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@stlouisamerican
St. LouiS AmericAn The
CAC Audited JUNE 21 – 27, 2018
Vol. 90 No. 13 COMPLIMENTARY
stlamerican.com
Parkland survivors co-host STL town hall Meet with Michael Brown’s father on Father’s Day By Sophie Hurwitz For The St. Louis American
Ferguson protestor Cathy “Mama Cat” Daniels spoke with Marjorie Stoneman Douglas student gun control advocates, who visited St. Louis on the second stop of a national tour about gun violence on Sunday, June 17.
On the afternoon of Sunday, June 17 – Father’s Day – a group of the teen school shooting survivors from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida arrived in St. Louis. Our city was the second stop on their nationwide summer tour. Starting in Chicago, the tour aims to raise awareness of gun violence and the necessity of voting to change things. Here in St. Louis, gun violence is all too familiar a topic, and one the Parkland teens – who lost 17 of their classmates to a school shooter last winter – were able to empathize with. When the Parkland teens came to St. Louis, they met
See PARKLAND, A6
Bill to require public vote for airport privatization Krewson, Reed voted to continue privatization process, Green opposed By Rebecca Rivas Of The St Louis American A St. Louis city alderwoman plans to introduce a bill next week that would require a public vote for privatizing the city’s assets, including its largest asset – St. Louis Lambert International Airport. Alderwoman Cara Spencer (D-Ward 20) has consistently criticized the lack of transparency and n “We do public accountability in not have any the mayor-led process examples for to consider leasing and any city that has privatizing the St. Louis been successful airport. On June 13, members with this process. of the Board of Estimate I don’t believe and Apportionment we should be the (E&A) – which includes Mayor Lyda Krewson, first to do this.” aldermanic President Lewis Reed and – Comptroller Comptroller Darlene Darlene Green Green – voted 2-1 to approve a consulting contract with a 16-member advisor team. That team is led by Grow Missouri, Inc., an organization funded by retired financer Rex Sinquefield, a billionaire who has invested heavily in St. Louis and Missouri politics and governance issues. The other two main parties on the contract are Washington, D.C.-based
Photo by Eleanor DesPrez
See BILL, A6
United for change Photo by Lawrence Bryant
Cooling off in the city Taryan Doss, Bryan Doss, Savannah Oliver and Kaleze Doss tries to stay cool in the water at City Garden in downtown St. Louis on June 12.
STL Association of Community Organizations sponsors cross-city tours, networking By Ashley Jones For The St. Louis American
NAACP, religious leaders call for independent investigation of police shootings Circuit attorney, aldermanic committee initially receptive By Jessica Karins For The St. Louis American The St. Louis City NAACP is joining with activists and faith leaders to call for independent investigations of police shootings in the city and, in an initial discussion, St. Louis’ city government
seemed receptive. At a meeting of the Board of Alderman’s Ways and Means Committee on June 14, St. Louis NAACP President Adolphus M. Pruitt and Missouri Missionary Baptist State Convention President Lindon Bowis called on the committee to work with them on creating and funding an independent way of
investigating police shootings. Pruitt said it was important to remove the investigations from any pressures that could come from a prosecutor’s relationship with the police department. Pruitt and Bowis were representing the Justice 2020 St. Louis initiative, a coalition which hopes to establish a criminal justice reform plan with the goal of creating trust
See SHOOTINGS, A7
“By studying what other neighborhoods do and then modeling the attributes that you think are important or could help your neighborhood is a valuable resource for neighborhoods that feel under resourced,” said Judith Arnold, a neighborhood planner with the St. Louis Association of Community Organizations (SLACO). On Saturday, June 16, the Ville and Benton Park neighborhoods joined together to participate in SLACO’s program Neighborhoods United for Change. “We cover things like the special economic tools that are used by other neighborhoods, where many of the North Side neighborhoods knew nothing about that, such as special business
See CHANGE, A7