Feature Story History of Webster

Missy Chott
28 November 2011

Webster History and Three Generations

Webster Groves, Missouri is my hometown where a lot of my family still lives and have lived there their whole lives. Webster Groves is in the suburbs of St. Louis, Missouri. It is ten miles southwest of St. Louis. Up until 1802, Webster Groves was known as the Dry Ridge to Missouri, Osage, and Dakota Indians and fur trappers. Webster was part of the Louisiana Territory in the early 1800s and was changing from the Spanish to French ownership. They had a system of land grants to help promote immigration. During the earlier times of the Spanish rule, officials gave some land to the English as a check against the English. In 1802, Gregorie Sarpy was given 6,002 acres by Charles de Hautte Delassus. Delassus was the last Spanish Lieutenant governor. The land grant given to Sarpy covered a major part of what is now known as Webster Groves.
Webster Groves is located on the Pacific Railroad line. That is what led it to become a suburb. During the late 19^th century, St. Louis had a problem with overcrowding, congestion, and unhealthy conditions in St. Louis. This is the reason many urban residents were convinced to leave the city and move to Webster Groves, where people would be guaranteed a safer place to live and also a quieter place to live.
Some of the perks of living in Webster Groves is that it is close to many of St. Louis’ main tourist attractions like Six Flags, the City Museum, Science Center, Art Museum, the Zoo, Sculpture Park, Ted Drewes, Imo’s, Forest Park, the Fox Theatre, History Museum, the Arch, Bush Stadium, the Muny, the Magic House, malls, and more. Most of these places are free to get in and are only about twenty minutes away maximum. Webster has a lot of places to go to as well such as the Aquatic Center, ice skating rink, tennis courts, skate park, the track, local restaurants, local shopping centers, many churches and schools, the fitness center, the gazebo where they often host movies projected on a screen at, and so much more. Webster is a great place to raise a family and there is so much you can take your family out to do without having to go far or paying a lot of money. A lot of places like the Aquatic Center or ice rink is meant for Webster residents. Outside guests can go if they are with a Webster resident but will have to pay more to get in.
I interviewed three people who grew up in Webster and have lived there their entire lives. My grandma, mom, and my sister. Three separate generations with three different life styles in the same city of Webster Groves. My grandma Sue grew was born in 1941 and lived in a house with her mom, dad, sister, and brother. When she was in her early teens, the city took her house to put a highway that went right in the middle of Webster Groves. They built a new house close to where the original house was but they lost a lot of their backyard space and now the highway is right behind her old house. When she was eighteen she got married and they moved into a house right across the street from where she grew up. Her sister still lives in their old house so they live right across the street from each other. Their weren’t as many houses in the neighborhood so a lot of people had more yard space and were able to keep animals like horses and sheep. “My neighbors had horses and they were just beautiful to look at growing up. You cant have animals like that anymore in Webster. You can have goats and chickens now if you get a permit from the city.” As she got older, more houses were built and more restaurants started opening. A lot of houses in Webster Groves are century homes now and every house looks different. My grandma’s neighbors house is built sideways to the road, because the street was not there when the house was built. She went to Nerinx for high school which is a private catholic school located in Webster Groves.
My mom was born in 1964 and grew up in the same house her whole life. As she was growing up, her dad added an addition to her house making it a four bedroom home. When she was growing up there, Webster was more established and had more homes and parks. Although Webster Groves High School was there since 1889, she did not attend the public school and went to a private catholic school like her mom. “I love Webster, it’s close to my family and my husbands family and it’s a really close community.
Becky was born in 1989 and grew up in a house on the outer part of Webster Groves. She went to Webster public schools her whole life. She worked at a pizza place in downtown Webster; Old Orchard called Racanellis. “I liked growing up in Webster. My favorite time of year is the fourth of July. They have their own parade, fireworks shows, carnival and other random things going on. It’s a great place to go hangout with your friends and get out of the house awhile. During the summer, I love to go to the Webster pool. They recently added a mini water park there. It’s just a really nice place to be.” Their has been other additions to Webster Groves as Becky grew up too. They redid the track, added a gym to the high school and are currently adding a four story addition to it, they added a skate park, put an addition to Nerinx and have opened up some new restaurants like Deweys, a pizza place, a café and hookah bar, Webster’s first Mexican restaurant and some other random stores. “Another great thing about Webster Groves is it is close to so many places like the malls, zoo, museums, the science center, the Arch, Six Flags, Bush Stadium; theirs just a lot to do and everything is like ten to fifteen minutes away.”
Overall, Webster is a great place to live and grow up. There is a lot of history in Webster and a lot of old buildings and houses. Webster has multiple parks and is a very clean and beautiful place to live in. Most houses are century homes and none are alike. My grandma, mom, and sister all recommend living and raising a family in Webster and don’t want to move out of Webster ever. It is a close knit community that has a little over twenty thousand residents. It is close to other St. Louis tourists attractions but Webster also likes to hold events throughout the year of their own. Webster has gone through many changes throughout the years including new restaurants, a highway, more houses, parks, etc. If you ever drive through Missouri, I recommend stopping through Webster and go shopping in some of the little shops in downtown Webster or just driving around to look at the old, unique homes and see what all Webster really has to offer.

