades, Harry Hamm was a familiar voice on St. Louis airwaves. In private, he was trolling the internet in search of sexually explicit images of children. he year old former KMOX broadcaster pleaded guilty on ebruary to two federal counts of possessing child pornography and one count of access with intent to view child porn. State charges that allege his habits extended to sexually abusing a child are still pending in St. Louis County. Hamm, whose last job was as KMOX’s entertainment editor, was arrested in ril by St. Ann police after his family turned him in. The FBI soon joined the investigation and searched multiple devices used by Hamm, including three iPhones and his work laptop and iPad. lea agreement filed on ebruary revealed that an I agent uncovered deleted search histories for child porn as well as dozens of illicit photos. “Altogether, the defendant possessed uni ue images of child pornography,” prosecutors from the .S. ttorney’s ffice in St. Louis wrote. “Some of the images depicted prepubescent minor children engaged in sexually explicit conduct, and some depicted sadistic or masochistic conduct, or other acts of violence.” A Navy vet and commercial pilot, Hamm started at KMOX in and soon became a brash and chatty fi ture in St. ouis, interviewing A-list celebrities such as Harrison ord and ulia Roberts. He also championed the

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DANNY WICENTOWSKI

A Harry Hamm was a longtime radio personality, until his arrest. | COURTESY ST. ANN POLICE

Hamm kept a cache of child pornography photos in an account with the Canadian photo-storing site Shoebox, authorities say. arts and charitable fundraising for sick kids. He was fired by the radio station after his arrest and languished in St. Louis County’s jail while he tried to scrape together bail money in the state case. In one of his early court appearances, he claimed to be befuddled by jailhouse phones and asked to be released on house arrest so he could search for a private attorney from the familiar confines of his hesterfield home. ut the lea agreement reveals Hamm was

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more technologically savvy than he let on, toggling through multiple devices and deleting search histories for terms such as “pthc,” which federal prosecutors say stands for “preteen hard core.” Hamm kept a cache of photos in an account with the Canadian photo-storing site Shoebox, authorities say. Even at his new, disheveled low, Hamm maintained an arrogance and sense of his own grandiosity, pointing out a reporter to a fellow inmate during one court appearance and claiming that the RFT was rofiling him for a cover story. (We weren’t, and it isn’t clear why he would think we were.) St. Ann police said Hamm’s family contacted them in April with accusations that he was sexually abusing a young relative. Hamm was subsequently charged with statutory sodomy, incest and possession of child porn in that case which is being tried in state court. In the federal child porn possession case, Hamm is scheduled to be sentenced on April 26. Each of the three federal counts has a maximum sentence of twenty years in prison and a $250,000 fine. n

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n already bizarre story about how a Black employee of a St. nn’s Pa a ohn’s was fired after recording his boss’s racist rants has become decidedly weirder now that the pizza chain’s disgraced former ohn Schnatter has thrown himself into the mix. The billionaire appeared last week in a KMOV segment ostensibly focused on George Mitchell, a year old former Pa a ohn’s em loyee who had been fired last year after he complained about his shift manager’s unsettling comments about race and women. As a delivery driver and cook, Mitchell had started making recordings of his manager, oshua Bruce, who is white. Some of those clips aired in a February 6 story from KMOV, including a recording that had apparently captured Bruce mid-tirade about his disgust for interracial relationships, s ecifically for white women who have children with Black men. Mitchell ultimately lost his job after he complained to the store’s corporate owners about his boss, and soon after filed a discrimination lawsuit naming Bruce and Pa a ohn’s. ast week, the suit gained him an unlikely ally in Schnatter, who had resigned from Pa a ohn’s in after it was revealed he had used the n-word during a “diversity training” call. Now in the midst of an attempted comeback, Schnatter was alerted to Mitchell’s plight in stories from KMOV and the St. Louis PostDispatch. “The tape is dreadful, it’s horrif-

ic, and for anybody to have to go through that, it’s just bad,” Schnatter told KMOV. Indeed, the recordings Mitchell ca tured before his firing a ear to show Bruce spiraling through unambiguous white supremacist talking points, including a disgust with interracial relationships. “So you’re not only f---ing our daughters, you’re beating their asses and you’re leaving them with a kid, seven out of ten times,” Bruce says in one recording. In another, he rants, “There’s not a white guy in the world that comes along, meets a white girl, as soon as he sees that mixed kid, he’s f---ing out.” The recordings also included Bruce allegedly saying, “White people created Western civilization,” a statement closely resembling the arguments of Proud Boys and white nationalists. However, during the KMOV follow-up that aired last week and featured Schnatter, the story took a strange turn as it attempted to contextualize the ex-CEO’s personal history with racial controversy and the circumstances of the 2018 call in which he said the n-word. KMOV reporter Ashli Lincoln asked Schnatter, “Did you use the n-word any time in that audio?” “No,” Schnatter answered. “I said Colonel Sanders calls Black people that. I would never use that word.” But there are some notable problems with Schnatter’s answer. First, it contradicts his own apology in 2018, when he acknowledged the incident to the Washington Post, saying: “News reports attributing the use of inappropriate and hurtful language to me during a media training session regarding race are true.” KMOV didn’t push back on Schnatter’s answer, and, in an even more significant blunder, Lincoln’s voiceover continued: “This past December, the FBI exonerated Schnatter, saying his comments were not intended as a racial slur towards anyone” — something which did not happen. Instead, the purported “exoneration” report was produced by former FBI director Louis Freeh, who had been hired by Schnatter’s attorneys to “assess” the 2018 phone call and determine whether Schnatter’s statements had been misinterpreted in

Former pizza boss John Schnatter (center), shown in 2013, came to St. Louis to support a fired worker. | NORTH CAROLINA NATIONAL GUARD the press. KMOV’s story appeared to misunderstand the provenance of the report even when Schnatter addressed it directly: The online version of the story quotes Schnatter defending his conduct in 2018, saying “The free report clears me” — but Schnatter wasn’t saying “free,” but “Freeh,” that is, the author of the report his attorneys had paid for. While Freeh’s report contended that media coverage had unfairly projected racist intention on Schnatter’s 2018 call, it also reaffirmed that, yes, Schnatter had used the racial epithet during diversity training while comparing his use of the n-word to that of Colonel Sanders. Still, KMOV’s Lincoln did press Schnatter on his decision to involve himself in Mitchell’s case. “Critics might say, ‘Hey, this is a publicity stunt to clear your name,’” she noted. “What’s your response to that?” “There’s plenty of publicity already,” Schnatter replied, and, turning to Mitchell, added, “and if it helps him get this resolved, we’ll get some publicity.” For Mitchell, though, the coming legal fight against Pa a ohn’s could be a difficult one.

