UCity Homes

UCity Tradition ~ Frank & Helen’s Pizzeria

Karen Goodman — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 11:41:49 +0000

It’s been a few years since I’ve eaten at Frank & Helen’s, but I drive by the restaurant almost every day on my way home.

When I decided last night that I was in the mood for pizza and I was going to pick it up rather than pay a delivery charge plus a driver tip, I realized it was a perfect time to try out Frank & Helen’s again.

I wasn’t disappointed.

Frank & Helen’s serves St. Louis style thin crust pizza. The default version is made with mozzarella cheese, but all you have to do is ask and you can get a pizza with freshly ground provel cheese.

In addition to my pizza, I ordered a Caesar salad and garlic bread. I’ve also had great burgers at Frank & Helen’s. Though they are famous for their broasted chicken, I’m not sure I’ve ever tried it. I also noticed that the current menu offers pesto as one of the pizza sauce options. Now I know I’ll have to go back soon!

1950s Dining:

When you step into the restaurant, you are stepping back into time. I’m pretty sure that the decor has not been updated since the restaurant was opened in 1956. This is a family restaurant serving home style food by friendly faces in a dimly lit dining room.

The carry out menu tells their story:

Since 1956, Frank & Helen’s has been a family tradition in University City. Over the years, our pizza, pasta and chicken have remained the favorites of our loyal customers. Children who grew up with us now introduce us to their own families, and they are happy to find that the food is just as they remembered (if not a little better). The devotion of our customers fills us with pride as we fill your plates. Frank Seitz, his wife Betty, and his sister Helen began a tradition that has been passed along to me and my wife Rebecca. As a former police officer, detective, and the manager of Frank & Helen’s for over six years, I have served this community since 1995. In keeping with the family tradition, my wife and I purchased the restaurant in 2008 from our friends, and previous owners Scott & Mary DePolito. With our care and guidance, my wife and I pledge to keep Frank & Helen’s a place to find good food and good friends in a relaxed family atmosphere.

Patrick Horvath

The restaurant is pretty small and my guess is that even the non-smoking sections wouldn’t meet my “no nearby smoke smell” requirements. However, they do offer a smoke-free night on Sundays for people like me. I can’t wait until the entire county goes non-smoking next January.

And as a bonus for families, they offer a Kids Eat Free special on Tuesday – Thursday after 5 pm (with an adult entree purchase of equal or greater value).

So if you thought that eating out in UCity was all about exploring the Loop, you need to venture over to Olive Blvd and try out Frank & Helen’s.

UCity Tradition ~ Frank & Helen’s Pizzeria is a post from: UCity Homes

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Why Doesn’t University City Participate in the Warrant Amnesty Program?

Karen Goodman — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 13:58:25 +0000

The Better Family Life group implemented an Amnesty Project in St. Louis 3 years ago that gives people with warrants for arrest over misdemeanor offenses a chance to go to court and face their charges without the fear of being arrested every time they step out in public.

What is the Amnesty Project?

In a nutshell, the project removes the warrant while the offender still has to go to court to face the original charges.

To participate, people with misdemeanor offenses need to show up at one of the Amnesty Project events. After standing in a long line (yesterday’s event had about 1000 people in line before the event even opened), they pay a $5 processing fee and watch a short seminar. They are given a certificate which they take to the court which issued the warrant and pay $100 to the court. They are then given a new court date in which they will need to face their original charges in front of the court.

For the last 2 years, only people with warrants for misdemeanor traffic offenses were eligible for the program. This year, the program is opened up to all offenses, including minor drug charges.

Proponents of the program say that it brings in income for the cities and clears up the long list of people with warrants for minor offenses so the police can focus on more important safety issues. It also gives people with warrants a chance to correct their old mistake. Allowing them to remove the warrant takes away an obstacle to finding employment and housing.

Last year 10,000 people took advantage of the event and received vouchers to take to court. Yesterday, even with the blistering heat, thousands showed up at Ivory Park at Delmar & Belt in North St. Louis.

Another event is scheduled TODAY at Connect Care located at Delmar & DeBaliviere from 9 am – 3 pm.

Take a look at the Fox 2 News report and video for more information.

University City Needs to Join the Amnesty Project

While 37 police districts in the St. Louis metro area have signed on to the project, University City is not one of them.

St. Louis City and County are both participating. It’s time that University City signed on too.

I’m not sure why a police department would opt out of this program. Offenders still have to face the court for their original crimes, the city gets to refocus their energy on major offenses and preventing new crime, and the city gets to raise additional money ($100 per warrant) in addition to whatever fines they decide to charge the offenders when they go to court.

What do you think of the Amnesty Project?

If you don’t like the idea of the project, let us know why. If I’m missing a reason that this is a bad idea, I’d like to hear about it.

And if you agree with me that our police department should focus on more important issues than going after people with warrants for missing a court date over a minor offense, please share your opinion too!

Why Doesn’t University City Participate in the Warrant Amnesty Program? is a post from: UCity Homes

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FEMA Buyout Approved for UCity Homes

Karen Goodman — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 13:40:12 +0000

After many years of repeated flooding, 26 homeowners on Wilson Avenue have finally been approved for a FEMA buyout.

The KSDK.com report explains:

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) approved a $3 million disaster relief grant to help fund the buyout of 26 homes along Wilson Avenue between Shaftesbury and Midland.

The homes were always in danger of flooding during heavy rainfall due to their proximity to River Des Peres. The deaths of Louise Bryant and Willie Johnson in September 2008 further fueled residents’ requests for a buyout.

The $3 million is part of a larger, $5.1 billion supplemental disaster relief grant approved by Congress last week. Those millions will front up to 75 percent of the total cost of the project, with University City covering the remaining funds.

Timelines and rules for the buyout will be coordinated by Missouri’s Emergency Management Agency and University City government. Once the homes are bought, they will be demolished.

If you are thinking about buying a home and want to avoid the headaches that have plagued the Wilson Avenue homeowners, make sure you check to see if the house is in a flood zone before you sign a contract.