Michael Lewis Vanity Fair

Missy Chott
29 October 2011
News Writing Reporting

California and Bust

Michael Lewis wrote about the financial crisis’ in the U.S. and in Europe and Greece. In his articles he has an approach where you don’t feel like you are just reading his articles, but that you also are going through his experience and are just as aware of the financial crisis’ as much as he is. His articles are a nice read and easy to follow along. He is also very descriptive in his writing, which may be why it is easy to picture his experience and also fell like you are there with him.
In Michael Lewis’ article California and Bust, he talks about how the U.S. is unable to pay back money the government borrowed and that they owe retired workers money but are unable to pay them. In time, many cities in California will go bankrupt. His article starts with him defending Meredith Whitney’s thoughts on how she think the U.S. did a terrible job announcing to the public America’s debt problems and that within a year the word will get out and everyone will be aware how much the U.S. owes. The number are so high it is unrealistic that the government will ever be able to repay their debts. Whitney thinks that even thought states are struggling to get by, they are not as vulnerable compared to cities, because states can take everything from cities to get the funding they need, which why California is in trouble. Lewis talks about cities in California that Whitney has already seen fall hard and are in great trouble and looks at another city that is following close behind.
In Vallejo, the first city to fail had to declare bankruptcy in 2008. The city is not able to pave the roads anymore, and traffic lights are always set on the flashing mode. They can’t provide many public services and the city is only paying its non-employee creditors five cents for every dollar. A city trailing Vallejo is San Jose.
In San Jose, they are struggling to be able to afford to keep public workers around. The number of public workers will drop dramatically. Both these cities are struggling and many more cities will most likely follow the same path. Some cities may not make it through and others may but it will not be easy.
Lewis says companies will start leaving weak states and moving towards stronger, more financially stable states.
The second article I choose to write about is “It’s the Economy dummkoph!” This article focuses more on the financial problems in Greece and in Ireland and other countries. Germany is one of the main countries that controls the money because they have many major banks, and these banks hold many of other countries money. Germany is the only country who can help the other countries from their financial problems, but the other countries refuse the help. These countries do not want to show that they are struggling and have to rely on Germany, who they already put their trust with their money, to solve their problems. In his article, he go into great depth about the people he interviews. He describes how they look and act. You get a lot out of reading the article because he is so descriptive.
In both of the articles I read from Michael Lewis, he seems to be very passionate about his writings. He values the research and interviews he has done. He is very descriptive in every way. He focuses on little details to help present his information. The way he writes makes you feel like you are there and in my opinion it makes it easier to read the articles. Many people who are not interested in our own economic problems would certainly not care about other countries economic problems, but the way he writes it seems like you are reading about his trip. You get full details on what he is experiencing and it makes the read a little more enjoyable. He relates to more people this way and really catches more peoples attention.
In these papers, Michael Lewis does a wonderful job writing with art and craft. Art is writing about the piece you want to accomplish. It is about connecting with the readers and getting them interested in something some readers may not find that fascinating and keeping their attention the whole time. Lewis does a wonderful job accomplishing this task. Craft is being able to write a story that makes sense and flows. It can not just be random information. It has to be well written and easy to follow along. Lewis does a great job with connecting with his audience and writing papers in a nice orderly way. It is not hard to understand the points he is trying to get across, even for people who have not been keeping up with the economy. He gives a lot of back round information and catches you up on the current economic situation instead of assuming you already know what is going on and continuing on from there. He has nice reliable sources which help bring the article to life and I think is more of the art part by being able to relate to the people who are actually going through the economic problems in their own country. He also gets more than one source so you have a wide range of opinions. Overall, Michael Lewis is a great writer and makes his articles very interesting and accomplishes the art of catching readers attention to get them interested or involved in his views that he sees as issues more people in the world should read up on and be aware of.

