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THE LEDE

“I know there’s people afraid to get it. I’ve never been afraid to get it. I trust it. I know people that won’t get it, which is shocking to me, and I’ve told them. But hopefully, with us getting it and they start seeing more people, it will make them want to get it, too. My son’s friends — he has a few that are scared. I’m just not. I’m just thankful, and we were very lucky.”

PHOTO BY THEO WELLING

BECKY BRANHAM, PHOTOGRAPHED GETTING A COVID-19 VACCINATION AT ST. LOUIS COMMUNITY COLLEGE-FOREST PARK ON THURSDAY, MARCH 25 riverfronttimes.com

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Choose Wisely

t. Louis is heading into one of its biggest elections in years, potentially generations. As Danny Wicentowski explains in this week’s cover story, the city’s new mayor will take office with massive forces at play. The pandemic exacerbated long-running problems and created new ones, making this a dire time. But a $500 million infusion of federal coronavirus relief funds offers opportunities we’re not likely to see again anytime soon. Whoever wins on April 6, whether it’s Treasurer Tishaura Jones or Alderwoman Cara Spencer, the decisions made by the new mayor as we try to leave COVID-19 behind will shape the city’s future. The two candidates are both progressives — thanks to St. Louis’ new approval system of primary voting — but they’re not the same. Danny breaks down where their platforms overlap and diverge. Read up. St. Louis is counting on your vote. — 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 The Choice

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

This spring the city of St. Louis approved two progressive mayoral candidates. Now it’s time to decide who will be the next mayor: Tishaura Jones or Cara Spencer? Cover design by

INSIDE

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HARTMANN Rural Wisdom Outstate legislators tell us voters to shove it on Medicaid expansion BY RAY HARTMANN

ver since Hillary Clinton deplorably deplored deplorables, we big-city cultural elitists have understood the importance of treating voters in places like rural Missouri with the greatest respect. In that spirit, let us be humbled by the wisdom of rural Missouri legislators as they explain a recent folly of ours. Last August, bolstered by the votes of urban elitists, Missouri presumably enacted an amendment to the state constitution that expanded Medicaid coverage. Here’s what we thought happened, albeit as reported by urban elitists at St. Louis Public Radio. “Despite strong opposition from Republicans and rural voters, Missouri on Tuesday joined 37 states and the District of Columbia in expanding its Medicaid program. Voters in Missouri approved creating a state constitutional amendment that will open Medicaid eligibility to include healthy adults starting on July 1, 2021. Voters approved expansion by a vote of 53.25% to 46.75%. A total of 1,263,776 voters weighed in on the measure.” What we elitists were not smart enough to realize at the time was that constitutional amendments don’t matter. At least not those that impose elitist, socialist schemes like ensuring health-insurance coverage to an additional 275,000 low-income citizens with annual incomes up to $17,744 for an individual and $35,670 for a family of four. Wise politicians from rural Missouri didn’t feel obligated to accept that sort of leftist result. What’s next, feeding hungry people? And if you’re wondering why rural politicians feel empowered to ignore the state constitution, remember this: Only an elitist would wonder about that. Sure, no one has legally challenged the validity of the amend-

ment since it was passed. And no one has proposed another amendment to cancel it out. But with the aplomb of lawmakers certain that they are not governed by any stinking constitution, the Republicans voted last week just to assume it didn’t happen. The House budget committee voted to gut a $1.6 billion funding program — overwhelmingly paid for by federal dollars — by a partyline 20-9 vote. Here’s how rural legislators explained why a legally enacted constitutional amendment need not be viewed as binding if they don’t like it. For the stated reason that they don’t like it. “Missourians in rural counties overwhelmingly voted ‘no,’” said Rep. Sara Walsh (R-Ashland). “I don’t believe it is the will of the people to bankrupt our state.” Walsh, who represents rural areas between Columbia and Jefferson City, showed an impressive command of caps lock on Twitter. “Today, I voted NO on Medicaid expansion (HB 20). This is a MASSIVE expansion of welfare,” she wrote. “HB 20 is a $1.8 BILLION dollar bill in FY 2022 alone. We MUST make wise decisions today so we don’t leave a nightmare for future generations of Missourians.” Three days after the vote last August, Walsh had told a Jefferson City TV station, “I express concerns. At this point, the voters have spoken. e need to find that money from somewhere.” But what kind of elitist would bring that up? Besides Rep. Ed Lewis (R-Moberly), who technically represents a small urban area but, in deep-red rural Missouri, was just as direct in explaining why the state constitution didn’t matter. “The majority of voters in his rural district voted against the idea in August, so he would do the same in the Capitol,” reported the Springfield News-Leader. And in a rather novel interpretation of democracy, Lewis declared that despite the fact that 53 percent cast ballots in favor of Medicaid expansion, the number did not amount to a majority of Missouri’s eligible voters or population, according to the Kansas City Star. Speaking of Kansas City, it should be noted that not all of the Republican opposition came from rural areas. From one of its suburbs, Rep. Doug Richey (R-Excel-

Despite the fact that 53 percent of voters cast ballots in favor of Medicaid expansion, Lewis declared that number did not amount to a majority of Missouri’s eligible voters or population. sior Springs), said the more than $100 million in state money budgeted this year would be better spent improving services for people with disabilities and averting a “fiscal crisis” of state-supported nursing homes struggling to pay a rising minimum wage. “For me, it is a very easy decision to make when I look at prioritizing those who are most vulnerable,” he said. Apparently, it was even easier than following the state constitution. Still, the best anti-Medicaid wisdom came from rock-solid rural Missouri and Dirk Deaton (R-Noel), vice chairman of the budget committee. Falling back on a classic dog-whistle argument, Deaton decried the existence of Medicaid: “It is to give free health care, government health care, to able-bodied adults who can do for themselves.” Better than that, in a moment of logic for the ages, Deaton explained that if Missouri obtained more federal funds by expanding Medicaid, it would expand the national budget deficit. Deaton strangely argued that by refusing to appropriate the Medicaid money — and thus triggering the return to Missouri of some of the hundreds of millions of dollars state taxpayers have sent to Washington — Missouri could instead help control the federal debt. “Are we willing to see the debt rise further?” said Deaton. “Are

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we willing to take that vote, weaken our country at the expense of the Chinese and others?” Sure, that direct quote from the Joplin Globe evoked Bluto from Animal House, in every sense. But you’ve got to love it. It’s the sort of political comedy gold that should bring urban and rural people together. One other note about Deaton. His hometown of Noel, population 1,817 — on the very tip of southwest Missouri at its Arkansas and Oklahoma borders — had an astonishing 38.2 percent of its population living in poverty as of 2019, according to city-data.com. That’s roughly twice the poverty rate of the city of St. Louis. You don’t suppose anyone from Deaton’s hometown could use Medicaid expansion, do you? That said, consider what Kaiser Health News described last November. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, guess what was causing urban-elitist hospitals to over ow with gravely ill patients hy yes, it was a giant in ux of rural patients who had learned the hard way that exercising the freedom not to wear masks came with a price. No worries, though. Urban-elitist hospitals were there for them, per KHN: “Dr. Rex Archer, head of Kansas City’s health department, warns that capacity at the city’s 33 hospitals is being put at risk by the in ux of rural patients. “‘We’ve had this huge swing that’s occurred because they’re not wearing masks, and yes, that’s putting pressure on our hospitals, which is unfair to our residents that might be denied an ICU bed,’ Archer said.” Unfair? Why, that comes off as awfully elitist and judgmental, doesn’t it? Besides, by having been willing — in a health emergency — to turn shamelessly to the very urban areas for which they’d deny health dollars, rural residents showed us what Hillary never understood. They’re smarter than us. 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 Cops Accused of Beating Black Detective Go Free

From L: Dustin Boone, Steven Korte and Christopher Myers were accused of beating a fellow officer whom they mistook for a protester. | DOYLE MURPHY

Written by

DOYLE MURPHY

federal jury on Monday acquitted two St. Louis cops in the beating of a Black undercover detective, whom they mistook for a protester. Jurors, eleven who were white and one who was Black, deadlocked on a charge against a third officer. Officers Dustin Boone, Christopher Myers and Steven Korte had each been charged with depriving Detective Luther Hall of his civil rights in 1 when Hall was arrested, thrown to the ground repeatedly and bludgeoned with a baton. Myers faced an additional charge that he smashed Hall’s phone during the scrum. Jurors acquitted Korte and Myers and couldn’t reach a verdict on Boone. They also couldn’t agree on the second charge against Myers. Korte remains on the force, but the other two are no longer city cops. The three were among hundreds of St. Louis police officers working protests in September 2017 following the acquittal of ex-city cop Jason Stockley, who had been charged with murder in the 2011 killing of Anthony Lamar Smith. While the trio was covered in the heavy armor of the department’s Civil Disobedience Team, or “riot police,” Detective Luther Hall was deployed undercover to embed with protesters. He filmed and photographed the action through the night of September 17, 2017, as protests moved into downtown. But things went awry as uniformed police went on the offensive. Hall would later testify that police opened fire with pepper balls, sending people scrambling. Hall and his partner, Louis Naes, were among more than 100 people arrested

downtown that night. But while the arrest of Naes, who is white, was routine, Hall told investigators that his fellow cops “beat the fuck out of him like Rodney King.” Dozens of other people swept up by police on that night and others during the Stockley protests reported similarly violent treatment by officers, although no other charges have been filed. Investigators later recovered text messages Boone and Myers sent in the days before Hall’s assault, gleefully boasting about the prospect of beating protesters. Prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office used those messages in making the case against the officers. Additional text messages showed Boone and others scrambling after the beating, once they’d learned Hall was an undercover officer, not a protester. Hall had been badly hurt — damaged vertebrae, injuries to his jaw that made it so difficult to eat for weeks that he lost weight. Prosecutors said officers broke Hall’s camera and Myers smashed a phone the detective had used to film protesters. Boone and another officer, Randy Hays, also exchanged messages after Hall’s beating. Hays pleaded guilty in November 2019 and testified against his former colleagues. In text messages recovered by the FBI, he told Boone he had some regrets, although they were limited. “ asn’t ust us,” Hays texted in 1 . “I don’t like the beating the hell outta a cop, but the department put him in that spot, he could’ve announced himself at any time. And he wasn’t complying. The camera thing is just ignorant, nothing we all haven’t done and if it was a protester it wouldn’t be a problem at all.” Assistant .S. Attorney Carrie