FEMA Buyout Approved for UCity Homes is a post from: UCity Homes

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UCH on Vacation ~ London Trip Day 4-8

Karen Goodman — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 12:12:17 +0000

Don’t miss the beginning of the trip…read about the trip in order.

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3

Recognizing that my plan to blog & post every day was an utter failure. And then acknowledging that my plan to get the rest of the trip posted in the days immediately following the trip was also unrealistic…you’ll find the rest of the trip much more condensed with quite a few minor details left out.

To see all of my pictures of the trip, visit my Flickr account (still working on uploading them all…days 1-6 up so far)

London Trip – Day 4:

Finally caught up on sleep, we got a fresh start and jumped on the tube early in search of the 1/2 Price Tickets office. After only a day of subway travel, we had it down and quickly found our destination.

We purchased some tickets to Jersey Boys, then found a nearby cafe to grab a quick breakfast.

Our next stop was the Tower of London.

This medieval site was where royalty and other famous people were sent in order to be executed. Our tour guide did a great job with gruesome storytelling and seemed not at all embarrassed by the barbaric practices of his ancestors.

We really enjoyed hearing his stories and exploring this amazing site. We then waited in line to go inside the building inside the Tower of London that houses the Crown Jewels.

Like every day in London, we found ourselves in a light drizzly rain for a little while. Fairly quickly it cleared up and the sun came out for the rest of the day.

After lunch we headed back to the hotel to relax a bit, then got ready for our night out.

The Jersey Boys production was great, and we both loved the West End/Soho area that houses all of the theaters. To our surprise, we also discovered that this area seems to be the “adult” part of town. We saw some signs in storefront windows that said we were there during ‘Fetish Week’, which probably explains some of the colorful characters we experienced.

We eventually made it back to our hotel were we stopped in for another nightcap. Here I discovered the Anhueser Busch rival Budweiser Budvar, a Czech beer (which I really loved). We also decided that we had to try the English classic sandwich cheese & pickles. I have no idea what was really on that sandwich, but what they call pickles in no way resembled what I could call a pickle. It had more of a chutney flavor…and not bad I might add.

London Trip – Day 5:

This was our last day in London before we moved on to the countryside, and the plan was to see St. Paul’s Cathedral, walk over a couple of bridges spanning the River Thames and then hit the London Eye.

We managed to get most of it done.

We started with St. Paul’s Cathedral. Another beautiful building that unfortunately does not allow photography inside, we spent some time exploring and then decided to climb an amazingly long spiral staircase to get a view looking down from the upper dome. We were also able to step outside at the dome level and get panoramic view of the city. I highly recommend the climb if you can manage it (I took a couple of rest breaks along the way!).

We then walked across the pedestrian-only Millienium Bridge that leads to the Modern Art Museum (we only went halfway across since we had no plans to go to the museum). On the way to our next destination, Tower Bridge, we stumbled upon an old fashioned candy store, Mr. Simms, and we had to stop in. I bought some great dark chocolate…which looked like it had been formed on bubble wrap…and was appropriately called Chocolate Bubbles, and some lemon drops as a gift to my Mom & step-dad.

The walk across Tower Bridge was great. The bridge was filled with tons of cars and tons of people. We took a bunch of pictures, then headed to the London Eye. Unfortunately, I wasn’t expecting to have to wait 45 minutes just to get in line, then another 30 minutes to get onto the ride and who knows how long the ride would last. My travel buddy didn’t care about going up on the ferris wheel capsule ride, and I decided that the views from the balcony at the top of St. Paul’s Cathedral was a good enough view of the city, so we explored the fairgrounds a bit which had mobs of people and a number of street performers, and then headed back to the hotel.

Another tube ride later, we walked into Punjab’s Indian Restaurant, which we heard was the best Indian restaurant in town. Not having planned ahead, we were lucky that we didn’t have to wait long for dinner without a reservation. The food did not disappoint.

Our night ended with a pub crawl around the Seven Dials. The Seven Dials is an intersection with 7 streets radiating from it. Our plan was to hit a pub on each street, but some of the streets didn’t have a pub…so we settled for a pub on the corner of 2 streets a couple of times. After 3 or 4 stops, we were trying to decide where to go next when Pamela realized that it was 11:45…and the tube AND buses all shut down at midnight. A mad dash to the tube station later, we crammed into a packed train leaving the station with only minutes to spare. No wonder almost everything shuts down by 11:30. Unless you have the money to take taxis, there isn’t a way to get home any later!

London Trip – Day 6:

Even though all of the guidebooks advised against it, we decided to rent a car for our last two days so we could explore the countryside and nearby towns without having to be limited to tours and their schedules. So on day 5, we checked out of our hotel bright & early and walked the 5 or 6 blocks to Paddington train station (I can’t imagine doing this trip without suitcases on wheels!).

At the train station, we grabbed a bagel for the train ride and I found my first cup of drip coffee! We hopped on the Heathrow Express train and headed to the airport to get our rental car. A short hour later we were in a MERCEDES rental car with A/C, automatic transmission and GPS, and braved our lives by attempting to learn to drive on the wrong side of the road…with the steering wheel on the wrong side of the car…while our GPS lady instructed us where to go. A few wrong turns later, and we were safely on the motorway headed to Thornbury.

I’ve always dreamed of going to Europe and spending the night in a castle turned hotel. Thornbury Castle was exactly what we were looking for. Thornbury is about 30 minutes outside of Bristol, a medium sized city. We skirted the suburbs of Bristol (never going into the city) and landed in this quaint small town that seemed untouched by tourists.

I can’t explain how stunned we were when we saw our castle. Then we followed a bellboy up our stone spiral turret to get to our room (good thing he was carrying the bags!). Stepping inside, we were both stunned at what we found. Homemade biscuits (cookies), bottled water…in glass bottles, a carafe of sherry (which we discovered that we really liked before we went to bed), a fireplace, light switches that were controlled by ropes & tassels (the kind that were used to call for servants in years past) and skeleton keys for the doors. There were even umbrellas outside our door in case we didn’t come prepared.

A zillion pictures later, we headed to tea in the library. Neither of us have ever had afternoon tea, so we relied on our waiter to guide us a bit and spent a lot of time watching the family of 20 that was one table over celebrating Grandma’s birthday with 3 generations.