The lawsuit alleges that Bruce attempted to “claim” a recently hired female Black employee and then demanded Mitchell act as a “wingman” in his attempts to have sex with her. Missouri law drastically restricted the standards for proving discrimination in court, meaning plaintiffs can’t simply argue that race was “a contributing factor” to discrimination, but “the motivating factor.” While the legal issue proceeds

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in court, the recordings Mitchell made, backed up by the lawsuit, describe a workplace of mounting toxicity and terror. The lawsuit alleges that Bruce had previously attempted to “claim” a recently hired female Black employee and then demanded Mitchell act as a “wingman” in his attempts to have sex with her. When those efforts failed, Bruce’s behavior “became more erratic and strange,” the lawsuit said. That’s when Mitchell started recording his boss. But when he took his evidence and complaints to the store’s corporate ownership in uly , they reacted by firing the employee, not the racist boss. In the interview aired in the KMOV segment last week, Mitchell said it was the failure of Papa ohn’s cor orate ownershi to take racism seriously that motivated him to reach out to Schnatter, despite the ex-CEO’s history. Addressing the question from KMOV’s Lincoln about whether critics would say Schnatter’s involvement is simply part of a PR stunt, Mitchell said, “They can say what they want.” “But truthfully,” Mitchell added, “he’s the only one that came when I called.” n

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FOR YOUR APPROVAL Four mayoral candidates enter. Two leave. A new system of voting hits St. Louis March 2 

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olitics in St. Louis can mean many things — frustrating things, mostly — but until now, there had always been perfect clarity about what it meant to win the rimary, or first round, of a local election: It meant everything.

That’s because the city’s elections are like a joke that everyone’s in on, all setup and no punchline. Only one party exists in the city as a serious political or governmental force, meaning all battles of policy take place inside a Democratic tent that has its own bounds of left, right and center — alignments that at times only vaguely resemble their national counterparts. On paper, the city maintained a two-stage election process, with voters winnowing the field in the primary to one candidate per party, followed by the finalists battling it out in the general.

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Functionally, though, the election ended at the primary with the Republican candidate serving as little more than an afterthought in the general election. That’s how you get nine Democratic mayors of St. Louis going back more than half a century. The last Republican mayor left office in . In , when former mayor rancis Slay won his first term, he beat his Republican opponent with 87 percent of the vote and spent the next three consecutive elections walloping Green Party candidates by huge margins. So the partisan farce of the general election has gone on for de-

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cades but in that system is gone, replaced with two-stage “approval voting” system that adds a new instruction to the ballot: “Vote for AS MANY names as you approve of in each race.” n arch , for the first time in the city’s history, a new kind of election will end with the top two vote-getters going head-to-head in a runoff on ril . lso a first There are no Democrat or Republican identifications on the ballot. Party labels have been erased, resulting in a non-partisan showdown for the leadership of a deep blue city whose voters went 82 percent for Joe Biden. No such landslide is expected here. Three candidates — Lewis Reed, Tishaura Jones, and Cara Spencer — are established characters in the Democrat-controlled city government. Andrew Jones, a business development and marketing executive for a local energy com any, ran for mayor in

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as a Republican and was roundly defeated by Democratic primarywinner Lyda Krewson. In November, Krewson opened up the race when she announced she would retire from politics after the end of her term. Now, for the second consecutive election, St. Louis is guaranteed a brandnew mayor and administration. The stakes couldn’t be a higher: Between historic homicide counts, dwindling population, an imperiled school system and jails in crisis, St. Louis is at a crossroads of critical junctures. In separate interviews with the Riverfront Times, all four candidates detailed their visions for a city bursting with problems and potential — while making the case for why voters should approve them on the March 2 ballot. No one knows for certain what this untested, unprecedented primary will produce. What it will mean, then, is up to you. — Danny Wicentowski

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This week’s election introduces a new two-stage “approval voting” system that adds a new instruction to the mayoral ballot: “Vote for AS MANY names as you approve of in each race.” Cara Spencer photo courtesy of Spencer campaign | Tishaura Jones photo courtesy of Jones campaign | Lewis Reed photo by Danny Wicentowski | Andrew Jones photo courtesy Andrew Jones

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CARA SPENCER: THE ALDERWOMAN

ara Spencer, 42, began her tenure as 20th Ward Alderwoman in 2015, at a time when ewis eed was finishing this third term as board president and Tishaura Jones had already spent four years as a state representative and was well into her new job as city treasurer. Spencer’s opponents may have decades more political experience, but she’s quickly built a reputation as a city watchdog against the mishmash of economic development priorities that have long to ified the city’s legislative body. It’s an arena where the go-to strategy involves pouring tax incentives into development projects that, in the process, deprive the school system of revenue. wo years after she took office, Spencer ran headlong into the attempt to privatize St. Louis Lambert International Airport. “It was just so emblematic of how the city goes about its business, in a vacuum, siloed off and with a short-term game in mind,” Spencer says. “We go in without any sort of risk analysis, or even valuation of the project.” “Instead,” she fumes, “we took the easy route.” he air ort rivati ation fiasco ended in 2020, with Lambert remaining under city operation. Along the way, it became an example of a kind of collaborative dysfunction that turns St. Louis government into a wasteful, pointless spectacle. It also demonstrated what a St. Louis mayor can do, and what cha-

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os they can produce: The aborted ight to rivati ation started in late as one of the final acts of outgoing mayor Francis Slay, who entered the city into an agreement with free-market enthusiast Rex Sin uefield in turn, the billionaire hired the high-priced consultants needed to prepare, market and eventually lease St. Louis’ airport to a third-party owner. The idea, supposedly, would net the city billion and fi all its economic problems. A successful lease would also trigger a lucrative ayback for Sin uefield and the consultants — a cast that grew to include a certain former St. Louis mayor and private-sector attorney named Francis Slay. Slay’s role, along with the seemingly legalized kickback scheme to Sin uefield, horrified S encer. That’s not the sort of deal a St. Louis mayor should make, she says. “The mayor should run an agenda, a set of priorities, a clearly articulated vision for the city,” she says, explaining that her agenda would tackle public safety with “a regular accounting of policies and revisions” as the city worked to reduce violent crime and “increase an investment in our community that needs it most.” Further distinguishing Spencer from her opponents, the alderwoman has run a notably aggressive campaign towards Lewis Reed. “The Reed record? Cronyism, corruption and crime that’s out of control,” intones a 30-second ad that started airing last week. The narration continues as news clips about airport privatization and the

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city’s homicide rate ashing by. he ad abruptly pivots to crime victims talking about their losses — “Politicians like Lewis Reed had their chance,” one man says, after describing the death of his son — and ends on Spencer facing the camera, delivering her pitch: “No matter where you live in St. Louis, I’m committed to keeping you safe.” Reed’s campaign shot back, accusing Spencer’s campaign of using “darkened, grainy image and racial fear tactics” and “a sad old racist trope — blaming Black leaders for crime.” Spencer defends the ad, saying that Reed bears responsibility for failing to address the rise in violent crime during his long tenure in government. Even before the current campaign, Spencer and Reed had publicly tangled on airport privatization and, that same year, the city’s approval of a $64 million bond to renovate the Scottrade Center for the Blues, consigning city dollars to benefit a team currently worth $530 million. Still, Spencer says she supports Cure Violence, the recently launched anti-violence strategy principally backed by Reed, though she believes it would work most effectively paired with “focused deterrence a strategy brie y iloted in St. Louis in 2012. The plan involves focusing police and other resources on the small number of people in an area “at high risk for being involved in violent crime.” As with many things about St. Louis, Spencer laments the lack of planning that pervades the city’s efforts to affect the quality of life

