March 2007

World Class Cities in Missouri by Dan Donarski

Every year the World Leadership Forum, a non-profit international agency involved in civic leadership, weeds through hundreds of nomination packets. These nomination packets come from cities all over the globe wanting to stake their claim as the best of the best when it comes to revitalizing their particular city.

n December 6, 2006 the WLF announced the award winner. Way to go St. Louis! Enhancements to St. Louis’ hospitality product and improvement in the quality of life in the City of St. Louis received international recognition when the World Leadership Forum awarded St. Louis its World Leadership Award in the category of urban renewal. Ceremonies took place in London.

“Everyone in St. Louis should be proud,” Mayor Francis Slay said from London where he accepted the award on the City’s behalf. “This honor recognizes the vision and hard work of the many people who are making St. Louis a great city.” In the presentation, Slay talked about how the City of St. Louis had created a “culture of change” that has empowered people to improve the City’s quality of life. “It isn’t just bricks and mortar,” Slay said. “We are certainly revitalizing downtown and our neighborhoods. But, we are also addressing health care, education, and affordable housing.”

The Gateway Arch, iconic symbol of the city’s role in the opening of the American West, now overlooks more than $3.5 billion in development including shops, restaurants, hotels, and entertainment complexes surrounding the America’s Center convention complex.
More than 400 cities around the world were asked to submit synopses of their most successful projects in a wide range of activities. The other finalists in the Urban Renewal category were; Manchester, England and Calcutta, India. There was one other finalist: Kansas City, Missouri. Missouri should be darn proud of having two finalists in such auspicious company, vying for such an award of distinction. What better way to celebrate these two cities than to check out what they have to offer their visitors.

St. Louis
I first met St. Louis nearly 30 years ago. I liked it then, I like it even more now. The main reason is due to its neighborhoods, its people. While this is just my opinion, no neighborhood comes close to meeting the appeal of an area known as “The Hill.”

You’ll hear as many people speaking Italian as you will English here. Settled in the early 1900s by Italian immigrants, The Hill and its residents still carry on their traditions in this lively neighborhood just minutes from downtown. Even the neighborhood’s fireplugs are painted green, white and red in tribute to the tri-colors of Italy. Baseball personalities Yogi Berra, Joe Garagiola and Jack Buck grew up on The Hill’s Elizabeth Avenue, which now bears the name “Hall of Fame Place” in their honor.

Midwest Living magazine called this area “the most pleasantly fragrant neighborhood in St. Louis.” Celebrity chef Mario Batali of “The Food Network” calls The Hill one of the top “Little Italy” neighborhoods in the country and praises the area’s exquisite Northern Italian cuisine. “America’s other Little Italy” is also the way Saveur magazine describes The Hill, a must-stop on a culinary tour through St. Louis. As for me, I can only say that four of the top five Italian meals I’ve eaten anywhere have come from this delightful neighborhood. Heck, the last time I visited I was invited to play bocce ball, something I hope you’ll experience when you visit.

St. Louis also means music for me. It will for you, too, particularly if you melt at the blues style. W. C. Handy stood on the banks of the Mississippi River in St. Louis and made his mark on the world of music when he wrote, “I hate to see the evenin’ sun go down.” The song born of his riverfront reverie was called “The St. Louis Blues,” and it has become one of the world’s most recorded songs, cementing St. Louis’ place in the world of American roots music forever.

Handy’s contemporary, Scott Joplin, was a regular in the nightspots around St. Louis during the time of the 1904 World’s Fair. His ragtime tunes were the Rock ‘n Roll of the era, the music of the counter culture. Some of Joplin’s most important works were created while he played for society during the day and in the sporting houses and clubs of St. Louis at night. Joplin’s house, a Missouri State Historic Landmark, is open daily for tours. Ragtime performances take place at the Rosebud Café next door to the house throughout the year.