After discovering that I absolutely love tea with cream and stuffing ourselves on scones & tiny portions of 4 desserts, we popped into the charity fundraiser swing concert that was being held in the castle gardens. Used to British weather, the audience just pulled out umbrellas when the rain started. We stood in the rain, not willing to miss the concert over some light drizzle even though we had umbrellas in our room just a few feet away.

Since we had tea in the castle, we decided to drive into Thornbury for dinner. We walked around the town, met a very friendly…and very drunk… Brit who ran out of a pub to talk to us as we walked by. We settled on Mezze at the Royal George for dinner and I had one of the best dishes of the trip – stuffed aubergines (eggplant stuffed with rice, pine kernels, shallots & fresh herbs).

Our day had been so smooth. No little mishaps.

Until we left the restaurant and headed to the rental car to call it a night.

May I simply say that you should NEVER park a rental car in a strange country in a lot that has signs that says it is private parking (I figured it was Sunday night and deserted and we would certainly be ok for a couple of hours). Especially if the lot has GATES. Yes, the gates that neither of us noticed when we parked the car were locked when we returned to the spot at 11:30. No other alternative, we walked a couple of miles back to the hotel. It actually was a peaceful stroll in a small town that was completely asleep at this hour. We didn’t see a single soul on the walk back.

London Trip – Day 7:

Thankfully, the gates were unlocked when Pamela went for her run in the morning (she’s training for a half-marathon). She brought the car back and we readied ourselves to checkout. On our way out, we stepped inside St. Mary’s church that was the castle’s next door neighbor. We were the only ones there and got a chance to soak it in without the normal crowds of tourists.

Having missed breakfast, we headed into town in search of someplace for lunch. Based on several recommendations, we chose Blends Cafe. I ordered a lunch portion of homemade lasagna and the plate I received could have been served up in the fanciest restaurant in town.

Bottom line is that Thornbury…the castle, town and restaurants…really impressed us. If you are planning a visit to London and want to experience life in a quaint small town, you should add Thornbury to your itinerary. Yes, the castle was expensive. But it would be worth skimping on some other things to experience it for one night.

After lunch we were ready to move on to Bath. Oh, at this point I should mention that Pamela had done all of the driving the first day. I decided to give it a try on the short drive from the castle into town…no more than 7 or 8 minutes at most. When I parked the car, I handed her the keys back and announced that she could do the driving the rest of the trip. Driving on the wrong side of the road is ok…but ending up in the correct lane when you make turns takes serious concentration.

So with Pamela driving, we moved on to Bath. Pamela had gotten pretty good at the roundabouts at this point, which is probably the hardest thing other than gauging if you are in your lane when oncoming traffic is approaching. We arrived safely in Bath, checked into our hotel and then went exploring. The only place that we had planned to go inside was the Bath Spa and Pump House. We did walk over to that area, but decided to save it for the following morning.

Staring at a map trying to decide where to go next, a nice man approached us, shared with us some history of bath and gave us suggestions for a pub (at our request). At the pub, we met Tom, a young man about 20 years younger than us who is a composer and was out celebrating by himself just getting hired by the BBC (he had only moved to Bath a week before and didn’t know anyone). We had a few beers with him, shared some stories and educated each other on vocabulary differences between British and American English. Then Tom walked us to a restaurant for dinner (he was worried we wouldn’t be able to find it on our own).

It’s fun eating dinner at a restaurant owned by an HGTV star. Jamie Oliver’s restaurant definitely lived up to expectations.

A little worried about the choice of neighborhood for our hotel, we decided to walk back before it got dark.

London Trip – Day 8:

Our original plan had been to spend our last day in Bath before heading back to London for a 6 pm flight. The problem was that neither of us were all that impressed with this town. Maybe it was our choice of hotel that felt like we were staying in the seedier part of town. Maybe it was because neither of us had any desire to shop in expensive stores or dine at fancy restaurants. Maybe it was because it couldn’t compare to bustling urban London or quaint Thornbury. Regardless, we decided to skip the Spa & Pump House and make the most of our last day.

We had done our research before the trip and I had read that Winchester was a quaint unspoiled town. It was a little out of the way but we had plenty of time to drive there, spend a few hours and then get back to the airport.

One of the advantages of heading to Winchester was that we ended up on rural 2 lane highways instead of major interstates. The English countryside is beautiful. We drove by a ton of sheep and cows and farm fields.

Whenever you take a trip like this, you always have to make some hard choices. One of the things we decided to skip was Stonehenge. Even though we both wanted to see it, everything we read said that it took about a half day and most people found it to be disappointing up close.

You can’t believe how stunned we were when we glanced into a farm field while driving down a 2 lane highway in the middle of nowhere and discovered that Stonehenge was only a few feet away. We turned off into a gravel road leading to some farmer’s house, and the car behind us…with two women from Japan (and speaking no English)…pulled off right behind us. We all proceeded to take a bunch of pictures, using pantomime to ask them to take our picture with Stonehenge in the background. Satisfied, we hopped back in the car and continued on to Winchester.

We only had a few hours in Winchester, so after we managed to find a public parking lot and figure out where we were on a map that I had brought with us, we headed to the Great Hall to see King Arthur’s Round Table…the REAL round table. It’s been hanging on the walls of this 13th century castle for 700 years. We got to take lots of great pictures of the Great Hall and both of us felt it was one of the highlights of the trip.

We finished up the day by wandering around town, then grabbing a traditional snack (and early dinner) of pasties. Pasties are similar to Mexican empanadas, but made out of pie crust and not deep fried. They are stuffed with all kinds of things. I got one that was a traditional meat pasty…imagine beef & potatoes in pie crust, and we split a chocolate banana one for desert. Yum.

It was also a great place to end our travels…very European with a second story dining room with a ceiling only about 7 feet high (I had to duck under the HVAC ductwork and I’m only 5’2″!).

Completely satisfied, we headed back to the airport for the trip back home.

I’ve never before taken a trip and felt immediately that I would love to move there. But life doesn’t always allow you to do what you would like to do.

I’m not sure when, but I will definitely be back.