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for some 300,000 residents. Reed, she alleges, has proven himself an obstacle, not a problem-solver. “We have no discernable agenda,” she says of the board under Reed. “It is dysfunctional beyond my wildest imagination. He has been at the helm all these years, and what do we have to show for it?” Still, the next St. Louis mayor is going to face challenges much bigger than past clashes. There’s the issue of the Workhouse, which Spencer supports closing. The next mayor will also face the aftermath of the pending closure of seven schools, despite having no direct control over the St. Louis Public Schools system. Solutions will take a lot of planning, requiring long-term moves and thorough analysis, Spencer says. All four candidates agree on that — but Spencer argues that she’s the one who has most proven she’s not just principled but is willing “to do the work.” St. Louis has a wealth of problems that’s certain. ut where there’s a plan — and a mayor to guide it — there could very well be a way. Spencer wants to be the one to get it there. “We have got some real structural issues, and the fact that the region hasn’t grown in four decades is problematic,” she says. “I have tremendous hope for St. Louis. We have phenomenal architecture, our human capital is fantastic, our culture, the people who live here and just the amenities that we have — we’re sitting on a goldmine.” — Danny Wicentowski

TISHAURA JONES: THE TREASURER

o one was more aficted by St. ouis’ old election system than ishaura ones. In arch , the all im ortant Democratic rimary swelled with seven candidates, stretching the election to its absurd breaking oint as five sitting ublic officials among them lderwoman yda rewson, oard of ldermen President ewis eed and ones, the city treasurer vied to see who would be the first St. ouis mayor of the st century not named rancis Slay. In such a divided field, rewson needed ust ercent of the vote to beat ones, who missed the mayorshi by a hair’s breadth of votes. ones’ su orters groused at what could have been if only their candidate had cometed against rewson directly, or at least in an election that didn’t feature as many candidates as days in the week. our years later, ones is coming off her third win as treasurer. In the same election, St. ouis relaced the lay dynasty in the .S. House of e resentatives with activist and rotester ori ush. oters also reelected im ardner to circuit attorney des ite a strong o onent and bitter o osition from St. ouis’ largest olice union. It sends a strong signal, ones, , says of the contests. he eo le who showed u for that election believe in the leadershi of lack women to lead our city and region forward. Still, ones acknowledges that she can’t hel but view the struggles of rewson’s administration through the what if lens of hindsight. It was that way on the morning of ebruary , when inmates in ity ustice enter overtook two of the downtown ail’s units,

smashed fourth oor windows and sei ed the attention of a stunned city with homemade banners and small fires. Hours later, ones took to witter to address the u rising. Had I been ayor back in , she wrote, we wouldn’t be in the situation we are in today. In an interview, ones granted that the revolt had been receded by months of ressure over andemic crowding, with conditions worsened by the stalled legal system that lengthened the stays of those awaiting trials and court hearings. Still, she stands by her statement. In an alternate St. ouis under a ones administration, she says We would have been tackling the root causes of crime more aggressively since . We would be reventing eo le from even entering the system in the first lace, and working with the ircuit ttorney’s ffice on some real, tangible criminal ustice reform. In that universe, it would have been ayor ones, not rewson, to face the burst of rotests in late after the ac uittal of a co charged with murdering a susect. We wouldn’t have been kettling’ rotesters, ones continues, referring to a olice engineered mass arrest that encircled rotesters and uninvolved downtown residents during a night of demonstrations. hose swe t u by riot olice included an undercover officer named uther Hall, who later sued the de artment over a brutal beating delivered at the hands of his fellow officers. his is why the city had to ay uther Hall million, she adds, unctuating her oint. In her view, the status uo of ublic

safety in St. ouis has to sto , not ust because of the tangible losses in settlements and embarrassment, but because of what it costs in trust. f course, ones isn’t running to be the mayor four years ago. he St. ouis of today has enough roblems. s with all the candidates, her latform highlights ublic safety. ike the lan ut forth by fellow candidate and alderwoman ara S encer, it features a rollout of a focused deterrence lan, though ones’ latform describes a model to wra olice services into a community first strategy that would include social service roviders, rosecutors, faith organi ations and local businesses to stem the city’s violent crime. ut ones has distinguished her cam aign on other issues. She has made decriminali ing se work a written art of her latform, and her lan for reallocating the Workhouse budget includes redirecting millions of dollars to substance abuse rogramming. Des ite the setbacks, ones maintains the Workhouse needs to close. Still, with the riminal ustice enter in crisis (including Public Safety Director immie dwards’ revelation that the locks don’t necessarily lock , she has concluded that can’t ha en as fast as reviously lanned. he ail’s delayed closure is ust another e am le, she says, of the way St. ouis kicks the can down the road, a dynamic that com ounds failures as city leaders wait to react to whatever ne t thing they haven’t re ared for. When we talk about the things that are laguing St. ouis, we seem to have an either or, or scarcity mentality, ones says. We need to have a mentality that we

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can handle and concentrate on multi le things at a time. o ones, the solutions aren’t hiding in new lans or commissions she lists several re orts ublished by coalitions and non rofits over the ast si years, thousands of ages of analysis devoted to olicing, economic develo ment and the racial ine uities between the city’s south and north. hat’s the aralysis of analysis, ones ui s. What we need to do is take those calls to action, ut them together in a strategic lan and go forward with dates and deliverables. Some challenges still loom unaddressed. ones cites the seven lanned school closures amid an ongoing decline in student o ulation. St. ouis, she says, has not been a good artner with our school system. While the mayor can’t change school olicy directly, ones says the mayor’s office needs to be an actual resence in the school system and its future, a genuine artner, not a distant voice that wanders into the classroom long after the bell has rung. It’s the call to service that ones says would make her mayorshi unlike anything in the city’s history, and not ust because she’d be the first lack woman to lead it. Peo le always say they want change, but they don’t, she says. So, we have to be transformational in our a roach, and that’s about leadershi . It’s like that ible verse, she suggests, the one about ressing toward the mark. How do we kee ressing forward ou ust have to kee ushing, she adds. ecause we know that bigger, and better, is indeed ossible. — Danny Wicentowski

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LEWIS REED: THE PRESIDENT

ewis Reed, 58, might be St. Louis politics personified. In , twenty years after first taking office as a th Ward ldermen, he won an un recedented fourth term as resident of the oard of ldermen. It’s a osition he com ares to second in command of a massive cor oration though it is uni uely owerful in its own right. rom his erch in ity Hall, eed has managed to carve his own ath, controlling committee assignments and the ow of lawmaking while also holding one of the three key votes on the city’s ultra owerful budgetary board. ut while he is one of the most owerful figures in government, eed says he understands residents’ worries about the historic rise in homicides and the distrust between crime victims and olice. He acknowledges that constituents are frustrated with a government he’s been art of for decades. It’s a frustration that he says he shares. etting new things ado ted and im lemented in the city is something you can actually get done in that mayor’s office, he says. Part of the challenge is breaking through some of these traditional ways and the ingrained things that have ke t us stagnating for so long. eed ushes back on any notion that he’s underused the ower of his resent office. In a government system reliant on coalitions and soft ower, he says that as board resident, you don’t have the ower to enter into a magaine subscri tion on your own.

