Some news today.

OVER AT THE CENTURY BUILDING SITE

Masons are working quickly to close up the holes in the Syndicate Trust Building. Meanwhile, the Century basement is entirely excavated. The parking garage will sit on the basement floor, which will not be removed. So some part of the 1897 building will live on for the 60 years it will take for the parking garage replacement to collapse.

Oh, and the renderings of the replacement garage continue to show less and less detail. Perhaps the plan is to make the Old Post Office look better by building the ugliest downtown garage ever next to it.

THE LITTLE BUILDING THAT DIDN'T

Wreckers recently demolished the two-story storefront building directly north of Uncle Bill's Pancake House on South Kingshighway. The little building, respledent with braided terra cotta columns and other details, was the only traditional storefront building remaining between Connecticut (near Arsenal) and Beck (near Chippewa) streets. The building fell for a an expansion of the Uncle Bill's parking lot. Across the street, QuickTrip is building yet another new location.

PROGRESS, IN MY BOOK

A new Big Lots has opened in the once-moribund plaza at Kingshighway and Devonshire, behind the Department of Motor Vehicles office.

BUT WAIT!

Arch City Chronicle reports that both Payless and OfficeMax in the St. Louis Marketplace are closing.

THEM KIENLEN BUNGALOWS

I love the one-story bungalows lining Kienlen Avenue north of Martin Luther King Boulevard. They are sturdy and simple, and due to road expansions now sit almost directly on the sidewalk line.

IRENE AND DARLENE -- AND MIKE

I am spotting lots of paired Irene Smith for Mayor and Darlene "Unopposed" Green for Comptroller signs, including some in Shaw. In Ward 19, the pair often gets a third wheel -- Re-Elect Michael McMillan for Alderman signs.

UPDATE ON WESTERN LANES

Steve Patterson posted an informative update on the shuttered Western Lanes bowling alley in his campaign blog. Steve in running for aldermen of the alley's ward, 25, in the Democratic primary. If he wins the primary, he'll be the next alderman, because no other parties have any candidates. Don't forget to vote for him -- in just eleven days!