Det. Luther Hall told investigators that his fellow cops “beat the fuck out of him like Rodney King.” | COURT EXHIBIT Constantin, who led the prosecution, described texts sent by the officers as proof of their guilt during her closing statement last week. “Their actions are encapsulated in one of Boone’s texts, It’s going to be a lot of fun beating the hell of out of these shitheads once the sun goes down and nobody can tell us apart,’” Constantin told urors, adding, “They weren’t about professionalism. They were about beating the shit out of people.” But defense attorneys found a ready scapegoat in Hays, who had admitted clubbing Hall with a baton, and they attempted to persuade jurors that their clients

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were not involved in the beating. They also pointed to Hall’s actions that night, claiming he hid behind an electrical box, making himself a potential threat to officers in a dangerous, chaotic situation. Defense attorneys promoted a theory that Hall and his allies in the department created a rumor mill by conducting their own investigation into what happened that night, ultimately making their clients false suspects. The verdict means all three accused cops get to walk, at least for now. It’s unclear if prosecutors will retry Boone and Myers on the undecided charges. A U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesman declined to comment “as the case is active pending re-trial.” Hays has not yet been sentenced. A fifth officer, Bailey Colletta, previously pleaded guilty after admitting she lied to the FBI and a grand jury to cover up the incident. She is also awaiting sentencing. Following the verdict, St. Louis’ mayoral candidates, Tishaura Jones and Cara Spencer, each released statements critical of the state of the police department and promising reforms. The Ethical Society of Police, an organization that represents Black officers in St. Louis, said there was “clear evidence” to convict Boone, Myers and Korte. “Police officers continue to escape the consequences of their actions,” ESOP said in a written statement. “The criminal ustice system continues to show AfricanAmerican victims of police violence we do not receive the same level of justice when white police officers are accused of excessive force toward African Americans.” Danny Wicentowski contributed to this report.

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St. Charles State Senator Pushes ‘Law Enforcement Bill of Rights’ Written by

DOYLE MURPHY

s lawyers for one current and two former St. Louis police officers argued last week in federal court over which cops beat a Black undercover detective and which cops lied about it, Republican lawmakers

Sen. Bill Eigel’s bill would protect cops investigated for misconduct. | GAGE SKIDMORE/FLICKR promoted a bill to make it harder to hold police accountable for misconduct. In the Missouri House of Representatives, the crime prevention committee held a hearing on a bill sponsored in the Senate by state Sen. Bill Eigel (R- eldon

Spring) that would create new protections for officers, including requirements that investigators begin their inquiries into crooked officers by essentially spelling out everything they have and handing over key information to the officers — rights that no other citi-

RIP Bob Plager Remembering the Blues legend’s craziest fight Written by

DANNY WICENTOWSKI

ob Plager was the St. Louis Blues — a fighter who made the ice his home, and who became a legend to the city’s hockey fans for his bruising play. Tragically, last week, Plager died in a car crash on I-64. He was 78. Plager lived to see his beloved team hoist the Stanley Cup in 2019, but as fans and teammates remember the man known as “Mr. Blue,” it’s worth highlighting a particular Plager play that still feels, nearly 50 years later, like the most Blues thing that ever happened. Of course, it was a fight. A huge fight. On January 6, 1972, Plager waded into the stands during an away game in Philadelphia after watching a policeman bring a club down on the head of Blues coach Al Arbour — sparking a brawl that entangled players, cops and fans alike. “Beer, soda, it was just about all over,” Plager told reporters after the incident. His vintage interview, and impressive side chops, are preserved in a retrospective clip aired last year by KSDK (Channel 5). That wasn’t the end of things. Philadelphia police attempted to snatch the offending Blues players by surrounding the dressing room and recording players’ jersey numbers as they exited for the second period. But Plager — who the St. Louis Post-Dispatch notes “was always the last player on the ice” — had

Bob Plager describing the shocking melee in a TV interview. | KSDK SCREENSHOT another ploy in mind: He locked himself in the dressing room. Here’s how an older Plager described the plan to KSDK in 2020: “I knew what was happening — they were taking the numbers of players who were really involved. So I turned around and went to the trainer, and I said, ‘When you walk out, leave me in here and lock the door. Lock me in here.’” The plan worked. Minutes later, Plager simply reentered the game and played to its closing — a 3-2 Blues win — while avoiding arrest. Four other Blues players weren’t so lucky; they were arrested and spent the night in jail. Plager retired as a player in 1978, but he’d spend the rest of his life filling various roles with the Blues organization — even helming the team as head coach for eleven games in 1992 — and joined the throngs of celebrants during the victory parade for the Blues’ 2019

Stanley Cup win. According to a press release from the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, Plager was driving alone in his vehicle, a Cadillac SUV, when he collided with a minivan occupied by two adult women. One was transported to a hospital with minor injuries. St. Louis’ chief medical examiner, Dr. Michael Graham, tells the Post-Dispatch that he believes Plager likely died due to a “cardiac event” just prior to the crash, rather than from any injuries sustained in the wreck itself. “Not only the autopsy but the nature of the crash and things like that, when we put it all together, it’s likely a cardiac event,” Graham says. “We think that the cardiac event caused the crash. There was no life-threatening damage to any vital organs from the crash.” Regardless of the specifics, RIP to Mr. Blue — he’s fighting angels now. n

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zens have. “Our Law Enforcement officers are under more scrutiny today than at any other time in recent memory,” Eigel wrote on Facebook in defense of the bill. “There are many groups like Black Lives Matter and Antifa that are falsely accusing our police of being something other than what they are namely, the honorable protectors of our communities.” The bill is part of a matched set sponsored by Republican legislators. Along with creating a “Law Enforcement Bill of Rights,” the bills also include provisions for hammering protesters. A complementary bill from Sen. Rick Brattin (R-Harrisonville) sought to authorize drivers to run over protesters blocking roads and charge those in the streets with felonies. Eigel’s proposed legislation also creates a new crime with which to charge people marching in roads. ithout saying the names of eorge Floyd or Breonna Taylor, Eigel makes it clear that his bill is a response to the nationwide protests that followed the police killings. “Organizations like Black Lives Matter and Antifa have assaulted our communities and urban areas for nearly a year, endangering themselves, emergency workers, and community residents,” Eigel wrote on Facebook. In St. Louis, ex-police officers Chris Myers and Dustin Boone and current officer Steven Korte spent the week on trial, facing accusations they assaulted an undercover detective in 2017 whom they believed was a protester. Another ex-cop, Randy Hays, has already pleaded guilty, admitting he beat Det. Luther Hall with a baton even though Hall was on the ground and posed no threat. And ex-cop Bailey Colletta has also pleaded guilty for lying to the FBI and a grand ury as part of the attempted cover-up. The case was underway at the exact moment Eigel’s bill was being debated in the House crime prevention committee. The uxtaposition of the two competing scenes was not lost on St. Louis police Chief John Hayden. A spokesperson emailed reporters in mid-March, reinforcing Hayden’s opposition to Eigel’s bill and similar legislation sponsored in the House by another St. Charles Republican, Rep. ick Schroer, because they would weaken the powers of internal affairs to investigate problem officers. Along with the case against Boone, Korte and Myers, Hayden was dealing with another catastrophe — rape and other sex-crime

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St. Louis police arrest undercover Det. Luther Hall in 2017. | LAWRENCE BRYANT/COURT EXHIBIT

POLICE SPECIAL RIGHTS Continued from pg 11

charges against St. Louis police officers Torey Phelps and Lafeal Lawshea. Another officer, Jatonya Clayborn-Muldrow, was charged with misdemeanor tampering with a victim. She’s accused of trying to talk a woman into reconsidering allegations against Lawshea. “The fact that we have officers on trial for excessive force and officers accused of sexual assault, all in the same week, demonstrates the importance of thorough and often lengthy internal investigations of officer misconduct,” Sgt. Keith Barrett, a police spokesman, wrote in an email to reporters. “The intention of these bills would undermine our ability to hold officers accountable and meet the integrity expectations of the citizens we serve.” In letters to Schroer and Eigel, Hayden wrote that proposed requirements to notify officers at the front end of an inquiry would be a “tip off,” potentially allowing officers to cover their tracks. Similarly, being forced to turn over audio and video in the department’s possession to targets of internal investigations could short-circuit probes into wrongdoing. The legislators are asking the state to give cops “rights beyond that of the average citizen accused of criminal behavior,” Hayden wrote. Critics of provisions of parts of the bills that target protesters point out that marching in roadways is a tactic used by civil rights activists for generations. Martin Luther King Jr. and thousands of supporters famously marched from Selma, Alabama, toward Montgomery in 1965. Activists had been savagely beaten days