UCH on Vacation ~ London Trip Day 4-8 is a post from: UCity Homes

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UCH on Vacation ~ London Trip Day 3

Karen Goodman — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 04:25:59 +0000

Having never tried to document my vacation via blog DURING the vacation before, I was completely unrealistic in my plan to post a daily blog of the prior day’s activities. Even after I realized on day 4 that I couldn’t keep up the writing, I figured that I would write the remaining posts on the long flight home and get them posted in the days immediately after the trip.

Wrong again.

Basically, we got 4 hours sleep for the first few nights. The first night was a result of a 6:00 AM flight out of St. Louis, and the next two nights were because both of us were trying to journal/blog before going to sleep. We quickly gave up recognizing that it was more important to experience the trip than to document it.

Now, over a week after I’ve returned home and all caught up with my work, I’m ready to tackle the rest of the trip.

If you haven’t read the earlier posts, I suggest that you start by reading Day 1 and Day 2.

London Trip – Day 3:

When we purchased our Big Bus Tour tickets the day before, we were given the option of picking up a 2nd day for only £10, which seemed like a deal at the time. In retrospect, we should have only done one day with the bus tour since it took so much longer to get around via bus than the Tube (subway). But we didn’t know that in advance, so our transportation on Day 3 was via the Big Bus Tour.

We decided we wanted a fast breakfast, so we stepped inside a casual Prett A Manger. Prett’s is like Bread Co is in St. Louis…one in every corner of town. The food is mostly in a refrigerator case, something like you would see at an upscale grocery store where sandwiches are ready for you to pick up and purchase. Everything is organic and the food looked healthy and fresh.

I love egg salad, so was thrilled to discover that this is a standard feature in London (they call it egg & mayo). I grabbed an egg, mayo & bacon baguette and an Americano coffee (drip coffee with free refills is really nowhere to be found).

The plan was to check out Buckingham Palace and then walk over to Kensington Palace. We had heard that the changing of the guard ceremony was a bit of a let-down and you had to get there so early that we decided not to go for the ceremony, and figured we would swing by the palace, shoot a few pictures and move on.

The day, like most of our days, ended up a mix of stuff we planned and things that just happened.

On our way to Buckingham Palace, we noticed a small park with a large monument, so we decided to check it out. We ended up spending about an hour at Wellington Museum Park, which had a number of war memorials in addition to some statues.

We then realized that we couldn’t get into Buckingham Palace from the side we were on, so we ended up backtracking and walking along a street that separated the palace gardens (behind a high wall) and Green Park. Totally clueless that the changing of the guard ceremony was about to start, we got a great view of the horses and riders as they headed to the palace, with traffic crawling behind them.

We arrived at Buckingham Palace just in time to squeeze behind 3 rows of people and get a somewhat blocked view of the ceremony. Holding my camera over my head, I actually got some good pictures.

After the ceremony was over, the large crowds that had probably been sitting there for an hour quickly dispersed, giving us a chance to take some more pictures without all the people in the way.

Our next destination was a short walk away, Kensington Palace. Compared to Buckingham Palace where you couldn’t get any closer than the gates, you can explore the inside of Kensington Palace. They actually have created a bit of a silly game with you searching for clues to figure out which princess each room scene was describing. The rooms were made up like fairy tale sets. The one I liked the best was the room with the mattress stacked about 10 feet high.

The biggest thing that struck me in Kensington Palace was how dark it was throughout the building. With the curtains drawn and only dim electric lighting, I can imagine that living in a palace hundreds of years ago was a somber place. Though we enjoyed ourselves exploring this palace, if you are going to London and don’t have as much time as we did, you might want to skip this site.

After exploring the outside gardens, we headed for a late lunch and found ourselves at Stanhope Arms, a typical pub. Trying to go with authentic British food, I ended up with the Big Ben burger…a greasy patty topped with the British version of bacon (more like what we would call Canadian bacon), cheese and a fried egg. Oh, and a Foster beer. We decided very early in the trip that ever meal would be accompanied by a 1/2 pint of beer that we hadn’t tried before.

The rest of the afternoon consisted of walking to a Big Bus Tour stop and waiting for almost an hour, then finally deciding just to walk back to our hotel. What a surprise when we realized we were only a few blocks away!

One thing that I do remember vividly is seeing two London policeman standing on the side of the road between the Palaces with a radar gun. Suddenly, one of them stepped out into the street, held up his hand in front of him and got a speeding Porsche to stop so he could give the driver a ticket. Brave soul.

We finished off the night by going in search of dinner. We decided to buy our Tube pass tickets and took our first subway ride on the underground. The system is remarkably easy to navigate and we immediately decided we wouldn’t be getting on a bus again.

I honestly don’t remember where we headed to dinner. I know we stopped at the Notting Hill station just to see what the area was like, but we had picked out a part of town we wanted to see and headed there for dinner.

We wandered around a bit, ending up at an Italian restaurant in the Arab part of town. It was a wonderful meal but it was a bit odd seeing all of the rows of men lining the sidewalks at tiny tables with their backs to the buildings and watching everyone walk by. Honestly, it was one of the only times in London that we felt a little uneasy, and we headed back to our tube stop after dinner to get to bed at a decent hour.

Lessons Learned:

The Tube was a much better way to get around than sitting in traffic on a bus, or waiting for the bus to arrive
Keep your subway pass handy since you need it to get the gates to open up and let you out after you have arrived at your destination
Unless you just have to get a great view of the changing of the guard, show up right before it starts, then stick around another 30 minutes afterward so you can get good pictures without all the crowds.
Upon arrival I had noticed that the computer lobby computers had a screen saver that said the internet service cost money. It wasn’t until day 3 that I actually asked and found out that the wifi was free if you had your own computer. Make sure to ask and not just assume.
We didn’t cram as much into this day and we were able to go at a more leisurely place…huge improvement.

UCH on Vacation ~ London Trip Day 3 is a post from: UCity Homes

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UCH on Vacation ~ London Trip Day 2

Karen Goodman — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 01:28:17 +0000

If you missed my summary of Day 1, you should stop and read that first since I won’t be reviewing anything already covered…there’s more than enough to tell you about what we did on Day 2.