hings would be different in a eed administration, eed says. He mentions the long struggling efforts to de loy body cameras to the city’s officers, which had stalled for years before rolling out at the end of last year. he mayor could do that in a day, he charges. s board resident, he says, I’ve done everything in my ower to lay the groundwork to ut these things in ractice. nd if you have a mayor that has no understanding, it’s taking someone and lo ing them in the seat of an , and they have no idea how to y a lane. hen again, eed tends to be his own ilot and his mercurial style has alienated otential allies in the city’s legislative and e ecutive branches. or instance, in the city’s contentious e loration of air ort rivati ation, eed layed wildcard as he bounced between obstacle and booster, his machinations se arate from those of ayor yda rewson. fter rewson officially killed the rivati ation effort amid o osition that the lan would gamble the city’s most valuable asset while ouring millions into the ockets of conservative billionaire e Sin uefield eed led attem ts to resurrect it as art of a scheme to force the city to lease the air ort’s o erations in e change for, su osedly, billion in im rovements to north city. he lan never got off the ground. Still, eed maintains that he can marshal the owers of the office to action. I think it’s clear that my leadershi style lends itself better to coalition building, he says.

ut when conditions change, eed believes that walking away from a coalition you hel ed build can be the right thing to do. ake the efforts to close the Workhouse, the city’s maligned medium security ail, which costs the city million to run annually. While both ishaura ones and ara S encer say atly they would close the facility if elected, eed has traced a di ying ath of ositions irst o osed, eed later oined the activists and s onsored the unanimously assed board bill to close the Workhouse by the end of last year. hat didn’t ha en. mid rison officials’ concern about overcrowding during a andemic and a succession of riots and u risings at the city’s other ail, eed sna ed back to what he argues is a more ressing reality avoiding the s read of infection and otential unrest in the ails than the one backed by criminal ustice reformers. he world has changed, eed says, nyone who says they would automatically go in Day and close the Workhouse couldn’t be more irres onsible. What remains unchanged for eed, through his decades in government and multi le mayoral runs, is his focus on violent crime. He s ent years boosting the ure iolence rogram, which rolled out this year with teams of violence interru ters de loyed to the city’s most violent neighborhoods. eed often talks about the effects of violence on his own family. In , his brother was murdered by unknown gunmen in

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oliet, Illinois, where eed had grown u among eight siblings. In , eed says his ne hew was found shot, killed and left burning in a dum ster in the city of St. ouis. ne year later, his son was held u at gun oint and nearly robbed close to the family home in om ton Heights. I’ve co hosted candlelight vigils for all these families. I’ve attended the funerals. I take that stuff very, very ersonally, he says. Praying by my brother’s hos ital bed as he assed away from a gunshot wound to the head I know what that feels like. nd I don’t want families to have to go through that. ut the killings continue. he homicides recorded in nearly broke the single year record set in , while some ercent of cases go unsolved. eed says he wants to see an e ansion of the ure iolence rogram to sto killings before they ha en he also su orts additional funding for the ustice for St. ouis amilies und which rovides , awards for ti s that lead to homicide arrests. He acknowledges, though, that things need to change in St. ouis. he city can’t afford to re eat its last decade of violence and ity Hall gridlock. St. ouis, he says, needs a gut rehab. his is what drives me to run for mayor, he continues. he city is very, very slow to change. nd it’s going to take someone sitting in that e ecutive role that has the understanding, the motivation and ethic to change it. — Danny Wicentowski

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ANDREW JONES: THE BUSINESSMAN

ndrew Jones says he has the skills — a particular set of skills — St. Louis needs in its next mayor. “Pretty much like the movie Taken, where the gentleman said I have a unique set of skills to put me in a position to help lead the city in the turnaround that’s needed,” he says, one of three times he would reference the Liam Neeson action thriller while speaking to the Riverfront Times. Jones is an outlier in the fourway race for mayor. He’s the only candidate who isn’t in city government and the only registered Republican, although that’s a political distinction he detests. In a wide-ranging interview, the 60-year old businessman discussed his thoughts on the city’s crime problem, Confederate monuments, the recent jail uprisings and his faith in the ‘bootstraps’ model for reaching Taken-level success. Jones, a Metro East native, grew up in a typical working-class family in East St. Louis and attended Catholic school until college at Lincoln University and later Washington University, where he is currently working toward another master’s in economics. He plans to obtain his Ph.D. in economics “before I’m gone from the planet,” he says. Jones now lives in the Botanical Heights neighborhood and serves as vice president of business develo ment at the non rofit ower company Southwestern Electric Cooperative. He ran for mayor in 2017 as the Republican candidate and lost by 50 percentage points to then-Alderwoman Lyda Krewson, but he otherwise has little political experience. Instead, he relies on his can-do attitude to sway undecided voters. “My background has been one of success, one of actually pulling oneself up by their bootstraps … As I spoke earlier, in the movie Taken, ‘I have a unique set of skills’ that puts me in a position

to be able to help turn this city around.” Pressed on whether the “pull oneself up by their bootstraps” model really works for everyone (critics argue that it ignores systemic inequalities and puts the blame on oppressed people for not being more successful), Jones says that “if I am a rat catcher in India, my plight is set in stone,” but because of the “phenomenal” system in the United States, anyone in this country can be successful if they simply work hard enough. Jones includes those who “grew up as a Black person in the United States of America,” like himself. “I believe my ancestors would be turning over in their graves, looking at the lack of productivity that current Black folks to a large degree have put themselves in,” Jones says. Jones says St. Louis is currently “at the point of falling into an abyss,” comparing our plight to that of infamously bleak Gary, Indiana. He blames the city’s current leadership, “or lack of leadership.” Jones insists if he had been mayor the past four years instead of Krewson, he would’ve handled many things differently. Off the to of his head, ones’ first ma or change would’ve been Krewson’s response to taking down confederate statues. He contrasts the situation with reminders of Nazi concentration camps in Germany. “If we go to Auschwitz, no one’s talking about tearing down any of the buildings that were associated with the deaths of millions of Jews … Jews are there, they’re looking in remembrance, and understanding what happened. … Others that travel and go there, even if they’re sub-groups, Germans or whatever you wanna say, they go to Auschwitz, they look, and they pay reverence to the fact in history that this took place,” he says. Instead of a “knee-jerk” reaction, Jones says he would’ve assessed whether the statues should be taken down, and that public opinion

wouldn’t have much weight in the decision-making process. Jones also believes the recent prison protests at the St. Louis Justice Center would’ve gone down differently if he were in charge. In fact, he says they wouldn’t have happened. “We would’ve never gotten there, because my No. 1 position is that we should not close the Workhouse because we have not had data to substantiate closing the Workhouse. I’ve said it four years ago; I’m lamenting it now, when everyone’s saying we should close it,” he says. Activist organizations have put together detailed reports on the closing the year old ail officially known as the Medium Security Institution — including budget breakdowns for redirecting funding towards better staffing at the new downtown jail and social programs to combat the roots of crime as they ush city officials to move forward with closure plans. Through the pandemic, the city’s jail population decreased sharply and the majority of remaining detainees were shifted to the City Justice Center. Jones says that he would have kept the Workhouse fully operating to head off any overcrowding at the City Justice Center. He claims that this would have prevented the protests. Advocates for detainees say the inmates were revolting against a range of problems, including inadequate COVID-19 protections and harsh treatment by guards. ity officials deny those incarcerated in the jail have been mistreated and align with Jones on the theme of overcrowding. “Four years ago, if I had been mayor, I would’ve taken care of that issue so that we could move on to the more pressing things, like providing optimum municipal services to our citizens,” Jones explains. Jones, who along with Board of Alderman President Lewis Reed

