LaSalle Park 2025 Year in Review

Wow, what another busy year 2025 has been in LaSalle Park! Here are some of the highlights.

Community Development events included two Music on the Mall events, our Summer Social (thanks Ed M. and SOPA for hosting), National Night Out, LaSalle-o-ween on Halloween, and our holiday party. We had great attendance at all events, averaging more than 40 per event! LaSalle Park Rocks!

Purina Cares day 2025 included both corporate donation of $5,000 as well time donated by many employees to plant 5 new trees, put flowers in our 7 new planters, and LaSalle Park spring cleanup for the roundabouts in our 2 cul-de-sacs.

Purina continued to invest in the area as well as they teamed with Min+ Architecture and LaSalle Park resident Meg Holmes and Peter Hoffman of Legal Services Eastern Missouri to address the property at 1000 Morrison. During 2025 the property was donated and ownership transferred to Landmarks Association. Purina stepped up to fund stabilization efforts (if savable) or demolition efforts (if not). We’ll leave it to the experts to determine this, meanwhile we are excited to see 1000 Morrison reshaped over the next year or so! We also visited with the Purina Archivist who shared many archived documents that are relevant to the revitalization of LaSalle Park in the 1980s.

THANK YOU PURINA for your continued engagement with LaSalle Park! You are very much appreciated.

4 Hands Brewery supported us by providing private security during opening weekend for baseball, contributing beverages for our Music on the Mall Events and National Night Out. We have significant funds allocated for us at 4 Hands as part of their City Wide initiative (supporting local non-profits). Our funds must be allocated towards safety projects per 4 Hands guidance. We need safety project ideas to submit funding requests, and 4 Hands is creating a committee to review the requests. The committee will consist of some long-term residents they have deep relationships with as well as members of the Neighborhood Association board. Stay tuned!

THANK YOU 4 HANDS, we appreciate you very much!

Seven fleur-de-lis planters were installed as part of the Park Avenue Traffic Calming / Beautification project. The city of STL completed their piece of the work with new bump-outs and a new crosswalk last year. For the 7 planters we were finally able to get installed this year we coordinated with a local nursery to design and purchase the plants, and residents stepped up to maintain them throughout the year. Many thanks to all who stepped up to fund this last year (including $5K from 4 Hands Brewing Company, $5K from the Neighborhood assn, and the City of St. Louis via Alderwoman Cara Spencer). Many thanks also to the residents who maintained the planters once planted. We think the new crosswalk, bump-outs and planters are a great addition to not only the safety but also the look and feel of LaSalle Park!

The LaSalle Neighbors in Need Go Fund Me raised more than $1,000 from LaSalle Park residents and an additional $600 from STL Friends Meeting! We leveraged the funds to provide 12 full turkey dinners for LaSalle Park families in need, dinner for the kids Holiday Party at 12th and Park, and funding for a few others to purchase their own food. We also purchased and donated more than 100 glove/hat sets for the kids of LaSalle Park. Many thanks to all for the generous donations. The grocery cart pic shows our grocery cart holding 5 of the 12 turkey dinners we purchased, sorted into meal kits, and ultimately provided to families!

We collaborated with the Recreation Center at 12th and Park (part of St. Louis Parks and Recreation) on a few different fronts this year. We co-presented the National Night Out event in LaSalle Park, and provided arms and legs to help with their kids Halloween party. We also donated time to help them decorate in preparation for their Holiday Party, and helped them secure funding for the kid’s meal at the Holiday Party (many thanks to STL Friends for stepping up as part of our Neighbors in Need program, initiated via our Go-Fund-Me effort). They also helped identify needs LaSalle Park families for the donation of our full Turkey Dinners at Thanksgiving and Christmas. The facility is a significant asset for all LaSalle Park residents, please stop by for a visit if you have not already.

We also began collaborating with the LaSalle Park Village property management team. They teamed up to identify recipients for most of the Christmas turkey dinners that were purchased and distributed and to give away dozens of glove/hat sets that were donated as part of the LaSalle Neighbors in Need program.

We continued our engagement with St. Louis Metropolitan Police who have been making good use of the federated camera system (thousands of views!) as well as Alderwoman Cox Antwi and local businesses to ensure we’re all aligned to address the needs of LaSalle Park and provide a safe, healthy, beautiful environment for all. Thanks to our neighborhood watchers who monitor the footage, and to our neighborhood liaison specialist Qiana Baxton who deserves a special shout out for her work with us to get things done on many fronts!

Many thanks to Min+ Architecture, STL Friends Meeting, and SOPA for hosting our neighborhood meetings this year.

For 2026 we’re looking to continue and potentially expand our impact on the neighborhood by bringing residents, businesses and community service organizations together to address needs. Goals include identifying safety projects, applying for grants to support Community Development, pursuing native plantings so we don’t have to pay to mow the grass at the entry at 9th and Park, street light repair efforts, and further collaboration between us and the Rec Center at 12th & Park and the LaSalle Park Village Management team. We’re always looking for help, please reach out if have ideas or are interested in helping on any front!

From your LaSalle Park Neighborhood Association leadership team:

Brent Holmes, President Amanda Chasnoff, Vice-President Colleen Finnegan, Secretary Deb Aerne, Treasurer Angie Mouton, Member at Large Ben West, Member at Large