Even though we ended up going to bed at 3:15 AM last night, we wanted to get an early start. I set my alarm for 7:30 AM, and we managed to step outside in search of breakfast at 9:00 AM. We had no idea where to go, but headed down a small street in the direction of Paddington Station and quickly found Craven Cafe. This tiny restaurant was exactly what I imagined a European cafe would look like. The half dozen tables were in a space smaller than my living room, and everything was made fresh in an open kitchen about the size of a small American kid’s bedroom. I ordered smoked salmon and scrambled eggs, and espresso style Americano coffee. I didn’t ask, but I’m thinking that the free refills that Americans expect on most of their beverages are not a standard in England. Given that the guide books said that bathrooms can be hard to find, sticking to one cup of coffee was probably a good idea anyway.

Breakfast brought us another discovery. Tipping is not standard in England outside of hotels restaurants and bars, and possibly nicer restaurants. The waitress took my credit card, then ran it without giving me the option to add a tip.

After breakfast we found a money exchange storefront so I could turn some of my US dollars into pounds…as I did not plan ahead like Pamela did and have my bank order some money for me. Honestly, I would do it this way in the future since the exchange rate was the going rate…$1.55 = £1.

In Search of a London Pass

During our trip research, we decided that we wanted to buy tickets to one of the hop=on/hop-off bus tours and a London Pass. The bus ticket would allow us to travel on a couple of bus routes, getting off & on as often as we wanted while we got a feel for the city layout. The London Pass included admission to a few dozen sites around town…most of which we didn’t really care about but many that were definitely on our list.

Had we been not been so busy with work in the weeks before the trips, we would have ordered the London Pass before we left. Since we just didn’t get around to it until it was too late to have it delivered to us at home, we headed to nearby Paddington train station since we were pretty sure that they sold the London Passes there.

We were wrong.

After wandering around the train station for a bit and discovering that public toilets cost 30 pence, I finally found a train employee who told me that they didn’t sell the passes at Paddington, but she was pretty sure that we could get them at #1 Regent Street. A quick check of our map showed us that we needed to go to Picadilly Circus, so we headed out and got on our first Big Bus Tour doubledecker bus. After about an 1 1/2 hours sitting in traffic, stopping what seemed like every 10 feet, we arrived at our destination. By this time, it was already noon and we felt like we hadn’t even gotten started.

Picadilly Circus is a busy business district, and it was surprisingly hard to find Regent Street even though we had a couple of maps. The streets aren’t labeled as clearly as we liked, and it appears that we walked right past it the first time.

At this point, I should also throw in that it took most of today to get used to crossing streets filled with heavy traffic and cars coming from the wrong direction. On a few occasions, Pamela stopped me from walking in front of a car even though the London authorities were nice enough to paint “Look Left” or “Look Right” at just about every crosswalk.

We finally decided to look like the tourists that we were, waiting at every intersection until we got the green walk symbol…even when it looked like there were no cars coming (it only took one more day for us to get past this…and on day 3 I didn’t have any brushes with London traffic!).

After walking past the street we needed, we finally found the Visitor Information Center. But by this point, it was almost 2 pm and we started feeling like going to more than a few attractions per day was not feasible. After all the effort we made to find a place to buy the London Passes, we ended up deciding to just pay for admission to the sites individually that we had time to fit in.

Westminster Abbey

With the day half over, we jumped back on the Big Bus Tour and headed to Westminster Abbey. We actually made it there pretty quickly and headed inside without having to wait in a line at all. We were each given an audio handset that you held up to your ear to learn about the Abbey.

Basically, Westminster Abbey was originally a Catholic monastery. At the time of the Reformation, the King Henry VIII dissolved the monastery and the Abbey become part of the Church of England. In the years that followed, the Abbey became the burial ground for centuries of royalty and well-known citizens including Geoffrey Chaucer, Charles Darwin and Sir Isaac Newton. Just about every room is now filled with Kings and Queens buried in either above ground tombs or under engraved slabs on the floor.

The Abbey was also the site of Princess Diana’s Memorial Service. Standing only feet from the alter where she lay, visitors wandered around listening to their audio commentary and whispering in reverence.

To this day, the Abbey remains a working church with daily services open to the public. Within a few minutes of our arrival, we heard an announcement that as an active church, they have an hourly minute of prayer and ask all visitors to either pray with them or stay still until the prayer is finished. Once the prayer was over, we continued on our path through the Abbey.

The building is absolutely gorgeous, and I wish we were allowed to take pictures inside. If you ever get to London, this is a must-see stop for your trip. Plan for about an hour once you get there (assuming you don’t have to wait in line either).

River Thames City Cruise

The Big Bus Tour includes a boat cruise down the River Thames (pronounced Tims), so we walked from Westminster Abbey to the Westminster Pier and hopped on a boat after only a short wait.

I’ve been on a lot of vacation boat cruises before, and they usually are a pleasant ride but nothing really special. This one was different. The tour guide (who insisted he was just a lowly sailor and NOT a tour guide) entertained us with his dry humor as we passed under 6 bridges including the famous London Bridge, the Ladies Bridge (built mostly by women during WWII with self-cleaning stone!) and the ultra-modern Millennium Bridge that leads to the Modern Art Museum (apparently one of the free museums in the city). We also passed by the London Eye (a huge Ferris Wheel observation capsule ride), a navy submarine, the Tower of London and Cleopatra’s Needle (with2 lion sphinx statuses that were installed backwards as they are facing Cleopatra instead of facing away to guard her).

We finished up at the Tower Bridge just as it started raining hard.

Unfortunately, in an effort to minimize the stuff we carried with us all day, Pamela checked the weather forecast in the morning and since there was no mention of rain, we both decided to leave our umbrellas at the hotel.

Bad decision.

I also failed to understand that even though it is July, with high temperature only in the 70s, it feels more like a chilly spring day than summer. I really should have brought a jacket or raincoat and a long sleeve sweater.

We waited out the rain huddled with other travelers under the covered passage way that led to the street, and managed to avoid getting very wet..though it continued to mist on us for the next few hours.