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has been endorsed by the St. Louis Police fficers ssociation, has made ending violent crime the focus of his campaign, saying that “after you get that done, everything else falls in line.” However, when asked how he would accomplish that, Jones struggles for s ecifics. He says increasing police funding and backing the blue could be vital. Jones also says that most violent crimes in St. Louis are committed by a small group of people, all of whom are involved with drugs and gangs. He believes that current city leadership knows exactly who these offenders are but they’re too afraid of political backlash to have them arrested. In ones’ telling, city officials worry about pushback after “all the things that happened this summer, from people burning and rioting in all of these cities because of George Floyd’s issue and the other things that have happened. They don’t want that backlash.” If he had the opportunity, Jones says, he would arrest them all on his first day in office, as these criminals “can’t be saved by social workers” or even “Dr. Phil.” It’s unclear how he would make that happen. Jones’ positions break sharply from the platforms of the other candidates in the race, particularly Alderwoman Cara Spencer and Treasurer Tishaura Jones who support closing the Workhouse and have advocated for criminal justice reform as opposed to a police crackdown. While promoting conservative Republican talking points (largely the same platform from his 2017 mayoral run), he insists he is a non-partisan candidate. So far, he’s tracking behind his opponents. A recent poll by Democratic consulting group Show Me Victories showed him in last place with 5 percent of respondents naming ones as their first choice. Jones is undeterred. He says, “I will continue to be successful at any endeavor that I get involved with.” — Riley Mack

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SHORT ORDERS

[SIDE DISH]

Some Like It Hot Business is heating up for St. Louis’ Anderson & Son Pepper Co. Written by

CHERYL BAEHR

oel Anderson can pinpoint the exact moment he developed his passion for spicy food. The incident happened when he was about nine years old and came courtesy of his grandmother — even though she had no intention of sparking his interest in such an intense fashion. “My grandma put a habanero in a pot of either chili or soup to give a little bit of spice to the entire pot,” recalls Anderson. “I scooped out a bowl, and it had the pepper in it. I didn’t realize I wasn’t supposed to eat it, but I ate the whole thing off the spoon. I was shoving ice on my face and sticking my head in the freezer for an hour. Up until that point, I’d never really had anything spicy, and I think that experience, while awful, was really interesting. I still haven’t figured out why eo le who like spicy food like to feel uncomfortable, but as a kid, it was kind of a risk — dangerous, but it hurt in a way that didn’t leave a mark.” As the founder of the hot-sauce brand Anderson & Son Pepper Co. (www.andersonpepperco.com), Anderson is now the one responsible for zinging people’s palates, albeit in a more intentional fashion. Since September, he’s been selling his signature “Don’t Touch the Baby” hot sauce and “Reaper Ranch” seasoning blend through his online store, still in a bit of disbelief that people are giving him money to do something he loves. That love of spicy food has been something that has stuck with him even since that initial shock in his grandmother’s kitchen. For as long as he can remember, family and friends would get him different hot sauces for gifts, and he found himself always seeking out

Joel Anderson’s pepper passion has turned into a hot-sauce business that he launched in 2020 in the midst of the pandemic. | JOEL ANDERSON different brands to try. However, it wasn’t until a couple of years ago that he got into the sauce-making business himself. After moving into a new home, Anderson planted a garden filled with everything from lettuce to tomatoes to eggplant. Peppers were a small part of the effort, but over the years, they grew to be a larger and larger component until he had converted his entire backyard into a pepper cultivation area. Overrun with peppers, he decided to get serious about learning to make hot sauce. It only took one batch for Anderson to realize he had a knack for hot sauce-making. Drawing upon his background in advertising, he made a label for fun, naming

his sauce after a phrase his wife would always yell at him when he was working with peppers. “She’d always say, ‘Don’t touch the baby!’ because my hands were covered in hot peppers,” says Anderson. “He was six months old when I started making hot sauce, and I definitely didn’t want to transfer that to him. I made a label just for fun, and the name stuck.” Anderson launched an Instagram account for the brand in 2019 and built so much enthusiasm for it that he decided to make the o eration official. He linked up with the culinary incubator STL Foodworks, where he used their commissary kitchen and expertise in the business’ logistics (licenses and certifications to es-

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tablish Anderson & Son Pepper o. as a bona fide hot sauce label. That it’s taken off as well as it has is proof to Anderson that people can taste the passion he puts into everything he does. “I think a lot of what hot sauce is to me is being able to think creatively,” says Anderson. “I’ve been working on a lot of other people’s brands over the years in my day ob, so trying to figure out my own is really cool. But really, the biggest part is knowing I’m making something that my son is a part of. I’m not saying he’s going to be in the hot-sauce business — we gave him a Flamin’ Hot Cheeto one time and he wasn’t so sure about it — but the idea that maybe there is some-

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JOEL ANDERSON Continued from pg 19

thing there for him later on and that he is involved in it somehow is really important to me.” Anderson, who is currently working on a collaboration with Strange Donuts that should be launching soon, took a break from the kitchen to share his thoughts on the St. Louis food scene, his love of skydiving and why it’s more important than ever to support local businesses. What is one thing many people don’t know about you? Up until recently, I’m not sure people knew how much of an affinity I have for s icy food and hot sauce. My day job is in advertising, so it wasn’t really a part of the everyday conversation as much as it is now that we’ve started the business. I’ve also been skydiving like three times so that’s a e , right? What daily ritual is non-negotiable for you? Spending time with my wife and son. Other than that, I am pretty adamant about being creative somehow each day — taking a picture, designing or just making something. Who is your St. Louis food crush? It’s so hard to narrow down to just one spot or person. The St. Louis food scene is amazing, with so many great restaurants and chefs out here doing their thing. I love what Mike Johnson and Chef Adam Pritchett are doing at HiPointe, Jason Bockman at Strange Donuts and Christian Ethridge at Taco Circus. Those guys are my spirit animals as far as creative presentation and using their social media to connect with folks here in St. Louis, but I could go on and on with the folks that are out here killing it, and for different reasons. Not that you asked, but, if I had to pick one favorite dish it would be the Flying Pig from Guerrilla Street Food. Close behind are the tru ed grilled cheese from Dressel’s Pub and the pork steak from BEAST Craft BBQ. TLDR; basically any restaurant on South Grand. Which ingredient is most representative of your personality? I’d love to say peppers, but honestly, I’m not sure I’d say I have a “spicy” personality. If I had to pick an ingredient in the hot sauce, I’d say the agave nectar — because … I’m sweet? Barf. I also like long walks on the beach and rainbows. If you weren’t working in the food business, what would you be

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doing? Well, since the hot sauce is definitely secondary to my day job in advertising, I’m pretty fortunate to be able to say that if it all went away, I’m actually already doing the other thing I love, which is being creative. As a food professional, what do people need to know about what you are going through? Folks out there with restaurants and food businesses that depend on butts in seats are the ones that have it the toughest right now. Even though I technically make food, I’m fortunate to have most of that business online, so I wouldn’t even put myself in the same category as someone who is trying to make their brick-and-mortar restaurant businesses work during all this. I have a lot of respect for those people. What do you miss most about the way you did your job before COVID-19? We sold our first bottle of hot sauce in September of 2020. So for us, there was no “pre-COVID.” Generally, though, I miss being around people. What do you miss least? If we’re talking day job, I don’t miss driving to work every day. That’s more than an hour or so every day that I can be spending with my family or doing other things (skydiving). What have you been stress-eating/drinking lately? Carbs. All the carbs. What do you think the biggest change to the food and beverage industry will be once people are able to return to normal activity levels? I think energy has to be re-focused on how to make food e eriences really resonate with people again. You aren’t really paying for the food when you go out to eat. You’re paying for the mini-vacation from your house and for interactions with the people you love in places that make you feel like you’re doing something new and special. Whether that’s in a restaurant setting or any type of food business, you want people to have an e erience with your roduct — something that’s been lacking for so many of us for so long. What is one thing that gives you hope during this crisis? It’s been inspiring to see such a shift to making sure these local places we all sort of take for granted don’t go away. Support for our local businesses during all this has been great to see, and hopefully that appreciation continues well beyond the pandemic. n