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before by law enforcement on Selma’s Edmund Pettus Bridge, and the attack, known as “Bloody Sunday,” was seen as a turning point in the civil rights movement. In support of his bill, Eigel says law enforcement officers need further protections and that protesters who enter roadways endanger everyone. “That’s right — if you place yourself and others in the way of direct physical harm by unlawfully blocking a street or highway, you will be charged with a crime for that,” Eigel wrote on Facebook. “This isn’t a free speech issue — it’s about safety.” In the House crime prevention committee’s hearing last week, critics of the bill disagreed. Rep. Rasheen Aldridge (D-St. Louis) called it a “direct attack on people who have been exercising their First Amendment rights and, to be clear, people of color.” Eigel’s proposal passed through the Senate, before heading to the House’s crime prevention committee. Many of the arguments in support of the bill have focused on hypothetical scenarios of ambulances or fire trucks getting stuck behind protesters, endangering lives. But one of the members of the Republican-dominated crime prevention committee, Rep. Brian Seitz, offered a first-person account of the harm protesters have already caused by blocking roads. The Republican from Branson, who recently complained the left is trying to cancel him after he was criticized for insisting on calling COVID-19 the “Chinese Virus,” had planned to do some shopping with his wife in Springfield when they heard reports of protesters blocking roads. Faced with this information, Seitz told the committee, he and his wife elected to stay home. n

THE BIG MAD Boatloads of Bullshit Police beatings, the Greitens grift and a farewell to the Big Stuck Boat Compiled by

DANIEL HILL

elcome back to the Big Mad, RFT’s weekly roundup of righteous rage! Because we know your time is short and your anger is hot: DISGRACE MADE FOR RADIO: Eric Greitens has launched his run for the U.S. Senate and with it an entire universe of bullshit which he attempted to feed Hugh Hewitt on the conservative columnist’s radio show. The interruption-laden interview reads like drinking nails and tastes worse: Greitens refused the very idea that the multiple investigations from the state legislature and witness testimony about his actions toward a hairdresser whom he tied up in his basement and allegedly photographed would be … bad, electorally speaking. But none of that actually happened, says Greitens, who resigned as governor in 2018 shortly after all that happened. On air, like the former president he desperately emulates, Greitens threw out everything from George Soros to his own version of the words innocent people say after their criminal charges are dropped but before they resign as governor: “I have been fully exonerated.” Hewitt pointed out, between interruptions, that aaaaactually Greitens was only formally exonerated for one campaign finance violation — and, yeah, that’s fact-check true. But Greitens is lying, and doing it intentionally, even with a conservative radio host. Greitens started his gubernatorial campaign by appearing in ads where he shot a bunch of bullets at nothing. He’s doing it again, with bullshit instead of bullets — and the most enraging part is that it could very well work. IN TWO POLICE BEATINGS, COURAGE AND RELUCTANCE: During a hockey game on January 6, 1972, Blues defenseman Bobby Plager plunged into a crowd after watching a Philadelphia police officer crack his coach’s head open with a baton. Refusing to stand by, Plager shoved the cop, and the fight was on. Nearly 50 years later, Plager’s greatest fight in a career of great fights has a different tint to it. It’s not just that we’re remembering this story in the wake of Plager’s tragic death last week. We’re also thinking of a different story: police beating Luther Hall. This incident had nothing to do with hockey, and

a lot do with what happens when people who see police abuse do nothing. As an undercover officer during a protest detail in 2017, Hall was beaten and significantly injured by fellow officers who thought him a protester; and yet, as trial commenced, few cops came to his aid in court. A federal prosecutor noted the “parade of reluctant police officers” who had to be compelled to testify. Conversely, there was none of that reluctance in 1972 — and Plager wasn’t even an officer, just a hockey player who couldn’t play it safe while a cop beat an innocent man. Plager wasn’t reluctant to do the right thing, even if it was dangerous and risky. Today, it’s too often a stand cops aren’t willing to take — even when it’s their own teammate being beaten. RENT OUT OF CONTROL: The real estate market has been on fire, and while that’s nice for homeowners, it’s tough times for the rest of us poor saps. As landlords sell off their investment properties while the gettin’ is good, rental options have decreased dramatically. What’s left is fetching a pretty penny. Famously affordable St. Louis is not immune — according to a January report, rent in the Gateway City is up 22 percent in 2021 when compared to 2020. There are currently thousands of houses for sale in St. Louis, and the rent on the few remaining properties is skyhigh — wild to see in a town that is known for its low cost of living. Recent real estate listings show apartments in eight-family complexes that would’ve rented for $800 per month (maximum) just a few years ago going for upwards of $1,400 per month. If you’re looking for a new place to live and you see somewhere that will work for you, jump on it immediately. If not, it will be gone tomorrow — it’s a dog-eat-dog market and only the quickest (and the richest) are coming out winners. RAISING ALL SHIPS: Everyone is rejoicing that the Big Stuck Boat is now unstuck, but this false catharsis couldn’t have come at a worse time. Wedged into the side of the Suez Canal, the Ever Given became a beautiful catastrophe, a physical crisis that overwhelmed by sheer size the crises at the edges of our minds — how could you think about virus mutations, vaccine spoilage or climate change when there like a colossus sat a boat so big and so stuck that it caused our world to grind to a halt? It was the bigness that healed us: It broke our regular-sized sense for scale and proportion, and everything seemed just a bit smaller, more manageable, as long as a boat longer than Busch Stadium was being daintily bonked by a tiny army of humans and their construction vehicles. Now, all we have left are the photos — and a boatshaped hole in our hearts. n

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Will Alderwoman Cara Spencer be St. Louis’ next mayor? | COURTESY OF CARA SPENCER’S CAMPAIGN

This spring, in an unprecedented election, the city of St. Louis approved two progressive mayoral candidates. On April 6, either CARA SPENCER or TISHAURA JONES will be the city’s next mayor. Which one is best suited to the remarkable moment in which we find ourselves? BY DANNY WICENTOWSKI

e already know several things about St. Louis’ next mayor. She is a single mom with a

school-aged son in the region’s struggling education system. She supports redefining public safety in ways the city’s progressives have long dreamed of. She’s spent years as part of a city government whose legacy of big promises often crashed into bigger disappointments — and now, in the shadow of that legacy, she is asking voters to believe in her ability to overcome it. In the broadest strokes, the two candidates on the April 6 general election ballot, Treasurer Tishaura Jones and Alderwoman Cara Spencer, could be placed within a similar area of the city’s progressive political spectrum. But the time for broad strokes and abstractions is over.

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The winner of the April 6 election will have just two weeks to breathe and prepare before April 20, the day current Mayor Lyda Krewson leaves office for a retirement from politics. How did we get here? In the four-candidate March 2 primary, Jones placed first and Spencer

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second in a never-before-tried form of democracy — with voters marking their “approval” of as many candidates as they wished, and the top two moving on to face each other in an equally unprecedented April 6 general election. For generations, the general election was the part of the pro-

cess where the drama died, a meaningless round that, in the absence of any serious third-party or Republican challenger, acted as a formality for the winner of the chaotic Democratic primary. This year, for the first time in the city’s history, this traditional formality has been transformed into a very real round two of Jones v. Spencer, and a tangible continuation of their efforts to separate themselves in the eyes of voters. It’s a mission they each struggled to accomplish during the primary, as they campaigned not just against each other but against the more moderate sensibilities of Board of Aldermen President Lewis Reed and the pro-police conservatism of Andrew Jones. Jones and Spencer are not out-

Or will the new mayor be Treasurer Tishaura Jones? | COURTESY OF TISHAURA JONES’ CAMPAIGN

The Choice siders by any stretch. Spencer has served as 20th Ward alderwoman since 2015. Jones, who was elected in 2012 to the role of city treasurer, owns a political resume stretching back to two terms in the Missouri legislature. Nothing is certain. Limited polling in the primary that suggested Reed was in the lead turned out to be woefully wrong. On March 2, 47 percent of voters approved of Spencer, shocking some observers with her strong performance. But Jones was clearly the first-place finisher, with 5 percent of voters approving, suggesting she already held a considerable lead across demographics and geography. So here we are again, in a place that feels eerily familiar to the week before the March 2 primary.

