ST. LOUIS — A new concert series on Laclede’s Landing kicks off Thursday, exactly the type of event business and civic leaders say is needed to boost activity and increase the perception of safety downtown under a plan announced Tuesday by Mayor Tishaura O. Jones.
will go on alongside a small homeless encampment.
For about two years, J.B. Matthews has stayed at the camp of about 15 people known as the Riverfront Community, who fish in the Mississippi River and pitch their tents where the Admiral Casino once moored. There are few problems, he said, unlike the encampment on Interco Plaza next to St. Patrick Center that the city disbanded earlier this month amid a spate of downtown issues. At the Riverfront encampment, someone has to vouch for you to get in.
“That’s the beauty of being down here,†Matthews said. “Ain’t bothering nobody. Ain’t doing no harm.â€
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When workers with concert promoter Jamo Presents began setting up equipment to prepare for the Lot on the Landing concert series — which — Matthews was concerned the camp might be run off. Some of its members stay under the pavilion, known as the Porte Cochere, once used as an entrance to the old Admiral. He said Tuesday that the campers were told they had a month to leave.
But Jones’ Operations Director Nancy Cross, who has met with Matthews and homeless advocates with Tent Mission STL about the encampment, said Tuesday that there are no plans to make them leave — shelters are full, she said.
And that’s not an issue with the concert promoter.
At first, Jamo applied to use the city-owned pavilion. A city report said the pavilion “occasionally†attracts unhoused people who create encampments there, directing Jamo to “coordinate its response to any such individuals†with the city’s Department of Human Services.
Jamo said in a statement Friday that it had selected the area before the encampment arrived, and “we adjusted our site plan as the situation developed to ensure that the pavilion area remains untouched.†Now, it is using private property a little further inland, close to the site of the former Mississippi Nights venue. The ticketed event will be fenced off, as well.
â€We have no intention of having anybody moved,†Jamo chief Drew Jameson said.
Concertgoers will decide at the first show Thursday whether the downtown image civic leaders are trying to rebuild is tarnished by the small encampment. Doors are at 6 p.m.