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[ S U R V I VA L S K I L L S ]

Chilly Time It’s a frozen wasteland out there St. Louis, let’s make some chili Written by

DANIEL HILL

f you haven’t stepped outside in recent days (or had one of your i es e lode and fill your house with water) you might be unaware, but it’s been a bitterly cold, frozen wasteland all across the bi-state area for weeks. And for some of us, that can mean only one thing: It’s time for chili! Perhaps you have your own recipe — great! But for those who do not, I thought I’d share my own, a slow-cooker affair simple enough to be made by anyone and prepared with ingredients readily available at most local grocers (in this case, Schnucks). Now, I’ve never had a recipe published before, but I’ve read more than a few, so I know that there needs to be some inane bullshit here at the top drawing from my personal life so that you have something boring to skip over in search of the actual recipe. Some stupid anecdote about my relationship to this particular food and how it nourishes not only my body but also my soul by putting me in touch spiritually with a treasured memory or a long-lost relative. So here goes: I still remember the first time I tried my great uncle Rufus’ chili, twenty feet underground in his lead-shielded Y2K-proof bunker deep in the Missouri wilderness. I can still smell the mix of beans and sauce as they simmered over the propanepowered stovetop, with Uncle Rufus muttering in the corner about planes dropping from the sky and nukes exploding across the world as he attended to the pot. “IT IS IMPERATIVE THAT YOU SOFTEN THE ONIONS BEFORE ADDING THE SPICES,” he yelled, seizing me by the shoulders and raising his voice so he could be heard through his gas mask. “YOU WILL KNOW THE PAN IS READY FOR THE MEAT WHEN YOU BEGIN TO SMELL A FRAGRANT BOUQUET IN THE AIR!” Shu ing across the room in his HAZMAT suit, Rufus approached the bunker’s periscope to the surface and peered through. “THIS IS THE MOST DANGEROUS POINT OF

Follow the advice of Uncle Rufus and make a tasty pot of chili that will sustain you through the worst bunker days. | DANIEL HILL THE RECIPE,” he shouted as he rotated his view 360 degrees. “THE IRRADIATED ONES WILL BE ABLE TO USE THEIR SUPER-SENSES TO SMELL THE CUMIN, AND THEY WILL ATTEMPT TO DIG INTO THE EARTH AND INVADE OUR SANCTUARY. WE MUST PROTECT THE SANCTITY OF THE BUNKER!” Rufus then tossed me his Remington 12-gauge, which I loaded with shells and cocked, just as we’d practiced hundreds of times. I looked down the sights, unsure where to point the weapon — Rufus had made clear on repeated occasions that though the lead walls could keep the radiation out, the mutant claws of the now-monstrous survivors would be able to dig through anything. They could emerge anywhere, and I must be ready. As I pointed the gun wildly in every direction around the candlelit room, I quietly wondered when my parents would return to pick me up from my fun weekend with the relatives. Uncle Rufus turned his attention back to the simmering mixture as he added more ingredients. “BE SURE THAT YOU DO NOT OVERCOOK THE MEAT OR IT WILL LOSE SOME OF ITS JUICY FLAVOR,” he bellowed before loading his revolver with just two bullets. “JUST IN CASE,” he shouted ominously, his eyes locking with mine as he snapped the gun’s cylinder back into place. I was too young and naive to know what he meant,

though. Is that enough? OK, here’s that recipe: 1. Fry 10 strips of bacon in a large pan (I use a big cast iron). You’ll probably have to do 5 at a time. 2. Medium dice 2 medium yellow onions and 2 medium red bell peppers while the bacon is cooking. Rough chop 6 fresh jalapenos into small little bits. 3. Set the cooked bacon to the side. Dump out all but 3 tablespoons or so of the bacon grease. 4. Set the stove on mediumhigh. Add the onions and peppers, along with a pinch of salt, to the greasy pan. Cook for 8 minutes until soft, stirring occasionally. 5. While the onions are cooking, finely cho medium garlic cloves. Prep a mixture of 1 tablespoon cumin, 1/4 cup chili powder (not a typo, just trust me), 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper and 2 tablespoons brown sugar. Add all that to the pan, cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. 6. Add 2 pounds ground beef. The fattier the tastier. If I’m being honest I often use turkey so as not to be a fatty myself, but you are sacrificing some avor if you go that route. My most recent batch was half turkey, half beef, and I loved it. Add 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of salt. Mix well, chopping up the meat with the utensil of your choice, and cook until no longer pink, about 8 minutes. 7. While the beef/turkey is cook-

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ing, reduce your plate of bacon into bacon bits through the method of your choosing (I use scissors). 8. Dump everything into a slow cooker. Add 2 14-ounce cans of diced tomatoes and 2 15-ounce cans of beans. I like 1 can pinto beans and 1 can kidney beans but whatever you like is probably gonna be fine. 9. SECRET (cheating?) INGREDIENT: Rather than adding tomato sauce at this stage, as most recipes call for (and as my own has in the past), use restaurant-style salsa instead, about 14 ounces. I use Hacienda; they sell it at Schnucks. 10. Twist a pepper grinder into the pot until you feel like it’s a good amount of pepper. I have no idea exactly how much that is; I eyeball it every time, with no particular rhyme or reason as to amounts. Sprinkle some crushed red pepper in there too; I again don’t know just how much. 11. Stir the hell out of it, set your slow cooker on low, and cook for 8 hours. Or, if you want it sooner, set on high and cook for 6. 12. Serve with sour cream, cheddar cheese, crackers and diced onions. And that’s it! Feel free to tweak any part of the recipe to your preferences — good chili is meant to be an ever-evolving affair, and there are no absolutes. Just remember to stay sharp when you add that cumin — think of ol’ Uncle Rufus, and always keep your revolver at the ready. n

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CULTURE [FILM]

Moving Pictures For The Garcia Family, a filmmaker returns home to St. Louis Written by

DOYLE MURPHY

mmett Williams’ new documentary opens on the quiet of a Maplewood church. Over the years, the 52-yearold filmmaker has trained his camera on a wide variety of topics in locations across the United States and beyond. Struggling commercial fishermen in laska. Protesters at Standing ock. Illegal logging in the ma on. For The Garcia Family, Williams returned to St. Louis, where he grew up and went to high school, to tell the story of le arcia, who took sanctuary from de ortation more than three years ago in hrist hurch. fter an establishing shot of the building, the documentary cuts to the married father of five, who is visibly holding back emotion as he discusses the decision to live there in a basement apartment. t first, I didn’t think it would take so long, but no, I’m still here, arcia says in S anish, adding that there was a time that he thought of eeing with his family, who are all citi ens, but he knew that they would be caught and se arated. I ust can’t abandon my family. The short documentary, which clocks in at ust under minutes, is acked with candid moments as Williams trails along with the laconic arcia and his wife arly, who has become a fierce advocate not only for her husband, but for changing a U.S. immigration system that has left their family and others in impossible situations. Williams, a Parkway entral High School grad, has been a documentary filmmaker for more than a do en years through his company Mission Man Media. He worked as a rint ournalist after leaving the University of Missouri