Lincoln

Missy Chott

Lincoln

If I was writing an article on the ALPLM for a national audience, I would report about what the museum includes. I would talk about the kids section, the dresses, the plays, the old cabin, the family statues and the history behind it. People I would talk to would be people who currently work at the museum. They could give me information that they have read about and go further into depth about the history. I could use them for some great quotes as well. I would start with the interview questions and then back up what they said with what is in the museum and how you could see it for yourself. My article would be very descriptive so people who have not visited the museum would get a good feel for what is inside.

Harris Family

Missy Chott
Op-ed column opinion piece--Harris Family
The Harris family was wrongly accused of many things. Their house and property was wanted and the Harris’ refused to sell it, and I believe they were accused of many things such as drug making and possession, mistreating their dogs, and the poor condition of their house. This family was a hard working family and they have done some hard labor to get the house they lived in. Mr. Harris had jobs like dumping rocks, loading ice, piling huge water jugs on skids, and a custodian while his wife worked as a file clerk. Mr. Harris blew a disk in his back doing all the hard labor in order for his family to survive. I can relate to this, because my dad blew a disk in his back working as a carpenter. It’s impossible to have a job doing physical labor with a bad back from what I’ve seen what my dad has been through.
The Harris’ are an older couple and are retired and just wanted to enjoy time with their family in their home. Now that their home has been wrongly taken away, they have no place to go. To top it off, they had some neighbors talk badly about them and now they have all kinds of lies and rumors all over the media about how they make meth, abuse their dogs, are loud and that their house looks like a dump and they don’t take care of it, when they were one of the first people to live there. When they moved in the neighborhood, their house fit in fine. Now richer people are moving in and they stand out a little bit. They are not ashamed of what they have, because they know they have worked hard for what they have and have come a long way in their lives. All they want is to be left alone and live happily with their family. They even stated in the report that if anyone had a problem with how they lived, all they had to do was knock on the door and talk to them about. There was no need for their neighbors to go behind their backs and talk to the media about what kind of people they think they are when in reality, they have no idea the struggles they have been through.
The way the police barged in and woke the family up was ridiculous. They thought they had evidence to do so because of the rumors they heard from the neighbors and what the vet told them about the dog which was all not true. Also how they came in with like forty cops was over the top. They came in like this family had killed someone or something. They should have got their facts straight before they intruded someone’s home and found absolutely nothing.
I do not understand why this family is being evicted from their home. They were targeted for their property and it’s a shame how cold hearted people can be to get what they want. I’m amazed by how some of their neighbors turned on them and told the media and police what they thought this family did. The neighbors were so judgmental. It is really sad that this family has worked so hard for what they have and it was all wrongly taken away. It is hard to trust anyone these days and like the family said no amount of money can make up for the humiliation that they have been put through after all this.
If they would have knocked Mr. Harris said he would have let them come in and investigate whatever they wanted to. Instead the police choose to smoke out the house and barge in on the family with at least forty officers. This makes you question the reasoning’s they had to do this. The Harris family said they weren’t mad at their neighbors but they were hurt by how betrayed they felt and how humiliated they felt. They did have the smallest house on the block and their house was surrounded by nicer, much fancier houses. They were also surrounded by many different races, them being the only black race. it’s hard to tell what the reasoning’s were that they were truly targeted in this situation. Now this innocent, hard working family is out a home and has no place to go.

Geman and the Euros

Germany is one of the biggest countries that the euro zone depends on. With the value of the euro decreasing and other countries that use the euro not being able to repay their debts, Germany is considering leaving the euro as its currency. Germany is one of seventeen countries that use the euro for its currency and a lot of the euros fate relies on Germany. Germany is the location of the headquarters for the European Central Bank. Germany is struggling to float due to loaning money for emergency bailouts to Greece, Ireland, and Portugal along with Italy, Spain, and Greeks failing to meet financial obligations. If these countries cannot pay back their debts, it will not only impact the European countries that use the euro, but it will also affect the U.S. and China, because those two countries are Europe’s biggest trading partners.

            Germany is in the middle of all of this and has the biggest impact on the euro zone, because Germany contributes the most. Germany can do one of two things, either expand the bailout fund or do nothing about it at all. In order for the euro to survive, countries that don’t have a huge impact in the euro zone must step their game up and “act like more sensible Germans.”