The city’s homicide rate is still devastating. Its police department is still grappling with brutality and racism. Missouri’s vaccine distribution to cities is still working its way up from a level of national embarrassment. The north and south sides are separated by the weight of generations of neglect and the ongoing wounds of crime, disinvestment and vacancy. But the candidates haven’t stayed static. With the distractions of Lewis Reed and Andrew Jones left behind, Tishaura Jones and Cara Spencer have since appeared in multiple debates, refining their positions and clashing in ways that in some instances have revealed how different the two candidates really are. It’s not just the candidates who

pushed the line. On March 10, with the primary’s dust barely settled, outgoing Mayor Lyda Krewson made an announcement that drastically raised the stakes of the general election — by about $500 million.

n November 18, 2020, three days before the official start of the election season, St. Louis’ first female mayor announced that she was done with politics. Lyda Krewson had turned 68 that weekend. She had spent the previous eight months leading a pandemic-bludgeoned city, and, even before COVID-19 hit, her term in office coincided with mass protests and historic homicide rates. Krewson had barely

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beaten Jones in a seven-candidate primary in 2017, and now thanks to “approval voting,” there was no chance for a similarly split-vote victory. For Krewson, it was time to move on. That day, at a press conference that would instantly remake St. Louis’ political landscape, she explained that her recent birthday had given her an opportunity to evaluate what she really wanted as she neared 70, and whether that included another campaign season and four years as mayor of St. Louis. “I’m proud of what we accomplished,” she said of her tenure at the top of City Hall. “But elections are about the future.” Yet the future wasn’t entirely

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THE CHOICE

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done with Krewson. She stayed out of the primary politics and made no endorsements, but she was still mayor on March 10, when a Democratic-led Congress passed the American Rescue Plan: The plan called for a half-billiondollar trove of relief funds earmarked for St. Louis. Krewson’s announcement of the relief package sent yet another shockwave into the mayoral election. Over the next week, both Jones and Spencer released outlines of their goals and priorities for use of the funding. As for Krewson, she released her own six-page plan for disbursing the money to various city needs and departments, writing that she hoped it would serve “as a starting point for consideration so that the City can urgently move to deploy these transformative and historic resources.” The urgency isn’t understated. Economic hardships have hit businesses and employees, landlords and renters, homeowners and people without homes. Underemployed and laid-off workers are struggling to make ends meet, even as eviction moratoriums are lifted. The relief funds are a rarity in St. Louis: For once, the city won’t just be arguing about whether to take money from one program or department to fund another, debating the future of the city’s services in terms of what it can do without; it will be money the city can actually use without diminishing something else. But this won’t be Krewson’s money to handle. During a KMOV (Channel 4) town hall last week, Jones was asked about Krewson’s proposed “starting point” for the funds. “I think that’s really cute,” Jones shot back. “She put a plan together as she’s leaving office, because she won’t get to spend a dime of it. She’ll be gone before it gets here.” Indeed, the first batch of funds is expected to arrive in the next two or three months. Still, the fate of those funds won’t be the sole decision of the next mayor. During a March 23 debate, Jones referenced her experience in city government and connections with state and county officials — evidence, she argued, of what would be a capable and responsible regional strategy. “My priorities are that we need to keep people in their homes,” Jones said during the debate. She added that the money could also

RIVERFRONT TIMES

“St. Louis is in the fight of its life. We need a leader who will meet this moment of both crisis and opportunity, not with divisiveness, but with grit, unity and hope.”

— C A RA S PE NC E R

ensure the city operates multiple mass vaccination sites “where everybody can get a shot locally rather than driving four hours like we’ve seen recently.” In Jones’ plan, some of the money would be used to create an oversight body whose mission would be to track the spending of the vast relief funds across the city and region. “I would set aside a pot of funds to get community input, because this is a lot of money,” she acknowledged. “It can do a lot of good, and we want to make sure we’re getting community input on how we can spend the money. Because I don’t have all of the answers.” Having an answer for every question has become something of a theme for Cara Spencer’s campaign. Days after Krewson released her proposal, Spencer followed up with a “draft investment plan” of her own with hard numbers, including a plan to support 1,000 new home owners with down-payment relief ($15,000 per person) and completing 2,000 home repairs ($15,000 per home). Another proposal would see the city pay as much as $25,000 to “fully rehab” and market thousands of vacant properties owned by the city’s Land Reutilization Authority. Addressing the fate of the $500 million at the March 23 debate, Spencer called it “a once-in-a-century opportunity.” But the money isn’t just about COVID-19, and Spencer drew a line between the massive size of the federal aid package and St. Louis’ deeper problems. She pointed to her draft proposal to target 65 percent of the funds to north St. Louis, “in areas that have been traditionally disinvested.” “The reason we’re receiving so much money,” she said, “is that we need to address the long-term issues that have been plaguing our city for decades.”

espite the dramatic midcampaign entrance of a halfbillion dollars, the mayoral candidates have spent their last weeks solidifying themselves around the issue that’s long

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been central to St. Louis’ political past and future: public safety. In 2017, when Jones ran and lost in the crowded mayoral primary to Krewson, the candidates battled over police salaries, the residency requirement for cops and body cameras. They debated whether St. Louis had enough police officers. Four years later, police salaries have been raised, the residency requirement abolished and body cameras are finally being deployed across the department — but St. Louis’ violence hasn’t meaningfully changed. If anything, it’s worse. What has changed is the momentum behind policing reform. It is not 2017 anymore: In 2020, the city unveiled its Cops and Clinicians program, deploying mental health specialists along with cops to some 911 calls. Last year also marked the city’s rollout of Cure Violence, which aims to use teams of non-police “interrupters” who can better understand and diffuse the tensions of a potential tragedy before it ends in violence. Throughout the campaign, this momentum for reform has often been addressed in questions about “defunding the police.” Jones has circled closest to this ambitious (and ambiguous) notion. During the primary forum, she fielded a question about the police department’s annual budget of $180 million, remarking, “I think it’s too much.” Later, at a March 16 candidate forum, Jones said she would “totally transform our public safety and police department,” and suggested that the department’s 1 unfilled officer positions could be staffed with social workers and substance abuse counselors. “To some, that may look like defunding the police,” she said. “But we will be able to deploy those people to the right calls, and that frees up police officers for the right work.” Spencer, too, backs a vision for public safety “beyond traditional policing.” Her campaign platform calls for expanding the Cops and Clinicians program and hiring ad-

ditional social workers to assist the homeless population. But while Jones leaned into a more nuanced view of what it could mean to defund the police, Spencer distanced herself. “I think we all know — even the police know — that we can’t police our way into safer communities,” Spencer said at the March 16 forum. “Rather than defunding the police, recentering our conversation around our policies and around public safety is going to be key here.” That “recentering” wouldn’t mean filling officer positions with social workers, she explained, but would create and expand public safety services “outside the police department.” In reality, St. Louis’ next mayor cannot defund the police by herself. But she can, in a way, defund St. Louis’ jails by pushing the closure of the ancient Medium Security Institution, known as the Workhouse, and thereby freeing some $8 million for the city budget. Although the Board of Aldermen approved a plan to shut down the Workhouse by the end of 2020, the pandemic and overcrowding concerns have thrown its longawaited closing into question. It’s not just the Workhouse: St. Louis’ next mayor will have to handle two jails in crisis. In February, inmates erupted at the downtown Justice Center, what is supposed to be the city’s most secure facility. Local and national audiences watched images of inmates waving signs and burning sheets from the facility’s smashed fourth- oor windows. A commission was formed to study the conditions that led to the chaos, but the incident has become yet another spotlight on the city’s public safety failures — and on Jimmie Edwards, who for the last four years has been the St. Louis’ public safety director, overseeing a swath of city departments, including police and the jails. During the March 16 candidate forum, Spencer said she wouldn’t “talk about personnel,” but Jones said atly that her administration would not include Edwards; Jones explained that she would find a new public safety director through “a national search.” That appeared to be news to Edwards. Two days later, he announced that he would resign by the end of the month. One week after that, in response to a question leveled during a March 23 debate hosted by KTVI (Channel 2), the two candidates clarified their positions on the orkhouse. Jones went first She vowed to close the ail in her first

100 days. Spencer’s take on the Workhouse was more circumspect. In her response, she said she is “fully committed” to closing the Workhouse but argued that her priority was the safety of the city’s jail residents and the guards responsible for securing them. She pointed to the security failures in the Justice Center as reason to delay the closing of the Workhouse “until we get to the real bottom of the structural issues” in both city jails. She offered a timeline: “I believe it can be done before the end of this year.”

t. Louis’ next mayor knows many things about the city she leads. Both Jones and Spencer have spent a grueling, unprecedented campaign season in one of the most tenuous and challenging chapters not just in city history, but in any history. There was the pandemicspurred shutdown of public society, the freezing of the courts, the overnight destruction of tourism, the nursing-home deaths, the shut-in immunocompromised, the loss of regular school year, proms, graduations, weddings — it was, and is, bigger than all of us. And still, somehow, it comes down to one of two people to lead

“Electing a mayor with executive existing relationships on the local, state and national level and a background in health care is what this moment demands.”