Alex Garcia, shown in the new documentary. | COURTESY MISSION MAN MEDIA and eventually landed in New ork ity as a freelancer. He was looking for a way to make some money when a friend invited him to work on the show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? That led to nearly a decade in television, but he began to feel the pull of other projects. I decided that there was a bunch of stories that I wanted to tell, and the way to do that was to uit and become a documentary filmmaker, he says. ne of his first ro ects was a film on native families in laska. Williams later created a web series called Fargesn which told personal stories a year after Michael Brown’s death. He is now in Rio de aneiro making a documentary on the innovative architecture of the favelas. Each time he begins a new project, he says, he has to earn the trust of the eo le he’s filming. “With all these things, it’s people who are tired of being e loited, he says. He learned about the arcias from his longtime friend Jen Rich, whom he met as a kid during summers in the arks at am Sabra. ow a fellow filmmaker, ich had read about the family and urged Williams to return to St. Louis and make a documentary about them. He ew in almost immediately and sle t on her couch while film-

ing. Rich signed on as a producer. t first, the arcias were e tremely apprehensive, Williams says. They made the choice in to go ublic with the sanctuary decision. Since then, they have been the subject of multiple stories, including features in the Riverfront Times as well as long pieces in national publications. arly arcia and the cou le’s children have participated in demonstrations and marches, and the family has tried to highlight the inequities of the U.S. immigration system with online rallies and petition drives. But it has all been a calculated risk, one that could have ust as easily enticed the Trump administration to abandon the .S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency’s longtime practice of avoiding sensitive locations, including churches, when taking people into custody to be deorted. arcia had been caught crossing the border as a teen and deported. He entered again not long after and had lived in Poplar luff, working and raising his family until when he moved into the Maplewood church. ven before , he had ho ed to gain permanent residency, but the deportation order from nearly two decades ago remains on his record, blocking the ath. nd as the arcias saw rum se arating

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families at the border, caging children and denying refugees access to the United States, they worried agents could show up any day at the church. It is always at least a little awkward to have a filmmaker tagging along, and given the circumstances, Williams understood the family’s concerns about allowing him in. “But as they trusted me, it was like this oodgate of emotion and just sincerity about not only what they’re going through, but they’re really honest about how hard things are for them, Williams says. o kee going through that was ust ama ing to be a art of. he film uses a seven mile march from downtown St. Louis to the church on the second-year anniversary of le arcia’s move into sanctuary as the narrative spine, but Williams weaves in intimate scenes of Carly and the kids at home without le , a lobbying trip to Washington to press lawmakers for reforms, and y on-the-wall views of life in the church. I definitely have a social ustice bent to all my work, but really the thing that draws me to a project is a ersonal story not even like doing something ama ing, but there’s something about their character that draws me to them, Williams says. He found that in the arcias. It was their honesty and drive in the face of going through so much, Williams says. He is now re aring for film festivals, but a limited video-ondemand release has already been well received, and he’s begun licensing the film to universities, including Saint Louis University, for use in classes. nd even though the filming is over, Williams says he’ll continue to care about the arcias and ho e le is able to move out of the church soon. He and the family have become friends through spending so much time together. “For me, it’s such a gift to be able to film other eo le’s lives, he says. I can’t see that connection ending after the film is over. he arcia amily is available for rent online until February 28. Half of the proceeds will go to the Garcias. More information about Emmett Williams’ films is available online at missionmanmedia.com.

FEBRUARY 24-MARCH 2, 2021

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FEBRUARY 24-MARCH 2, 2021

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[LIVE MUSIC]

Westward Bound Old Rock House announces spring shows at Chesterfield Amphitheater Written by

DANIEL HILL

t. Louis’ Old Rock House (1200 South Seventh Street, 314-588-0505) is heading west for a newly announced pair of spring concerts. Those shows — the Allman Betts Band on April 18 and Samantha Fish on April 27 — are each slated to take place at Chesterfield Amphitheater (631 Veterans Place Drive, Chesterfield; 636-537-4770) in a socially distanced manner meant to avoid the spread of COVID-19. “Old Rock House is proud to announce that we will be producing socially distant shows out at Chesterfield m hitheater this year, talent buyer Jon Metz says in a statement. “We have been working very closely with the City of hesterfield and St. ouis ounty Health Department to get safety lans a roved, and we’re very excited to show you what we have all been working on. The shows will operate in a pod setup — a fairly familiar concept by now for those who have braved live events in the era of coronavirus — in which tickets must be purchased in batches of two or four. Masks will be required while attendees are moving about the venue, but will not be required inside the pods. Tickets for the Allman Betts and will be to each, and those for the Samantha Fish show will be $28 to $40. Tickets for both shows can be purchased through Eventbrite. It’s hardly the first time the two venues have worked together. In fact, when the ID andemic first hit a year ago, an ld ock House-produced performance by country artist Jamey Johnson slated for last July at the amphitheater was one of the more hotly anticipated shows that got the axe — much to the surprise and dismay of staff. When it hit in arch, it never dawned on us that there was a possibility that this thing was gonna last this long, managing artner Tim Weber tells RFT. So we were,

Samantha Fish is scheduled to perform at the Amphitheater on April 27. | VIA ROUNDER RECORDS and I was, com letely convinced that that outdoor show would still happen in July. So we sorta hunkered down and planned on two or three months of no business and then a slow build back up. nd I was wrong. That Jamey Johnson show has since been rescheduled for June . ld ock House, meanwhile, was the first dedicated St. ouis music venue to reopen after the whole industry was shut down by the andemic, throwing a istening oom series of shows that kicked off in September. The venue put extensive COVID-19 safety measures in place u on reo ening, including mandatory masks for guests and atrons, a limit of only 50 guests in the building ( ercent of its ca acity , tables s aced si feet a art, tem erature checks at the doorway and increased sanitization efforts. “We felt the need to prove that at some capacity concerts could happen safely. At the end of the day we couldn’t just sit tight anymore and hope something hapens, so we wanted to set out to rove that it could be done well, Weber says. “Even at — we were at ercent ca acity, we were at 50 people — so even at that small number, we ust wanted to rove that it could be really safe. Our hope at the time was that by doing the 50 people really well we could build it up to 100 and keep going from there, because obviously eo le, we don’t come anywhere close to making money.