            Greece is hurting the euro zone greatly and is it is said that the Greeks party and do little to help with the problems of the European debt crisis. German taxpayers are finding it unfair to pay higher taxes so that they can help out countries like Greece when they are unsure if the debt from that country will ever be repaid. Germany has done a lot to help Greece by giving them a lot of exported products and a vendor loan, not knowing if that loan would be repaid. All Germany can do is hope Greece will repay their debts back to them.

            From the looks of everything, it seems as though Greece will be unable to pay back their debts, which is increasing fears for other European countries that use the euro. Questions being asked are will weaker countries that use the euro turn their back and not continue using the euro as their currency, knowing the demands are high and it could too much for them to handle. Or will countries that have a bigger impact, such as Germany leave, because they are going into debt when they loan out money to other countries that are unable to pay them back.

            To Germany it almost seems that leaving could be the better choice if they are going further and further into debt and the perks of being a part of the euro currency may not worth staying for Germany. So far the benefits of the euro zone is better than joining a weaker currency but Germany can only take so much of this. Germany needs the benefits, because it is a huge exporting country and the benefits are essential for an exporting country. If Germany left the euro currency for a stronger one, Germany would be alone and Germany does not know how that would affect their exports.

            Meyer had to talk to multiple people in order to get this story. She had to talk to Jean-Claude Tricher, the president of the European Central Bank and find out the monetary policy in the euro zone. She had to talk Chancellor Angela Merkel to figure out who the euro involves and what would happen if the euro failed and find what role Germany has in the euro zone. She talked to Jurgen Stark, the ECB’s former chief economist to figure out figure out what weaker countries in the euro zone need to do in order for the euro to survive. She talked to Uli and Jens who both own little shops in Germany and are fed up with working so hard so that the country lends out money to Greece when they know the money will never be returned. She had to talk to financial chiefs and corporate masters to understand how much weaker countries rely on Germany and need them to stay in the euro zone. She talked to German taxpayers, such as, Martin Blessing, CEO of Commerzbank, to find out their opinion is as citizens and found that they are fed up with paying more money in takes to help other countries out. She even talked to business partners and cousins, Isabel and Tobias Hahn to find out how this is affecting their business. A lot of people were involved to put this article together and to get both sides of the story.

            Meyer had a minimum of eight sources. That is just the number of people she interviewed to get information for this story. She still had to do research on what the problem Germany is facing and how they are going to fix it and what impact other countries have that may influence Germany’s decision. She had to do research on all the pros and cons of Germany staying in the euro zone or leaving. This probably took her weeks to get all the information and contact all these people, maybe even months. It was worth her time, because this is a very important issue that could have a huge impact on Europe’s currency, so it was worth her time to write this for people who use the euro. I think the details help add persuasion on how they feel about Germany wanting to switch currencies and or not. I think this story is hard news. Whatever decision Germany makes could greatly impact Europe’s economy and the citizens need to be prepared for whatever happens. This story has a soft lede. It starts off giving back round information on Germany and how it came about. It’s not until the second and third paragraph that we begin to hear and learn about the euro zone crisis and how Germany has a great impact on the euro zone. For the most part this seems like a factual piece, the only parts I think she threw in her opinion were when she interviewed local German store owners. I think that, just because the German owners would most likely be mad about having to pay higher taxes so she knew the answers she would get from them in the interview. I think she takes the Germans side on wanting to drop the euro as their currency. Literary techniques that she used were adding in quotes and giving both sides of the story, even thought I personally think she tried to show why Germany had good reasons more than the weaker countries in the euro zone.

Bakke's Story

What Don Murray means by the line of the story is the most memorable part of the story. Whatever quote or sentence that has impacted you the most is the line of the story. Don Murray thinks that craft is all the years and work you have put into becoming a better writer for yourself. Whether that be sitting next to someone who has been writing for years and reading their writings or just practicing and writing as much as you can to improve. Murray means by art to learn and discover things for the first time. This story is an art. It is about how Jean had her dog and saved him from the shelter. She had him for ten years when she learned that the dog was there for her just as much as she was for him. He was more than a dog, he was family that was looking out for her and Jean learned that through this experience.

Organizing a News Story

When you organize a new story, you should first tell who, what, when, where, why, and how. It should tell the main idea of the story and be well organized. Some tips are to focus on your topic. In the beggining, make it clear what the news story will be about. Get a catchy title and use easy words most people know. Don't be too wordy, be more to the point. Using direct quotes is good to use in your news story. And finally try to avoid throwing your opinion in there. A nut graph tell readers why the story matters. It tells the reader why they should read the story and is often found to contain the most important information in the news story.