—T I S HAU RA J ON E S

St. Louis out of it. In dozens of speeches this campaign season, Jones has often punctuated her points with active references to her experience as city treasurer and state lawmaker, her master’s degree in health administration; she describes her ability to “hit the ground running” and how, as mayor, she would “be ready on day one.” “Electing a mayor with executive existing relationships on the local, state and national level and a background in health care is what this moment demands,” Jones said in her opening statement during a March 23 debate. “We don’t have time for leadership that has to learn on the job,” she continued. “We have half a billion dollars on its way

to our city in federal aid. We need a mayor who can disburse these funds with an eye towards equity and the experience to move quickly.” Spencer may have a shorter political resume, but she was no less pointed in her opening salvo at the debate and added several notso-veiled shots at her opponent. “St. Louis is in the fight of its life,” Spencer began. “We need a leader who will meet this moment of both crisis and opportunity, not with divisiveness, but with grit, unity and hope.” Like Jones, Spencer spoke of the $500 million in federal aid as a possible savior for a city that’s spent so much of its recent history in desperate need of saving. The formula that produced that

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aid, she pointed out, “was calculated based on our poverty, the housing decay and the economic stagnation that has plagued us for decades.” “It’s a real testament to the struggles that our city is facing,” she added. “And a once-in-a-century opportunity to fix them.” As the days tick down to April 6, and as Jones and Spencer duel in televised debates — now taking place in person, and not just through Zoom or Facebook streams — what has once been an election defined by its candidates’ lack of definition is, finally, coming into clarity. Spencer points to the improvements in the 20th Ward as a path to improving the city, with her role as a uniting force who makes room at the table to hear multiple sides. Jones points to her experience as an executive, but also as a Black woman who has seen St. Louis through the eyes of its most disheartened and disinvested, a ready-made leader who is “ready to serve.” Both women are sprinting for the finish line — and one thing is certain: Whoever wins won’t have much time to bask in her victory. Because her new job starts in two weeks. n

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RIVERFRONT TIMES

O FR

NT TIMES PRE SE NT S

SATURDAY, APRIL 24, 2021 • CHASE PARK PLAZA 11:30 AM-2:00 PM RFT’S UNITED WE BRUNCH RETURNS FOR THE 6TH YEAR!!

There’s no better way to chase away a hangover than brunch with friends. And Riverfront Times is once again bringing together the best restaurants in town with one mission: unite to cure St. Louis’ hangover. In its 6th year, United We Brunch will be more than just bottomless Bloody Marys and Mimosas — enjoy screwdrivers, bellinis, Irish coffee, beer and more! Plus, all the best brunch hot spots in the St. Louis area under one roof.

EVERYONE IS VIP IN 2021!

VIP Gift Bag with Commemorative Glass • Brunch Tastings from more than 20 brunch hot spots Bottomless Bloody Marys, Mimosas, Bellinis, Screwdrivers, beer and Irish Coffee

Covid-Protocols: capacity will be significantly reduced, masks required when not consuming beverages/food, social distancing decals, tables spaced apart, individual hand sanitizer provided, and plexiglass between the restaurants and guests.

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CAFE

BEAST Butchery’s smoked meatball sub, pimento smash burger, smoked cauliflower, fries, creamy slaw, Fruity Pebbles treats, Italian beef and snoot sandwich. | MABEL SUEN

[REVIEW]

Making Ends Meat BEAST’s sandwich pop-up, launched as a COVID stopgap, delights in its own right Written by

CHERYL BAEHR BEAST Butcher & Block 4156 Manchester Avenue, 314-944-6003. Tues.-Sun. 11 a.m.-7 p.m. (Closed Mondays.)

wo years ago, if you’d have told David and Meggan Sandusky that they would be shutting down barbecue at their Grove restaurant BEAST Butcher & Block, they would have thought you were out of your mind. Barbecue, after all, is why the place even exists — it was David’s success as a pitmaster at his

first venture, Belleville’s BEAST Craft BBQ, that thrust him into the national spotlight and gave him a platform to open more restaurants. It’s more than what he does; it’s who he is. But beyond that, BEAST Butcher & Block was David’s baby. Sure, opening a St. Louis outpost of his barbecue brand made sense business-wise, but the Grove smokehouse was never intended to be BEAST Craft BBQ Part Two. It was his agship, the space where he could indulge in his creativity and push the limits of what barbecue could be — an ambitious, 6,000-square-foot behemoth with a traditional barbecue counter, a butcher shop and, as its centerpiece, a live-fire, test-kitchen, events-space showroom called the Skullery, which was designed to be his playground. COVID-19 had other plans. Like every other restaurant trying to survive during this wretched pandemic, the two-year-old BEAST Butcher & Block was hemorrhaging money. Though David and Meggan had the robust support of their customers and a product

that translated well for takeout, it just wasn’t enough. The high cost of quality meat and sheer size of their Grove operation made for an overhead that was unsustainable when balanced with the reduced money coming in. They desperately tried to keep their staff employed, remaining open even when they couldn’t pay the bills, but eventually there was no denying the fact that they could no longer go on with business as usual. This February, David and Meggan took the bold step of shutting down BEAST Butcher & Block’s barbecue operations — a tough decision, but one that they hoped would save the business in the long run. However, instead of shutting down completely, they decided to rely upon the butchery to serve as a bridge to when they could resume normal operations. In addition to the regular selection of meats, prepared goods and light groceries — part of the business that had actually increased during the pandemic — the Sanduskys decided to offer sandwiches that would take advantage of all the butchery could do.

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It turns out, they can do a lot. Though the menu is small — just six sandwiches and a handful of sides — the butchery does a good job blending BEAST’s barbecue background with quintessential deli-counter offerings. A pimento smash burger, for instance, shows off both the beauty of BEAST’s highquality, freshly ground meat and a little Southern in uence with piquant pimento cheese spread. The cheese oozes into every crevice of the two patties; shaved white onions and bread-and-butter pickles cut through the decadence. The Italian beef is possibly the best version of the Chicago-style sandwich I’ve had. The braised chuck is positively delicate in texture and infused with gentle smoke from being cooked directly over a wood fire. The meat is generously piled onto bread that is crusty on the outside but soft inside so that it acts like a sponge for the au jus and spicy giardiniera that brightens the dish. The total package shows why having a barbecue background amps up a traditional deli offering.

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Owner David Sandusky turns out to be a great sandwich maker along with pit master. | MABEL SUEN

BEAST

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That wood smoke also features prominently in the restaurant’s signature dish, the Pit Roasted Beef & Cheese. Sandusky is particularly proud of this one — so proud that he publicly put it up against the king of St. Louis roast beef, Lion’s Choice, leaving the fast-food brand no choice but to praise his efforts. How could anyone do otherwise? The thinly shaved beef is cooked directly over wood so that the sweet smoke is a prominent, but not overwhelming, avor. The result is meat that is the beefiest beef taste you can get, underscored by the tallow-griddled bun. Before he caps it with the top half of the bun, he covers the meat in velvety white-cheddar cheese sauce, then sprinkles it with some barbecue seasoning for a little zest. Coming from someone who drinks her morning coffee out of a Lion’s Choice-branded mug, BEAST’s roast beef is legit. Sandusky is also proud of BEAST’s snoot sandwich, which is how he pays respect to the oldschool St. Louis barbecue, brought to life by Black pitmasters, that paved the way for the city’s barbecue boom. His version is as traditional as it gets: barbecue-sauceslathered hunks of crunchy meat served on sliced white bread with housemade pickles. The snoot is like a crispy, saucy pork chip, akin to a hearty crackling. This makes it somewhat difficult to eat on the

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bread if it’s sat too long, though when you pull it off and eat it on its own with the bread as a saucesoaked side, it’s quite delicious. Though it’s difficult to pick a favorite of BEAST’s sandwiches, the Smoked Meatball Sub is a serious contender for first place. The butchery team makes theirs from smoked pork, resulting in a saltysweet, rich meatball that’s adequately fatty without being over the top. Set inside a crusty hoagie roll and smothered in bright tomato sauce and shaved cheese, the balls are like a porky Bolognese in spherical form. Sandusky is toying around with the idea of keeping items like the meatball sub and pit-roasted beef on the restaurant menu when that side of the business reopens. In fact, he might have the butcher-shop side of the business — not barbecue — serve as the overall inspiration for the place. This means that, in addition to traditional smokehouse offerings, guests might be treated to chops, sausages and even those smoked meatballs over a pile of spaghetti. It’s a big change from his and Meggan’s original plan for BEAST Butcher & Block, but if this dreadful year has shown them anything, it’s that their talents go far beyond barbecue.