African-American history can’t be told without a heavy emphasis on St. Louis. The Old Courthouse in downtown St. Louis is one of America’s most important historic sites. It was here that slave Dred Scott sued for his freedom and the freedom of his wife, Harriett, in 1847. Scott won his case in St. Louis, but 10 years later, appeals brought the issue before the Supreme Court of the United States, which ruled that Scott was not a citizen and could not sue. The outcome of this case, in 1857, helped move the country toward the Civil War. Scott was freed by a new owner after the Supreme Court decision, and died in St. Louis in 1858.

Recreations of the Dred Scott trial are conducted throughout the year at the Old Courthouse. Scott’s grave can be visited at Calvary Cemetery. The last known slave sale in St. Louis was held as part of a property settlement on the steps of the Old Courthouse in 1861. A large anti-slavery crowd refused to bid and slave traders never again tried to sell human beings in St. Louis. Information on Scott’s case and other African-American achievements are on display at the Old Courthouse, the Black World History Museum in St. Louis. The Old Courthouse doesn’t cost a thing to visit, nor to take part in the trial’s recreation. In fact, a number of superb museums and other attractions are free.

The world-famous Saint Louis Zoo (www.stlzoo.org) has more than 6,000 exotic animals, many of them rare and endangered, from the major continents and habitats of the world. Wander through the Jungle of the Apes and the River’s Edge — the zoo’s 10-acre exhibit, for its elephants, cheetahs, mongooses and hyenas. The area includes a waterfall, streams and hills. The coolest place in town is the new Penguin & Puffin Coast habitat and The Fragile Forest home of the great apes. In the Zoo’s Living World center, hands-on, interactive exhibits teach lessons on man’s relationship to the animal world and creepy, crawly critters and beautiful butterflies are awesome inhabitants of the Monsanto Insectarium.

Feed your very soul at the Saint Louis Art Museum (www.slam.org), the first public-funded art museum in the country. It has an extensive collection of 30,000 objects from ancient to contemporary. The museum’s pre-Columbian and German Expressionist collections are considered among the best in the world.

You’ll be glad you saved a few shekels because when it comes to gaming excitement, St. Louis is flush. President, Harrah’s and Ameristar casinos will treat you like a premium player as well. Just across the river, into Illinois, the Casino Queen will too.

Kansas City
Kansas City’s runner-up status for the World Leadership Award is easy to understand. The judges must have had a hard time deciding who would be the award winner between KC and St. Louis.

Right now Kansas City’s downtown convention district is experiencing a $4.5-billion urban renaissance, which includes the new $835-million Power & Light District. The first phase of the district was completed in late 2006. The Power & Light District, located within walking distance to the convention center, is shaping up to be one of the premier entertainment districts in the Midwest. It features unique shops, eclectic boutiques, art galleries, bookstores, live entertainment, a mix of restaurants and exciting night life. The District includes diverse amenities and imaginative architecture encompassing leading entertainment and retail concepts. It transforms itself from a thriving lunch and retail destination during the day to a unique and exciting dining and entertainment experience during the evening.

In the “It’s About Time” department, Kansas City took the bull by the horns and has recently opened a museum dedicated to World War I. Opened to the public on Dec. 2, 2006, the National World War I Museum at Liberty Memorial debuted as the first American and only national museum dedicated to The Great War. Designed by Ralph Appelbaum Associates and housed beneath the existing Liberty Memorial, the 30,000-sq-ft core exhibit will feature more than 49,000 artifacts, the world’s second largest WWI collection behind Britain’s Imperial War Museum. Almost 85 percent of these items have never been seen by the public. A 20,000-sq-ft research center will also be part of the $26-million project.

Museum highlights include a haunting entrance, yet one of hope, too. Entering the museum, visitors are greeted in the entrance hall by a glass bridge across 9,000 red poppies, each representing 1,000 military fatalities. Immersion galleries feature dramatic installations of key large-scale objects from the collection, in settings that bring to life the physical and emotional landscapes of the war. Living archives convey deeply personal experiences, both horrific and heart-wrenching, through extensive eye-witness testimonies, quotations from letters and journals and family remembrances.

Just as St. Louis is known for the superb Italian dining in The Hill neighborhood, Kansas City is an epicurean’s delight as well. When I think of eating in Kansas City I think of two things, medium rare strip steaks and fall-off-the-bone honest-to-God barbeque. Who can resist the constant temptation of long-established steak houses with impeccable reputations? Or delightfully low-key diners that are just like home and serve that smokey, spicy-sweet BBQ?