At this point, we realized that we never at lunch and we couldn’t resist the sign offering traditional Fish & Chips (which is everywhere by the way). Even though it was 4 PM and we still planned to get dinner later, we both grabbed a paper cone of chips (steak fries) and headed back to find a bus back to our hotel.

Even though we were exhausted at this point, we had one more task that we needed to do in order to feel settled in for our vacation. You see, both of us normally use a hair straightener every day, but even with an electric converter, US straighteners can’t handle the UK voltage and get burned up. We had managed to get ready one morning without one, but we were on a quest to buy one before we had to get ready to go back out for dinner.

We knew we could go back to the pharmacy we checked out at Paddington Station that morning, but we luckily spotted another location of the same pharmacy at the Marble Arch bus top. We hopped off the bus and took care of our shopping errand before walking back to the hotel.

Exhausted

After two nights of 4 hours of sleep and all of the walking we did that day, we were absolutely exhausted when we got back to the hotel. We decided a nap would perk us up, so we closed our eyes around 7 pm for a quick snooze.

Another big mistake.

It didn’t occur to us to set an alarm. We woke up at 9:30 PM only to discover that all of the pubs stop serving food at 10 PM. We finally found Garfunkel’s, a casual restaurant that served dinner until 11. We both went for traditional British food, me ordering a beef & portabello mushroom pie with mashed potatoes and veggies, and Pamela going for sausage and mashed potatoes. And of course a couple of beers.

Not ready to call it a night, we tried to go to a nearby pub but found that they were all closed…it was after 11 PM and the guy working at one closed pub explained that of course “this is London and we are all in bed by midnight.” Not willing to give up (we had just woken up 2 hours earlier, we went back to our hotel bar. This time the bar was much more quiet, with only a few of the Opera Theater guests having wandered in and a much less frazzled bartender. I ended up ordering a bitter ale (totally can’t remember the name at the moment) and was surprised that I liked it as much as I did.

One beer was enough, and we headed up to our room to do a little writing. You see, both of us had sworn we were going to chronicle this trip…me in these posts and Pamela in a journal, and we hadn’t even finished writing up Day 1 yet.

Somehow a little bit of writing turned into 3 AM, and we had set ourselves up again for another night with only a few hours of sleep.

Lessons Learned:

We got caught up in the idea of the London Pass getting us free admission to tons of places…a few of which we cared about and many of which we really didn’t. We also bought into the idea that we needed the pass for the “Fast Track” entry. Wrong. Our Big Bus Tour could also sell us discounted tickets, some of which included the expedited entry. I learned a long time ago on cruises not to give in to the pressure that you need to buy activity passes in advance. I should have remembered that lesson.
There is a reason that the London public works department paints warnings to pedestrians to look the correct direction. Driving in London would be very scary. The lanes are narrow, they drive VERY fast, and the buses, taxis and cars also share the lanes with bikes and motorcycles. They are not watching for pedestrians that can’t read the simple words painted on the street. Be careful!
Though the tube (subway) would have certainly gotten us around time much quicker than the Big Bus Tour, and it would have been cheaper too, the hop-on/hop-off bus tour was worth it the first day simply to get a feel for the city…both in the look of the neighborhoods and in getting our bearing in the layout. If we had ridden the underground tube from the start, there are a lot of areas we would have simply never seen.
If you go to London, plan on doing a ton of walking since every attraction is at least a few blocks away from the nearest bus stop or tube station. Bring very comfortable shoes.
Regardless of the weather forecast, you should carry your umbrella every day in London. I am using a very small one that folds up to about a half foot which I bought from a street vendor outside a NY subway stop during a downpour. A raincoat, disposable poncho or at least a hooded shirt would be wise too.
Set your alarm every time you close your eyes. We won’t make this mistake again.

Coming Up: Day 3 in London including Buckingham Palace, Kensington Palace and Wellington Museum Park.

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UCH on Vacation ~ London Trip Day 2 is a post from: UCity Homes

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UCH on Vacation ~ London Trip Day 1

Karen Goodman — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 21:33:22 +0000

(Posted the day after I wrote this due to a crazy busy schedule)

Today I flew to London.

For years, taking a vacation to Europe has been at the top of my To Do list. But for one reason or another, the trip just never happened. Until today. My friend Pamela and I flew from St. Louis to London for a 8 day trip.

Though this blog is normally all about University City, I decided to take it on the road to chronicle the daily experiences as two Midwestern American gals discover London and the nearby countryside for the first time.

This is also my first vacation traveling with a computer. I bought a netbook a few months ago, and hope that it will transform the way I remember trips from this point forward. Too many little details just get lost over time when you fail to write them down. The goal is to write up the day’s experiences nightly and post them sometime the next day. According to my research before the trip, it’s fairly easy to find free wifi in London…we’ll see. If not, my hotel lobby only charges £1 for 20 minutes (about $1.50).

Getting Here:

Our original itinerary called for us to fly out at 2:45 pm on Tuesday, connecting through New York, overnighting on the plane and landing in mid-morning (London time). About a week before the trip, we found out that 2 seats opened up on a flight through Chicago which would get is here in one day. Even though it meant arriving at the airport at 4:30 AM for a 6:00 AM departure, we decided it would be better to arrive late at night and tackle our first day relatively rested, rather than spend half of it traveling and then feeling the need to start hitting sightseeing spots the same day.

Our travel day went very smoothly, with both of our flights taking off on time and the flight time going by amazingly quickly. Though there was a baby who cried through much of the 8 hour flight to London, my iPod drowned it out quite well. We even had two relatively good meals on the flight, a cheese omelet & potatoes breakfast and a salad & pizza for dinner.

Transportation Surprises:

We had done our research, and planned to take the Heathrow Express train to our hotel, Corus Hyde Park Hotel. What we didn’t plan for was an hour and a half to get through immigration.

Since the train service had stopped before we could get out of the airport, we had a choice between sharing a taxi with another passenger we met in the immigration line at a cost of about $45 each or taking the night bus for $3.50 each. We decided to go the adventurous route with the bus. A nice off-duty airport employee walked us across the airport to the bus terminal and made sure we knew where to go. We boarded at 12:30 AM for what we were told could be a 2 hour ride to the City of Winchester/Hyde Park area.