BEAST Butcher & Block Pimento Smash Burger ......................... $9.99 Pit Roasted Beef & Cheese .................$10.99 Smoked Meatball Sub .........................$10.99 • Carryout only / delivery only

SHORT ORDERS

[SIDE DISH]

Opportunity Knocks Amy Guo says Sando Shack, now expanding, may not exist if not for COVID-19 Written by

CHERYL BAEHR

pening Sando Shack was never part of the plan for Amy Guo. For more than two years, she and her partner Dan Jensen had been in the process of opening a poke spot at City Foundry, but delays in the project kept pushing back the timeline. The wait wasn’t ideal, but it was tolerable until this October, when Guo got laid off from her full-time job. In need of a project and income, she and Jensen decided they had to figure out something in the meantime. “We really started thinking if there was something we could do that wasn’t a brick and mortar but a small business venture,” Guo says. “One of the things we really liked when we were living in Seattle were Japanese sandwiches. We started looking into them to see if we could put our own little twist on them, and after some research, we realized that we could do this.” If that meantime side project, Sando Shack (@sandoshackstl), was not part of Guo’s original plan, opening a restaurant certainly wasn’t — at least not until recently. A self-described nine-tofiver who has spent her entire career in the corporate world, Guo says the idea of upending her life for such an undertaking was never something she imagined herself doing. Laser-focused on her career since she entered college, Guo instead found success working in business and marketing, and eventually went on to earn her MBA. Graduate school sparked in Guo an interest in entrepreneurship, but she was still trying to figure out what that meant for her career path. However, after moving

With Sandoshack, Amy Guo is realizing her dream of being an entrepreneur. | ANDY PAULISSEN to Seattle and meeting Jensen, a picture emerged. The pair bonded over a shared love of food and travel, and they spent most of their free time trying new places to eat. Jensen, who has a background in restaurants, expanded Guo’s culinary horizons, and she taught him about the business side of food. It wasn’t long before she began to consider opening a restaurant as her next move. Guo and Jensen were both passionate about seafood and were particularly moved by poke. But the more they looked into opening a poke restaurant in Seattle, the clearer it became to them that the market was oversaturated. This led Guo to start thinking about other locations, including her hometown, St. Louis. Around that time, the City Foundry project was beginning to recruit businesses for its food hall; Guo thought it was the right fit, so she and Jensen signed on. That was 2019. Plagued by delays in the beginning of the project and now the COVID-19 pandemic, City Foundry is still not open. However, Guo is excited that the extra time has given her and Jensen the energy to focus

on Sando Shack, something they might not have ever thought of pursuing were it not for the delay in opening their poke restaurant. Since October, the pair have been doing almost weekly Sunday popups at their friend’s Central West End spot, Saigon Cafe, and have been thrilled with the reception. In fact, the feedback has been so good that they recently bought a food truck and plan on building their brand, even when their poke spot opens at City Foundry. It’s a funny twist of fate that has somehow turned her into a restaurateur — something she is still getting used to. “It’s been really hard, because I am used to having meetings dictate my schedule,” Guo says. “I’m still getting used to this lifestyle where I don’t have a lot going on Monday through Friday, but then I get really busy on the weekends. It’s weird feeling like Sunday nights are when I can relax and wind down, because I am used to getting ready for the week on Sundays. It’s the opposite of what I’ve always done, but I like it. I like using my skills and seeing that what I am doing is working. In the corporate world, you’re often a small

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part of a large project and never get to see the end result. Here, you actually see how what you do is being utilized. It’s very satisfying.” Guo took a moment away from Sando Shack to share her thoughts on the St. Louis food and beverage community, her love of coffee and Szechuan peppercorns, and why increased communication is one COVID-era restaurant practice that she hopes sticks around postpandemic. What is one thing people don’t know about you that you wish they did? I was born in Maryland and then spent some years living with my grandparents and going to school in China until I was nine years old. That’s when I came back to the .S. and finished school and relearned English. I’m super grateful for the experience I had in China and proud to say now I’m uent in both English and Mandarin. What daily ritual is non-negotiable for you? Coffee. Sadly I see my productivity difference when I have coffee versus when I don’t. And it’s just so yummy!

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AMY GUO

Continued from pg 21

Who is your St. Louis food crush? I have a long list of restaurants to try since moving here! I’m doing a pretty good job going through the list but still have so many places to try. So far, I’m really obsessed with the beef carpaccio from the Bellwether. That restaurant also has such a good vibe and a nice rooftop patio. Which ingredient is most representative of your personality? Szechuan peppers. It’s an exciting spicy avor that brings a level of comfort and homey feeling. Plus I love Szechuan cuisine. If you weren’t working in the restaurant business, what would you be doing? My background is in advertising/

marketing. Up until recently, I was working in a strategic partnership role for a tech company. I definitely loved it and would continue doing that. As a hospitality professional, what do people need to know about what you are going through? Speaking from a business standpoint, I’ve really had to think about how to adapt our marketing methods to fit the current circumstances we are in. We haven’t been able to draw crowds in or host any type of physical grand opening to generate customer engagement like a lot of new restaurants would do. We are also not a brick and mortar where we can rely on surrounding foot traffic for business, so I have really been focusing on social media marketing and partnerships, reaching out to other local businesses and

restaurants to do collaborations in order to get our name out there. What do you miss most about the way you did your job before COVID-19? Being social, giving handshakes and hugs to our friends and customers. Meeting new people and engaging with our customers are both very important to us, so we can’t wait to gather together again in a safe environment. What do you miss least? Crowded establishments. I enjoy how restaurants, bars, gyms, etc. have things a bit spaced out now. What have you been stress-eating/drinking lately? Lots of takeout food and wine. What do you think the biggest change to the hospitality industry will be once people are allowed to return to normal activity levels? The level of communication and

[OPENINGS]

De’Lish Emporium to Open This Summer Written by

CHERYL BAEHR

or years, Jeramy Perry and Bri Rubin have been using their culinary talents to help other people realize their visions. Now, the husband and wife pastry team are excited to finally make their own dreams a reality when they open their new bakery, De’Lish Emporium (www.delishemporium.com), this summer in Benton Park. “We’ve always done everything for everyone else, but now the question is what can we do for ourselves that will make us happy and content,” Rubin says. “I lost my job because of the pandemic; Jeramy was an essential worker. It was scary, so we felt that now was the time for us to figure out who we want to be and what legacy we want to leave for our children.” Perry and Rubin, who go professionally by the names Jay Sweets and Bri Delights, met eight years ago while working in the restaurant business. At the time, Rubin was a culinary school graduate

RIVERFRONT TIMES

De’Lish Emporium will bring sweets, treats and a space for local makers to Benton Park. | COURTESY OF DE’LISH EMPORIUM and Perry was currently finishing up his culinary program, both focused on pastry. It was natural that they would bake together in their spare time, and they found joy in making special treats for friends and family. Eventually, their efforts turned into the business Bri Delights. While working full-time in other jobs, the pair tried their best to keep up with orders they got through social media, pop-ups and word-of-mouth recommendations from loved ones. After five and a half years, they wound down the operation to focus on their other jobs and raising their growing family.

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Now they are back at it, only this time, they’ve taken the leap and gone all in with De’Lish Emporium. According to Perry and Rubin, the bakery is part of a multi-use building in Benton Park, near the intersection of Jefferson Avenue and Arsenal Street that is currently under construction. De’Lish will be the first part of the operation to open; after that, an events space will double as a cafe for the bakery during daytime hours. Additionally, they plan to have a space at De’Lish for local artists and makers to sell their goods, and a commissary kitchen to help people get their food business ideas off the ground.

transparency between the businesses and its customers. Since the pandemic, businesses have over-communicated about what they’re doing and how they’re taking the proper precautions of keeping their customers and staff safe and healthy — which is great. We believe that this level of communication and transparency should stay a consistent goal even after normalcy returns. What is one thing that gives you hope during this crisis? This community and the amount of support we see everyone giving each other. From trying each others’ foods, offering help and spreading the word through advertising, collaborations and social media, this community has shown that working together is the key to getting through a crisis like this. n

As for the bakery itself, Perry and Rubin describe their style as nostalgic but bold. They like to take things that are familiar and reinvent them — something they have been eager to do while working for others. “We’ve been wanting to embrace this side,” Rubin says. “Anywhere we’ve worked we’ve had these creative limits and could only go so far. This is our chance to be bold, be outside the box and do what we want to do.” Perry and Rubin are proud of their commitment to making everthing from scratch. Their hot chocolate bombs, for instance, use not only homemade chocolate, but homemade marshmallows; every ingredient — from the cookies in the cookies-and-cream version to sprinkles — are made from scratch. Guests can also expect pastries such as traditional Frenchstyle macarons and a Chocolate Lovers cake made with chocolate cake, chocolate buttercream, chocolate macaron crunch, chocolate ganache and mini chocolate chips. Though they don’t have an opening date, Perry and Rubin hope to have at least the bakery open in the next month or two for curbside. They plan on having their grand opening sometime in the summer. “The St. Louis food community is so wonderful,” Rubin says. “We want to support that. It’s so good to have a community of people who you know and trust that you can send people to if there is something that you can’t make for someone. We’re so happy to be part of it, and we want to give back.” n

[ AWA R D S ]

Southside Alchemy Takes the Gold Written by

CHERYL BAEHR

hen bartender Todd Brutcher founded Southside Alchemy in 2019, he did so with the goal of making a superior Bloody Mary mix. Now, the cocktail world is taking notice, honoring his Sweat & Tears mixer with a gold medal at the Drunken Tomato Awards, a international contest to crown the top Bloody Mary mixes. Southside Alchemy’s Sweat & Tears mix won the “Spicy” category. According to the judges, the mix displayed “medium consistency; sweet mild heat with

underlying celery avors good heat build, good level of acidity and good thickness,” as well as “black peppery spice” that is “pretty spicy.” Southside Alchemy’s Mild Mannered Mary won the silver medal in the competitions’s “Mild” category. This is the second year in a row that Southside Alchemy has taken home the gold at the competition. Last year, the mix received top honors in the “New Release” category. Brutcher started making his Bloody Mary mix when he was a bartender at Onesto. Convinced that he could make a better product than the mass-produced options available in the market, he concocted his own version and developed a loyal following. Encouraged by the reception, he started bottling his mix, together with a sangria base, under the name Southside Alchemy. The latest award is ust more affirmation that he is on the right track. You can get your hands on Brutcher’s award-winning mixes at several local retailers, including Schnucks, Civil Alchemy and LeGrand’s, as well as farmers markets, the Canteen at 9 Mile Garden food truck park and Grace Meat + Three. n