The notable Kansas City Strip and steaks of every cut trace their recipes to the area’s famous stockyards, which opened in the late 1800s. Today, perfectly grilled beef can be found at restaurants such as the Plaza III, the Hereford House and Majestic Steakhouse.

Barbecue, of course, is synonymous with Kansas City. Since its local beginnings in the 1920s, barbecue’s pit masters have produced the smoky delicacies that have attracted a worldwide following. Arthur Bryant’s Barbecue and Gates Barbecue are two local favorites. Today, you’ll find more than 100 Kansas City barbecue establishments each offering their own versions of the heavenly “cue.”

There are a number of attractions that make KC so unique. Three of these are the Negro League Baseball Museum, the National Frontier Trails Center and the American Jazz Museum.

The Negro Leagues were established in 1920 by Andrew “Rube” Foster in a meeting held at the Paseo YMCA. A site on the National Register of Historic Places, the building is located two blocks from the Museums at 18th & Vine. First functioning out of a one-room office, the NLBM eventually joined the American Jazz Museum in 1997 in a $20-million facility housing both entities.

The museum is laid out as a time-line of the Negro Leagues and American history. Exhibits include hundreds of photographs, historical artifacts and several interactive computer stations. As the centerpiece of the NLBM, the Coors Field of Legends features 10 life-sized bronze sculptures of Negro Leagues greats positioned on a mock baseball diamond as if they were playing a game. A documentary film narrated by actor James Earl Jones tells the story of the leagues with vintage film footage.

The sights and sounds of a uniquely American art form come alive at the American Jazz Museum. The Museum includes interactive exhibits and educational programs as well as the Blue Room, a working jazz club, and the Gem Theater, a modern 500-seat performing arts center. Located in the Historic 18th and Vine District in Kansas City, this is the place where jazz masters such as Charlie Parker, Count Basie, Big Joe Turner, and hundreds of others defined the sounds of the 1920s, 30s, and 40s.

The Blue Room, open four nights a week, may just be the best ongoing jazz venue in the country. This is a working club. You will hear real jazz, serious jazz, preformed live by the best musicians and singers in the country.

The west may have been won, but the winning really started in Missouri. The National Frontier Trails Museum was built by the State of Missouri with the surviving portion of the Waggoner-Gates Mill incorporated into the design. The old mill’s locker room was refurbished as well, and serves as the national headquarters of the Oregon-California Trails Association. Operated by the City of Independence, the Trails Museum tells the story of the exploration, acquisition, and settlement of the American West. An award-winning introductory film prepares visitors for the interpretive exhibits which guide them along the Santa Fe, Oregon, and California Trails. Quotations from trail diaries are extensively used, allowing pioneer travelers to tell of their experiences in their own words.

Why is this museum here? Because Independence is here.The three principle trails which crossed the West were the Santa Fe, Oregon and California. The Santa Fe Trail, begun in 1821, was a 900-mile foreign trade route, unique in American history due to its overland rather than seafaring commerce. The 2,000-mile Oregon Trail began to be heavily traveled in 1843 by settlers wanting to establish new homes in the northwest, while others forked off on the equally long and grueling California Trail to seek their fortunes in the gold fields. Together, these three rugged pathways and their pioneers changed the face of America.

Casino lovers will find plenty of action in this city, too. Argosy Casino, just north of the city in Riverside is one stop. Then there are the three located right in the heart of the action of Kansas City itself. Ameristar and Harrah’s both have superb venues here as well as in St. Louis. Then there’s Isle of Capri. All of these gaming destinations offer exemplary customer service, superb dining and serious action.

St. Louis and Kansas City. Two Missouri cities that are certainly world class in dining, in attractions, and in casino action. I feel a road trip coming on.

• Dan Donarski is editor of Michigan Hunting and Fishing magazine, co-host of The Northern Experience, a PBS and Outdoor Channel travel show, and co-host of PAX cable network’s Angler’s Diary.