“We felt the need to prove that at some capacity concerts could happen safely. We couldn’t just sit tight anymore and hope something happens, so we set out to prove that it could be done well.” But seemingly just as quickly as that series came together, it came apart. To paraphrase a common saying, an makes lans ID laughs. y ovember, case numbers in the region reached record highs and area hospitals came to the brink of the breaking point. St. Louis County Executive Sam Page responded by instituting a new round of restrictions on bars and similar venues, and though Old Rock House isn’t technically in the jurisdiction those rules affected, Weber decided it would be safest to suspend the

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series and close the venue’s doors once more. “We started getting phone calls from eo le, and they’re saying, Well I guess this, whatever u coming show it is, is canceled.’ And you feel a little bit silly trying to e lain to them, o, no, we’re not in the county. If you come four miles this way, everything’s fine,’ Weber explains. “Even though at the end of the day I think it was. I think the Old Rock House did a phenomenal job. We had no reported cases of coronavirus. “I think that concerts at the Old Rock House were a lot safer than hanging out at an awful lot of the small bars around town or whatnot, right he continues. We did everything we could to be safe, but at the end of the day, why risk it if you’re not making any money anyway or the time being, that line of thinking seems to be holding. Old Rock House has not hosted any shows since closing its doors again in ovember, and all of the shows on its current roster of events, save for the ones announced last week in hesterfield, are rescheduled ones initially slated for 2020. Whether those shows actually take lace at the venue or, instead, move to the outdoor hesterfield Amphitheater remains something of an open question. eanwhile, Weber has launched a GoFundMe to help raise money for his employees while the venue remains closed. If you have money to give, do so at bit.ly y. n

FEBRUARY 24-MARCH 2, 2021

RIVERFRONT TIMES

FEBRUARY 24-MARCH 2, 2021

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SAVAGE LOVE DE-KINKED BY DAN SAVAGE Hey, Dan: I know you and other sexperts say that kinks are ingrained and not something you can get rid of, but mine have all vanished! Ever since I started on antidepressants my relationship with my body and how it reacts to pain, both physical and mental, has completely changed. I used to love getting bit and spanked and beat black and blue, but now all that just hurts. I used to love getting humiliated and spit on, commanded to do dirty things, but none of that holds much appeal anywhere. So what gives? Were these even kinks in the first place if they could vanish so easily with one little pill? Or were these coping mechanisms for emotional problems I no longer have? I know my libido is suppressed due to the meds. Did my kinks just follow my libido out the door? The Missing Kink Antidepressants showed your kinks the door at the same time they showed your libido the door. Zooming out for a second: While some eo le find that consensual BDSM helps them cope with trauma and/or process their emotional problems — or work through the kind of traumas that create emotional problems — many people into BDSM have no significant history of se ual trauma, TMK, or whatever trauma(s) they may have suffered, se ual or otherwise, didn’t create or shape their kinks. And while consensual BDSM can provide therapeutic benefits to a erson who . has a history of trauma and 2. has an interest in kink — by making them feel in control of their own bodies (even if they’re temporarily ceding that control) — not everyone who’s kinky can point to a traumatic event at the root of their kinks. And kinky people shouldn’t have to cite trauma to justify the leasure they find in getting bit, spanked, beaten, bruised, bound, etc. “It’s become an oft-repeated narrative of many a wellness think piece that BDSM and freaky fetishes are actually okay be-

cause they help people deal with their traumatic past,” as the writer, comedian and self-described “Leatherdyke Muppet” Chingy Nea wrote in a recent essay about the creeping pathologizing of kink. “What gets you off is not inherently born of trauma or sign of dysfunction, nor does it require suffering to validate it. Being turned on by weird fucked-up things you want to do with another consenting adult is acceptable sim ly because it’s hot and se y and fun.” OK, TMK, back to your question: Antidepressants — one little pill that can relieve mental anguish and disappear a libido at the same time — can’t cure kinks, but they can suppress them. I mean, think about it … if you’re not horny right now because of the antidepressants … you’re not going to be horny for the things that get you off when you are horny … because you’re not horny … because the antidepressants. If you miss your libido — and if you miss all the hot and se y and fun and fucked u things you used to enjoy with other consenting adults — work with your doctor to find a different med that relieves your depression without tanking your libido, TMK, or a different dosage of the med you’re currently on that provides you with emotional benefits without de riving you of your libido and the kinks that come bundled with it. Follow Chingy Nea on Twitter @ TheGayChingy. Hey, Dan: I’m a longtime reader who appreciates the candor and insight you’ve offered since, what, the 1990s! Yeesh. With that in mind, I have a piece of advice I’d like to share with your readers. I’m a 56-year-old gay man. From my 20s though my 40s, I was as sexually active as often as it was possible for me to be. I loved sex and had it every chance I got. It made me feel alive! Then, just as I was about to enter my 50s, I started to have erection problems. I could still come, but a spongy dick is egodeflating. Not wanting to accept what was going on, I talked to my doctor about it. I’ve tried Levitra, Cialis and now Viagra, as well as a host of cock rings. Not much of anything seems to help. I miss my sex life, and I miss the confidence

“Have all the sex you want and that you can while you can so long as you’re not hurting anyone or putting anyone at risk! Do this as often as you want to. Don’t put those sexual fantasies on the back burner.” that came with it. I didn’t expect this, nor did I plan for it. It’s a lonely feeling. That’s why I think it’s important for your readers to understand the following: Have all the sex you want and that you can while you can so long as you’re not hurting anyone or putting anyone at risk! Do this as often as you want to. Don’t put those sexual fantasies on the back burner. Don’t stay in a relationship that stifles you sexually! You owe it to yourself to experience what you want to experience today. Don’t take tomorrow for granted as tomorrow might have something else in store for you. Guy’s Hard Off Seems Terminal Good advice — don’t screw tomorrow what you can screw today — and I’m glad you didn’t pass on any of the opportunities that came your way back when you could still “obtain and maintain” a fully erect cock. But I worry you may be passing on all the se ual o ortunities that are still available to you. Even if the rockhard erections of your youth and early middle age are gone forever, GHOST, you can still give and receive pleasure. You can suck a cock, you can get your ass fucked, you can fist and be fisted. nd

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not every gay dude into daddies wants to be plowed by his hot daddy. Lots of gay guys wanna be orally serviced by hot daddies and lots of gay guys love having their holes eaten and stretched with big toys and fists. ou can be a good, giving and game partner and still have tons hot and fulfilling se without ever ulling your dick out. Which is not to say you shouldn’t pull your dick out — you should. But if you’re feeling self-conscious about your cock, GHOST, seek out guys who aren’t looking for se ual e eriences that re uire a hard dick and you’ll feel less inhibited about pulling your dick out and getting yourself off as you get them off. You already took your own advice, GHOST, now you need to take mine: Stop grieving what you’ve lost and get out there and enjoy what you’ve still got. Hey, Dan: I read this in a recent column of yours: “... if your parents are still fucking each other that means your parents still like each other.” Not always, Dan. My father fucked my mother daily while he was having an affair with another woman. As soon as the other woman’s husband died of cancer, my father left my mother. Affair aside, he didn’t much like my mother, which was evident from the way he treated her and not just from the affair. Maybe he wanted to keep her in place until he could leave, maybe he had a monstrous sex drive, I don’t know. But he didn’t like her. My Asshole Dad Thank you for writing in, MAD, and you’re absolutely right: A lot of people — and not just married people — fuck people they don’t like. And some people are only nice to their spouses when they want se and resume neglecting their spouses and/or treating them like shit immediately after they get se . I obviously needed to qualify that statement, MAD, and if I had it to do over again I’d go with this: “If your parents are still fucking each other, that’s a pretty good sign they might still like each other.” mail@savagelove.net @FakeDanSavage on Twitter www.savagelovecast.com

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FEBRUARY 24-MARCH 2, 2021

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FEBRUARY 24-MARCH 2, 2021

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Riverfront Times, February 23, 2021

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