Southside Alchemy’s Sweat & Tears Bloody Mary mix is prize worthy. | ED ALLER

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CULTURE

[PINS]

Press the Button St. Louis’ ButtonMakers shop celebrates twenty years in business Written by

DANIEL HILL

t. Louis’ Cherokee Streetbased ButtonMakers shop took an unlikely path to get to where it is today. It’s a story that started two decades ago, and one that saw the shop’s owner, St. Louis native Rebecca Bolte, crisscrossing the country from Florida to Washington state before settling back in her hometown. During her time away from Missouri, she lived as part of a DIY punk collective in Florida, watched her business grow in a Seattle warehouse and even royally pissed off the handlers of MSNBC’s Chris Matthews during some time spent working at the Democratic National Convention. Through it all, ButtonMakers has been her financial mainstay — and as it reaches its twentieth birthday this year, Bolte says she has every intention to keep it that way. Bolte, now 40, says she set out on her own at the age of nineteen, and that ButtonMakers initially started as a screenprinting shop duplicating CDs for Indiana’s Plan-It-X Records. “I met them through this band This Bike Is a Pipe Bomb,” Bolte says of Plan-It-X. “I lived in a punk collective with them in Florida, and they were on Plan-It-X, I believe, and that’s how I met those guys. They just needed somebody to make their CDs — it’s like a DI record label, you know? So we literally ust got — there’s a store in Seattle called RE-PC, and we just got this bank of computers at the time and were literally just duplicating CDs that way, screenprinting the labels on them and sending them off to Indiana. That’s how we got started.” At the time, the company that

Rebecca Bolte first launched ButtonMakers in 2001 out of a Seattle warehouse. | COURTESY OF BUTTONMAKERS would become known as ButtonMakers was housed in Seattle as well, in what Bolte describes as “a windowless warehouse with a bunch of dumpster-diving crazy crusty punks” living in it. As time went on, Plan-It-X tapped Bolte to screenprint their shirts for them as well. Soon, they asked about buttons. “So we went online looking for a place to buy equipment to do that, and we couldn’t find any place that was selling that stuff,” Bolte explains. “We had to search the patent office to find a manufacturer. And so we got the equipment, we fulfilled our customer’s order, and it just kind of dawned on us that since there was no internet presence for buttonmaking supplies in 2001 that we should start retailing that stuff, too.” Bolte says she put together a section of what was then her punk merch website just for but-

ton-making machines and equipment. Before long, she was sold out of everything. “Most of our customers were, like, churches and schools and nonprofits, and probably not super interested in all the weird punk-rock stuff we were selling as well,” Bolte laughs. “So we then launched buttonmakers.net to be its own entity, and it eventually ust took over — it was so much more popular than any of the other things we were doing that eventually it became its own thing. “The biggest clients are nonprofits — they’re school districts, municipalities — stuff like that,” she adds. “So people who are just not in that [punk] world at all.” Bolte’s goods and services weren’t just popular with neighborhood organizations and the like, though. Soon enough, she was tapped to work Barack Obama’s 2008 and 2012 presiden-

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tial campaigns, and even do some work at the 2008 Democratic National Convention. “We just got a phone call from MSNBC,” Bolte explains. “Well, the design firm that MS BC had hired was doing a brand activation at the Democratic National Convention, and they hired us to do onsite buttons. So people would come over and get their name on a button. We made well over 1 , buttons in a day — it was incredible. And I almost spilled coffee on Jesse Jackson, it was great.” That close call with Jesse Jackson wasn’t her only brush with celebrity that week, though. One day, as she and her team were wrapping up and heading out, they ran afoul of Hardball anchor Chris Matthews. “We had worked that entire convention; it was just wall-towall people. We worked our

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BUTTON MAKERS Continued from pg 25

butts off, and we had to y all the equipment and everything out there — it was a lot of stuff,” she says. “And the only way to get out is to ust pack up everything and handcart it through this crowd. So we did that, and we finally made it over to the one elevator that was the slowest elevator on Earth. And we’re waiting — it’s finally time to go home — and the door opens. e try to muscle our way in there, and some handler is like, o no no no no, Chris Matthews is in this elevator.’ And I’m like, Chris Matthews better move his ass over.’ And they got really mad at me and shut the door. And then I got a call from the people who hired us, and they were very upset with me about that. They were like, ere you rude to Chris Matthews ’ I was like, I don’t know, I guess. Sorry.’” Obviously, things were going well for the business. But by 2011 her overhead costs became too great. That same windowless warehouse full of crust punks had skyrocketed in rent from 9 a month to , . She knew then that it was time to go, and

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she decided to move back to her hometown. “I love St. Louis I’ve always felt that this is my home,” she says. “Seattle never quite felt like home. Cherokee Street, though, was ust calling my name, I feel like. I was able to move back here and pay a third of the rent for a comparable space. My business is primarily an internet business, so not only is the rent more affordable here, but all of my suppliers are closer. So the transit is faster for shipping, inbound and outbound — I can get packages to ew ork quite a bit faster, etc. So that was helpful, and I was able to buy a really nice house here and start a family, and have a much better life really, ust because it’s so much more affordable.” Bolte opened her Cherokee Street storefront in January 1 . Since then, she’s become a go-to for nonprofits, politicians and punks — she’s worked with many local bands, but also with local politicians including Alderwoman Cara Spencer and former state Rep. Bruce Franks. She’s even started a summer program called Pin Squad wherein she lets kids from the neighborhood come in and design their own buttons to take and sell. If those kids then come back to her with the money,

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“I love St. Louis; I’ve always felt that this is my home. Seattle never quite felt like home. Cherokee Street, though, was just calling my name, I feel like.” she holds it for them until the end of summer, when she matches their savings dollar for dollar. “They come into the shop anyway to charge their phones and use iFi, so I figured I’d start trying to impart some entrepreneurial and financial literacy skills on them,” she reasons. “They always have access to their money, but saving it makes it grow. And if you can find a hustle, even something as silly as buttons, you can get by without the risk of getting locked up.”

Bolte’s own hustle took a maor hit at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The shop’s customer base, by and large, is centered on people and organizations who are promoting events — making her and her team something of an ancillary liveevents-support industry. ith the restrictions on gatherings that came with the pandemic, Bolte, whose business is proudly union run, was forced to lay off employees. At present it’s ust her and her partner icholas James running things, with the latter handling the shop’s sticker-making side of things. But Bolte makes it clear on no uncertain terms that the business she founded some twenty years ago isn’t going anywhere. “It’s been difficult for sure,” she says. “I think those punkrock ethics definitely kicked in, because I’m ust like, if I have to pack up and move into the basement — if I have to make buttons out of my van on Cherokee Street, I will do that. ou know what I mean This company is not going anywhere. Really, it’s because I don’t have any other options. So I gotta make it work — and I’m gonna make it work, no matter what.” n

[BARCADES]

Free Play Up-Down arcade bar offering $5 in tokens to anyone who gets vaccinated Written by

DANIEL HILL

ollowing hot on the heels of Krispy Kreme’s free doughnuts promotion for anyone who has been vaccinated against COVID-19, the Up-Down chain of barcades is offering $5 worth of tokens to anyone who has had their shots in an initiative the company has dubbed “Tokens for Poke’ns.” Up-Down’s St. Louis location (405 North Euclid Ave, 314-449-1742) made the announcement last week with a post on social media. “Here’s how it works: Show us your vaccination card that has both doses accounted for if you’ve received the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines, or the single dose accounted for if you’ve received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. We’ll give you $5 in free tokens as our thanks to you for helping to keep us and the community safe!” the post reads. “For the first three

“Here’s how it works: Show us your vaccination card. ... We’ll give you $5 in free tokens as our thanks to you for helping to keep us and the community safe!” weeks, anyone who has their full vaccination recorded can stop in to redeem their tokens. After that, guests must stop by within three weeks after getting their final dose to redeem.” According to the New York Times, UpDown’s communications manager, David Hayden, conceived of the idea while waiting in an observation area after receiving his own shot. He tells the paper that the giveaway is meant to give people something to look forward to after getting vaccinated. “It’s something we anticipated for so

Up-Down is the latest to join the trend in perks for the newly poked. | KATIE COUNTS long,” he says of the vaccine. The Times notes that the Krispy Kreme and Up-Down giveaways are part of a larger trend wherein companies across the country are offering incentives to those who choose to get vaccinated. The paper also highlights a brewery in Cleveland that is giving ten-cent beers to the first 2,021 customers who come in and prove they’ve been poked, as well as a Michigan marijuana dispensary that is handing out free joints to vaccinated people through the end of the month.