Let me first say that every bus in London is a double-decker bus. This bus was no exception, and the first floor was already filled with passengers when we boarded. We dragged our bulky suitcases up the steps and then tried to follow along a map we brought with us…one that didn’t show the bus stops, let alone the night stops. Since the subway service (called the Tube) stops at midnight, a colorful crowd got on & off the bus at each stop. After only an hour, we found our exit and hopped off the bus at Hydes Park Corner…which is unfortunately on the opposite side of the park from our hotel. Walking at 1:30 in the morning dragging suitcases wasn’t something I was very keen about, though there were plenty of cars and a surprising number of people on the sidewalks with us. It also seemed like a fairly nice party of town, so we weren’t too uncomfortable. Still, we were quite happy that it only took a few blocks before we were able to hail a taxi for the rest of the ride.

To Sleep or Not to Sleep?

By the time we got to the hotel, it was after 2:30 AM. But even with getting only 4 hours of sleep the night before, I just didn’t think I could go to sleep at 8:30 PM St. Louis time. So, we headed to the hotel bar based on the information from the hotel brochure in our room stating that the bar was open for drinks & paninis 24 hours a day.

We walked into a bar with about a dozen party-goers who were winding up their night dressed in tuxes and cocktail dresses. It took us a while to sort it out, but we finally figured out that they had attended a special opera dinner at our hotel. To our surprise, the bartender informed us that they were not serving food, the draft beer was too foamy so she shut the taps down and they were out of bottled beer. We ended up splitting a couple of ciders, Strowbridge and Manger’s.

I think I’ll stick to beer the rest of the trip.

A short while later, the bartender closed down the bar. We would soon discover that just because a London establishment advertises food is served “all day”, it doesn’t mean that you can get something to eat after 10 PM.

Lessons Learned:

Take an iPod on your flight. Not only does it help pass the time, but it works amazingly well at drowning out crying babies.
Allow for plenty of time to get through immigration…it took us 1 ½ hours and we landed at 10:30 PM.
Be prepared to be flexible. No matter how much you research in advance, sometimes things happen and you will end up taking a bus instead of a train. Smile and enjoy the sites.
Just like at home, London buses do not stop at every bus stop unless there is someone waiting outside to get on. Make sure you watch for your stop and push the button to let the driver know you need to get off.
We had been warned about the small size of London hotel rooms. Set your expectations accordingly, read some reviews before you book, and you might just be as lucky as we were with the Corus Hyde Park Hotel. The A/C, not standard in London, also was very appreciated since it made the room so much less stuffy. If you end up at a hotel without A/C, the windows can be opened to allow a cool breeze.

Coming Up: Day 2 in London including Big Bus Tour, Westminster Abbey, River Thames City Cruise and search of a London Pass.

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UCH on Vacation ~ London Trip Day 1 is a post from: UCity Homes

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Forest Park-Loop Trolley Plan Moves Forward

Karen Goodman — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 16:13:03 +0000

Thanks to Joe Edwards’ continued efforts, St. Louis is taking one step closer to being a great destination for visitors.

Plans are in the works for a new hybrid-electric trolley which will run on tracks from The Loop to Forest Park.

The 2.2-mile fixed-track trolley will have 9 stops including:

Forest Park MetroLink station
Delmar MetroLink station
Crossroads College Preparatory School
Pageant
Tivoli Theatre
Market In the Loop

Today’s STLToday article provides details on the background of street cars in St. Louis and plans for the future project:

The trolleys will run in both traffic lanes of Delmar west of the old Wabash train station.

Tim Page, a project engineer with the firm CH2M Hill, predicted that the trolleys will alleviate traffic congestion in the Loop.

“They’ll travel right along with traffic, accelerating and braking like a car,” Page said.

East of the Wabash station, the trolleys will transition to a single track running down the middle of Delmar. The trolleys will also run on a single set of tracks on DeBaliviere.

DeBaliviere will be reconfigured from four lanes to two. Traffic will be moved to the west side of DeBaliviere, while the trolley and a greenway for bicycles and pedestrians will be on the east side. Page said the trolleys will be hybrid-electric models. They will run on battery power west of the Wabash station.

East of the station, they will be powered by overhead electric lines on Delmar and DeBaliviere that will recharge the batteries.

The cars will be retro-styled but with modern amenities such as air conditioning, heating and efficient mechanical systems.

The article also quotes Joe Edwards as saying “If you look at other cities that have them, trolleys lead to more commercial and retail activity, as well as neighborhood vitality.”

Impact on Housing Market:

I also think that the trolley could lead to more demand for housing in neighborhoods in the eastern section of the Loop and near the city stops.

Just last week I helped a couple buy a home in Maplewood within a couple of blocks of two MetroLink stations. Over the years, I’ve had a number of clients try to find homes close to the light rail stations, usually without a whole lot of success.

The trolley stops will be a huge bonus for people wanting easy access to Forest Park and the Loop’s nightlife. My prediction is that many people who would have chosen to live in the Central West End will take a serious look at the neighborhoods along the trolley line. Easy access to Forest Park, Loop restaurants and MetroLink stations heading to the CWE and the city, combined with more affordable home prices than those in the CWE, will make the trolley area very attractive.

Once all this happens, prices will start going up. Maybe the time to buy is now.

Forest Park-Loop Trolley Plan Moves Forward is a post from: UCity Homes

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Who are the Top Real Estate Agents in University City?

Karen Goodman — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 13:24:59 +0000

I am a resident of University City, but I also sell homes throughout the St. Louis region.

Every few months, I get a call from someone who wants me to meet with them about listing their home, but they also plan to meet with the neighborhood expert who sells “most of the homes in the neighborhood.”

I would bet that you aren’t surprised that most people think they will be better served by an agent who does a ton of business in the area.

But I would also bet that you would be surprised that I’ve never seen an area that really has an agent who does the majority of the business.

To prove the point, I often run a report which lists every agent who has had a home sale in the neighborhood or area. It never fails that the top 10 agents have a very small % of the market share. Most of the sales are by agents who had just one sale in the area.

