St. Louis Citizens Form the ‘Downtown Defense Fund’ to Fend Off Slap Suit

Dear Fellow Citizens:

As you know, the National Register-listed Century Building in downtown St. Louis was recently demolished to make way for a parking garage. We thought this tragic demolition was the end of an ugly chapter in St. Louis’ history. Now, it’s gotten uglier.

Before the demolition, two Downtown residents, Marcia Behrendt and Roger Plackemeier, took principled action to try to save the Century Building. They were plaintiffs in two legal cases that sought to keep this historic building as part of our architectural heritage. But the buildings came down anyway.

Now, the City of St. Louis, the State of Missouri and the project developers have filed a lawsuit against them, alleging malicious prosecution — and seeking actual damages exceeding $1.5 million, plus punitive damages “in an amount sufficient to deter said defendants and others from like conduct.”

Should the City, State and developers prevail, Marcia and Roger could lose all of their assets. Just to defend themselves will cost tens of thousands of dollars in legal costs, even if lawyers donate some services.

Marcia and Roger stood up for us and for our community. Now, it’s up to us to stand with them.

You can help in one of three ways:

Write a check for any amount to help with legal costs. Make it payable to Downtown Defense Fund, and mail it to:

Downtown Defense Fund
c/o Scott Kluesner, Treasurer
7480 Cornell Avenue
St. Louis MO 63130

Funds received by the end of June are most important.

Attend a free fundraiser on Saturday, June 25, 7:30 p.m. at Gallery Urbis Orbis, 419 N. Tenth Street.
Bring cash or check in any amount to add to the pot, and enjoy music and good food and the company of people who care about our architectural heritage. No need to purchase tickets — but please do RSVP to mmnewman@earthlink.net so we can plan refreshments.

[UPDATE 6/8/05 – 2:45PM – You can also donate via PayPal at downtowndefensefund.com.]

Let’s show our support for preservation and for citizen action. Let’s show it big.

Best regards,

Margie Newman
Amanda Doyle
Fundraising Co-Chairs, Downtown Defense Fund

PS Note that donations are NOT tax-deductible. Should the lawsuit be resolved before the money raised is spent, remaining funds will be donated to a group or groups dedicated to architectural preservation.

From Steve @ Urban Review – St. Louis:
On a personal note I know both Roger and Marcia. They are very good people that I consider to be trusted friends. They did a good thing in trying to stop the razing of this great building for an unnecessary parking garage. The developers prevailed and the current and future citizens of St. Louis lost that battle. We are getting yet another parking garage. But the powers that be are trying to make an example out of Roger and Marcia by filing slap suits against them. This is supposed to send a message to all the rest of us not to get involved.

To everyone behind these suits – FU!!!!!!

This whole thing just pisses me off big time. I’ve got a long list of people and explicatives to describe them but I fear if I did I’d get sued as well. You all know who you are and you know what you are. You also know where you can go!

For everyone else when you stop into the “friendliest” grocery stores in town just remember that you are helping to fund the destruction of downtown St. Louis as well as suing two good people trying to protect the city and their personal investments. This is a black and white issue. You either stand for saving downtown, our urbanity and helping people like Roger and Marcia. Those doing these evil deeds are at the very least making their views known.

All of you, elected or in a position to help, that remain silent are wimps. Grow a spine and take a position. I cannot respect someone that refuses to take on important issues such as this. For once think of the city over yourself. The old idea that you keep quite now so you can get more power so you can do things later doesn’t fly with me — the later never comes because you are always worried about the next thing. This city needs people willing to stand up and be counted. The Downtown Defense Fund is a good start. Many of us are about to stand up and be counted and all of you back room people had better keep a look out because we are going to out number you. Your days of keeping quiet are over!

F@ck this makes me so angry!!!! Taking blood pressure pills now…

– Steve