[ICONS]

Tina Turner Doc Hits HBO Max Written by

JAIME LEES

e’ve been worshiping at the altar of Tina Turner for decades here in St. Louis, but thanks to a new HBO documentary, the whole world is about to learn all there is to know about the Queen of Rock & Roll. TINA aims to be the definitive account of Turner’s life. The documentary is almost two hours long and includes interviews with Oprah Winfrey, Angela Bassett and Kurt Loder. Born Anna Mae Bullock, the entertainment icon got her start in St. Louis playing venues like the legendary Club Imperial on North Tucker Boulevard. From there, she went on to split with Ike Turner (famously only asking for her name in the divorce) and left him in her dust, becoming an international superstar who earned unprecedented success. Her ambition, her pain and her ability to bounce back are highlighted in this film, along with disclosures about her current health situation as she nears the end of

The film is said to serve as a farewell to fans from the legend herself. | HBO/OFFICIAL RELEASE POSTER her life. Reviewers have said that TINA is essentially a goodbye film from her to her fans, where she sets the record straight about her life on her own terms. From HBO: “With a wealth of never-before-seen footage, audio tapes, personal photos, and new interviews, including with the singer herself, TINA presents an unvarnished and dynamic account of the life and career of music icon Tina Turner. Everything changed when Tina began telling her story, a story of trauma and survival, that gave way to a rebirth as the record-breaking queen of rock ‘n’ roll. But

behind closed doors, the singer struggled with the survivor narrative that meant her past was never fully behind her. Directed by Dan Lindsay and T.J. Martin, the documentary charts Tina Turner’s early fame, the private and public personal and professional struggles, and her return to the world stage as a global phenomenon in the 1980s. Angela Bassett, Oprah Winfrey, journalist Kurt Loder, playwright Katori Hall and Tina’s husband Erwin Bach are among the interviews in the intimate documentary.” Subscribers can catch TINA on HBO Max now. n

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But, this being the year 2021 and all, when everyone is hopelessly divided and no one is happy, such promotions have already earned the ire of anti-vaxxers and COVID-19 vaccine skeptics, who have bafflingly found a way to regard such kickass things as free doughnuts, free weed, free video games and cheap beer as bad, somehow. As noted by Vice, Krispy Kreme’s promotion resulted in a deluge of negativity in its Facebook comment section almost immediately upon its announcement. “Looks like you are part of indoctrination [sic] of American citizens,” wrote one commenter. “If we’re good and follow along we get presents. Soon we can get all kinds of free stuff if we go along with getting micro-chipped too, is that how it’s going to work?” “Would you like the unvaccinated to wear a yellow star on their chest?” asked another. “Since you’ve decided to stray into an area that has nothing to do with your actual business I’d like to know how far you’re willing to go.” “We are getting close to the end times, when there will be no buying or selling unless you ‘have the mark [of the Beast],’” warned another ominously. It’s worth noting that no one is forcing those who don’t want to get vaccinated to get a shot, and that the companies that are offering incentives to those that do are free to run their businesses how they choose. It also seems reasonable to point out that these promotions are more likely than not a savvy way for companies to get their names in some headlines and some bodies in their doors, where customers are likely to plunk down some cash on additional items while they’re already there. Far from a sign of the End of Days, what we’re really looking at here is simply a clever marketing campaign. For our part here at RFT: Sign us up. Doughnuts, video games, beer, weed and I can hug my parents for the first time in a year? What’s next, more awesome shit that rules? n

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SAVAGE LOVE FUCK AROUND AND FIND OUT BY DAN SAVAGE Hey, Dan: I’ve been with my boyfriend for 2.5 years and we have a great relationship — or so I thought. Last week, I snooped on my boyfriend’s browser history and I don’t know what to do with what I found. I’m a longtime reader and Savage Lovecast listener SO I KNOW WHAT I DID WAS WRONG. I believe my actions were driven by 1. lingering trust issues (a while ago, I found out my boyfriend had been looking at Tinder since we’d been together, though I don’t believe he ever messaged or intended to meet anyone) and 2. my general anxiety/depression, which seems particularly high one year into the pandemic. Now, to what I found: My boyfriend has been looking at random women on Facebook — not people he’s friends with, or people in his immediate network, so far as I know. And then he clears his activity log. What do you think this means? Where is he finding these names/women? Is he using these pictures to masturbate? Should I raise the issue with him or just feel shitty about invading his privacy? He gives me no other reason to not trust him, I should say, and he seems like a pretty open book. (Everyone in my life who knows him agrees.) However, I can’t shake the fear/paranoia that he’s living a double life and I don’t want to be blindsided. I would appreciate your insight. Sincerely Nervous Over Online Pattern My position on snooping is more nuanced than you think. To quickly summarize: I DON’T NECESSARILY THINK WHAT YOU DID WAS WRONG. I mean, snooping is wrong and I believe people have a right to privacy — even partnered people — but sometimes a snooper finds out something they needed to know and/or had a right to know. A woman who finds out her husband has been sneaking off to big gay sex parties and taking loads until cum bubbles are coming out of his nose and then goes home and has unprotected

sex with her? Yeah. She needed to know that and her husband doesn’t get to play the wronged party because his wife found out about it by snooping on his phone. My position — my maddening position (as it seems to madden some) — is that snooping can only be ustified retroactively. If you learned something you needed to know and had a right to know, the snooping was ustified. If you didn’t, it wasn’t. A person should only snoop if they have other evidence or cause for concern — some will regard your boyfriend’s harmless interactions on Tinder as grounds, some won’t (for the record: I don’t) — and just being a jealous or insecure or paranoid person doesn’t count. Additionally, anyone who is tempted to snoop with or without cause needs to consider the notinsignificant risk of finding something they 1. didn’t need to know and 2. can’t unknow. I once got a letter from a man who snooped on his wife’s phone and discovered that she had, years before they met, slept with her brother — just the once, and shortly after they met for the first time as adults. But the husband didn’t need to know that and couldn’t unknow it, and knowing his wife had slept with her brother messed up his sexual relationship with the wife and his ability to enjoy family gatherings. Moving on … So you snooped, SNOOP, and what did you find out Something you didn’t need to know — your boyfriend isn’t cheating on you, he doesn’t have a secret second family in another city, he doesn’t spend every other Friday duct-taped to a sling in a gay sex dungeon. All you know now that you’ve snooped that you didn’t before is… well, all you know now is something you should’ve known all along. Your boyfriend, like most people’s boyfriends (mine included), likes to look at people on the internet. If you have no other reason to suspect your partner is cheating on you, SNOOP, then you’ll have to do what everyone else does and give your partner the benefit of the (very trivial) doubt here. Discretely checking out the hotties on the street or on Facebook or even on a dating app is not cheating. Masturbating to images, mental or otherwise, of other women or men or nonbinary folks isn’t cheating. What you found is not, by itself,

My position is that snooping can only be justified retroactively. If you learned something you needed to know and had a right to know, the snooping was justified. If you didn’t, it wasn’t. proof that your boyfriend is cheating or plans to. So your snooping is not, I’m sorry to say, retroactively ustified, which means you’ll have to shut the fuck up about it. Your boyfriend is entitled to a zone of erotic autonomy. If he’s checking out hot people on the internet and having a wank every once in a while but not touching anyone else with the tip of his penis or the tip his tongue or the tips of his fingers or with any other part of his body that he’s pledged to you and you alone — and if he’s not neglecting you sexually and if he’s not being inconsiderate (clearing his browser history/activity log isn’t evidence of guilt, it’s evidence of consideration) — then he’s done nothing wrong here. Only you have. Finally, if your boyfriend demanded a zone of erotic autonomy for himself but denied you the same — if he checked out other women online or off but blew up at you for checking out other men or being checked out by other men — then you’d have a problem of a different sort, i.e. a controlling, sexist and hypocritical boyfriend. Thankfully, SNOOP, your boyfriend doesn’t appear to be any of those things. That doesn’t mean you couldn’t be blindsided by him at some point — just because someone hasn’t cheated yet doesn’t mean they’ll never cheat ever, and not finding evidence that he’s cheating doesn’t mean he isn’t — but there’s no need to tell him what you did or confront

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him with what you found. Which is nothing. Hey, Dan: I was born and raised in Middle East in a culture of “a girl doesn’t have sex until she gets married.” I am heterosexual and 33 years old and living in the United States now. I’ve had multiple sexual partners. But I am always conflicted when it comes to having sex for the first time when dating a new guy. If things don’t go right after having sex and we wind up splitting, I always associate that with having sex too soon. I would like to hear your opinion on this matter. Sexual Politics Lost In Translation The fastest way to find out if someone only wants sex from us is to fuck ’em. If they stick around, great. They wanted sex, obviously, but not just sex. If they disappear and we didn’t want them to, well, that’s obviously not so great. But if you enjoy the sex and you’re not devastated when a guy decides, for whatever reason, that he’s not interested in pursuing things further after you’ve had sex once or twice, SPLIT, then fuck the guys you like and get serious about the guy (or guys) who stick around. But if you feel used and or devasted when things “don’t go right” after sex, you might want — for your own sake — to put sex off for a while. Since a guy who’s only interested in sex isn’t going to wait weeks or months to have sex with you for the first time, waiting will weed out guys who aren’t interested in the possibility of a relationship. Waiting is no guarantee a relationship will last, SPLIT, just as jumping into bed right away doesn’t always lead to failure. I’m not advising you to do what’s right here, SPLIT, but to do what’s right for you. Also, there are lots of ways to define “things going right” after sex. hether you had sex on the first date or sex after dating for three months, if the sex was bad and you didn’t enjoy it — if the guy was inconsiderate or unhygienic or not invested in your pleasure or all of the above — never having to see that guy again would definitely count as “things going right.” mail@savagelove.net @FakeDanSavage on Twitter www.savagelovecast.com

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