University City is no exception.

Who are the Top University City Listing Agents?

Between Jan. 1 – June 30, 2010, there have been 223 homes and condos sold in University City.

These 223 sales were listed by 156 agents. Only 18 of the agents selling homes in UCity this year sold more than 2 listings!

The top agent only had 9 of the 223 sales (3.9% market share). The next 5 agents tied with 6 sales each (2.6% market share each).

Joanne Iskiwitch – 9 listings sold
Bob Canaday – 6 listings sold (foreclosures)
Barry Adelstein – 6 listings sold (foreclosures)
Benjamin Nichols – 6 listings sold
Carol Butler – 6 listings sold
Sabrina & Dave Robb – 6 listings sold
Marc Kutton – 5 listings sold (foreclosures)
Cathy O’Neil – 4 listings sold

And a whopping 84% of the listings were sold by an agent who sold only 1 listing this year in University City.

And for those of you who think there is a particular real estate brokerage which does the majority of the business, you may be surprised to find out that the 223 listings were sold by 88 offices.

Top Listing Offices for University City:

Prudential Alliance, Realtors
Keller Williams Realty St. Louis (my office!)
Janet McAfee Inc.
Dielmann Sotheby’s Int’l Realty
Coldwell Banker Gundaker – Ladue office

Who are the Top University City Buyer’s Agents?

When people think about the agents who work in an area, they usually rely on the signs they see in yards advertising homes for sale. But, most of the busiest listing agents don’t represent very many buyers. When I checked to see which real estate agents assisted the most buyers purchasing University City homes, I came up with a very different list.

The 223 homes & condos sold in University City had 191 different agents representing the buyers!

The top agents were:

Mandy Wong – 6 buyer purchases
Bob Canaday – 4 buyer purchases
Marc Kutton – 3 buyer purchases
Joanne Iskiwitch – 3 buyer purchases
Christopher Thiemet – 3 buyer purchases
Scott Sandler – 3 buyer purchases

The rest of the agents had either 1 or 2 buyer purchases.

NOTE: When buyers approach a listing agent and don’t have an agent already, they either end up in a dual agency situation (both sides being represented by the listing agent) or they are assisted by the listing agent but do not have any representation. The buyer agent statistics sited here do not distinguish between buyers who used assisted by the listing agent vs ones who were represented by the listing agent.

Top Buyer Agent Offices for University City:

Prudential Alliance, Realtors
Keller Williams Realty St. Louis (my office!)
Janet McAfee Inc.
Sweet Home Realty
Coldwell Banker Gundaker – Town & County office

Bottom Line:

There really isn’t an agent who dominates the University City real estate market. Agents like me may have our listings more spread out around the St. Louis area, but we often sell homes faster and for a higher % of the listing price than the so-called neighborhood expert.

If you are thinking of buying or selling a home in University City, I would welcome the chance to meet with you and talk about my approach to selling homes.

Leave a comment or contact me by by phone or email (see the right sidebar of this website). I’m happy to help however I can.

Who are the Top Real Estate Agents in University City? is a post from: UCity Homes

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University City, MO Housing Market Report

Karen Goodman — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 22:20:55 +0000

The Sold! page which lists sold properties by address and subdivision has been updated through the end of June.

2010 YTD Home Sale Summary:

From January through June 2010, there have been 119 homes which sold through an agent priced at $150,000 or above.

January – 13
February – 8
March – 21
April – 19
May – 31
June – 27

Pricing:

Minimum sale price – $150,500
Maximum sale price – $699,000
Median sale price – $294,000

Days on Market:

DOM – The number of days from the time a property was initially listed until it got an accepted contract that later closed. Properties that are taken off the market for 60 days reset the days on market to zero when they are relisted.

Minimum DOM – 0
Maximum DOM – 331
Median DOM – 60

Sale Price Ratio:

SP:OLP – The percentage of the original listing price vs. the actual closing price. Example – a property was initially listed for $100,000, later had a price drop to $80,000, and closed for $75,000. The SP:OLP would be 75%. Low SP:OLP suggest properties were overpriced initially. On average, homes in most areas sell for 4-6% off of the current list price.

Minimum SP:OLP – 73.27%
Maximum SP:OLP – 105.66%
Average SP:OLP – 92.12%

YTD Condo Sale Summary:

There have only been 9 condos sales in University City from January – June 2010 which was listed by an agent and sold for $150,000 or above.

155 N. Hanley Road #202 – sold for $275,000 (1/6/10)
The Oaks of Olde Towne, 22 yrs old, 2 bedroom/2 bathroom, 1,571 square feet
155 N. Hanley Road #200 – sold for $180,000 (2/10/10)
The Oaks of Olde Towne, 22 yrs old, 1 bedroom/1 bathroom, 1,038 square feet
521 North & South Road – sold for $599,900 (2/11/10)
Beringer Place, 9 yrs old, 2 bedroom/2.5 bathroom, 2,720 square feet
7801 Delmar Blvd #1E – sold for $185,000 (3/18/10)
Welu Condo, 73 yrs old, 2 bedroom/1 bathroom, 1,451 square feet
7011 Dartmouth Avenue 1st floor – sold for $169,900 (5/5/10)
The Residences of Dartmouth, new construction, 2 bedrooms/2 bathrooms, 1,400 square feet
754 Leland Avenue #1S – sold for $157,375 (5/28/10)
Leland Condominiums, 85 years old, 2 bedrooms/2 bathrooms, 1,230 square feet
7011 Dartmouth Avenue 2nd floor – sold for $167,500 (5/28/10)
The Residences of Dartmouth, new construction, 2 bedrooms/2 bathrooms, 1,400 square feet
7801 Delmar Blvd #1W – sold for $184,500 (6/23/10)
Welu Condominiums, 74 years old, 2 bedrooms/1 bathroom, 1,451 square feet
7331 Forsyth Blvd #2W – sold for $250,000 (6/28/10)
Beacon Place Condos, 82 years old, 3 bedrooms/2 bathrooms, 1,496 square feet

University City, MO Housing Market Report is a post from: UCity Homes

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