John Poelker Park, part of the larger Gateway Mall, is looking better than ever, clean and well kept, with a new fence installed around the central statue.

While Poelker was the fortieth mayor of St. Louis, the statue commemorates firefighters, dedicated in 1994 and sculpted by R.R. Daus. I find it fascinating that while there is the New York contemporary art world that is anti-representational art, there is a parallel school of American art for public commissions such as this that still desires verisimilitude to the natural world.

What is up with the random oversized stuffed animals that I frequently see abandoned around St. Louis?