(gentle music) - [Jim] It is one of St. Louis's great winter places, but plans are moving forward to come up with a way to send you to Steinberg Rink anytime of year.

She had a dream to open a coffee shop.

She did that and then some.

- At the end of the day, when I go home and most people can decompress and cook dinner and relax, I'm working still.

- [Jim] We look back at the great earthquake of January, 1812 and the great earthquake scare of August, 1990.

- People just wanted to know more information about earthquakes and how to prepare for this supposedly coming earthquake.

- [Jim] And a food program focused on moms and kids that is much more than a handout.

- [2] One of our biggest goals is to ensure that all mothers in the program have a baby that's born at an average or above average birth weight.

- It's all next on "Living St.

Louis."

(gentle music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) I'm Jim Kirchherr, and we're starting off with one of those things everybody's been talking about in recent weeks.

Fortunately, I don't mean politics or primaries.

Nope, winter weather.

I'll admit, I'm one of those people who generally likes winter, but lately even I've been challenged.

I like enough snow for sledding on the neighborhood hill.

I even like getting enough snow to shovel a couple of times a year.

But when it comes to those ridiculous arctic temperatures and wind chills, not a fan.

Can't do anything outdoors.

And that frozen rain we had, nothing good can come from that.

And then that goes away and the morning drive begins with dense fog.

This is my idea, in fact, a lot of people's idea, of a good St. Louis winter.

And it brings us to Anne-Marie Berger's story about plans for Forest Park, which, by the way, is not frozen in time.

(upbeat music) - [Anne-Marie] Forest Park is a must-see, must-experience destination for St. Louisans and visitors alike.

With two museums, the zoo, The Muny, and more than 1000 acres of recreational space, Forest Park is a jewel that can be enjoyed year round.

But from November through March, the place to be is Steinberg Skating rink.

David, what are you doing out here?

- Ice skating.

We got a group of us here tonight from the Dogtown Running Club.

Definitely the park is, I think, like really special to me and to our group.

We meet just south of the park in Dogtown.

We run in the park every week.

I live in Dogtown and I moved there because I love being near Forest Park, and I've been skating since I was like two years old.

And I like being outside, so this is a great way to kind of combine all of those things.

- [Anne-Marie] The Steinberg Ice skating rink in Pavilion was erected as a space for all St. Louisans to enjoy.

- The gift from Etta Steinberg was made after visiting New York City and thought we need a big ice rink here too.

And I'm gonna give this gift to the city and I wanna make sure that there's no segregation here.

We wanna make sure that this space is open and welcoming for all St. Louisans.

- 67 years later, and not a lot of changes or improvements have been made to the rink.

Back in 2022, Forest Park Forever, the organization that restores and maintains the park, announced some major changes coming to this iconic rink, making it a year-round attraction, both outside and in.

- But we wanna take that vision and that original intent from that original gift and make sure that we're really honoring that.

- [Anne-Marie] In 2021, Forest Park Forever began engaging the community for feedback about what a year-round Steinberg would look like and offer.

- Those big things that are rising to the top, we're designing them into the space.

- [Anne-Marie] What is rising to the top?

What are we gonna see?

And what does making improvements look like?

- Roller skating, more food and beverage options, music, lawn games, shade, and we'll have a water feature.

It's kind of hot if you've been on that side of the park in the summertime.

It is kind of hot.

So having some type of a water feature to invite kids and families to come and play in the water, get something to eat, go for a walk.

- [Anne-Marie] No plans have been finalized and design work continues.

Construction is scheduled to start following the '24, '25 skating season.

- Seems to kind of sit vacant in the summer.

I think sometimes I see people out here on roller blades, but if it's not getting used in the summer currently, and there's a way that we can open it up and get more activities and stuff going on here, that sounds awesome.

(upbeat music) (bouncy music) - [Jim] This week in history 100 years ago, January of 1924, the front page news was the death of Lenin and speculation of who would be his successor.

But when the news broke, a lot of St. Louisans were busy.

They were out on Art Hill.

When winter weather that week brought cold and snow, they took out the sleds and went out for what they called coasting.

There were some reports of minor injuries from crashes on Art Hill.

There was actually an ambulance stationed there.

Reports said a clear sky and bright moon kept hills throughout the city busy into the night.

The post described Art Hill as a democratic gathering place.

Clerks, society, girls, factory hands, white collar workers, college youths, negro children, flappers, and small boys, and others all rubbing elbows and hovering close around the bonfire.

It's a familiar St. Louis thing to this day.

Sledding on Art Hill has been going on since the World's Fair shutdown in 1904, creating memories as recently as the last snow with more to come in the next, just as it was this week in St. Louis history 100 years ago.

So what better on a cold winter's day than a nice hot cup of cocoa or coffee?

And that's what we're going for in this next story by Leah Gullet.

It's not so much how to make a good cup of coffee, it's how to build a business that makes a good cup of coffee.

- [Leah] Everyone in St. Louis has their go-to coffee shop, cafe, and a place for their temporary office, and for many theirs is the Latte Lounge.

What sets this cafe apart isn't just its artisanal brews or brunch cuisine, it's the owner's story, which is just as unique as the business.

Her name is Nyshaun Harvey.

- My dream was to open up a Christian coffee shop, which I know that in the St. Louis area, I didn't have any knowledge of any being around 2017 or so.

So I wrote it down in my journal, and I declared every day that I would open up this coffee shop.

And so doing my research, taking classes, being trained to be a barista and things like that definitely helped.

And so here we are Latte Lounge now, and definitely serving a cup of hope to every customer that comes in the door.

- [Leah] She comes from a family of entrepreneurs.

Before starting her own business, she understood the life of watching her parents create their own opportunities - From my mom to my dad, and then my stepdad, all entrepreneurs their whole life.

And so that's what I saw growing up.

And so they believed.

My mom wanted us to go to college, get a degree, break generational curses because no one in our family had done this.

And so that was her plan for our life, my sister and I, and college didn't work out for either one of us.

It wasn't God's plan for our life.

And so when I told them I didn't want to go to college, they were very receptive.

They accepted it right away, and then asked how they could help me.

And along again with the build out of Latte Lounge that happened in 2019 right before COVID happened, they were backing me 100%, seeing what I needed, how they could assist, or how they could invest to help me grow my business.

So we're located in Florissant, downtown St. Louis, and also in Ferguson.

- [Leah] Her parents played a crucial role in her success.

So much so that the downtown location is right next to their event space.

- I knew off top it was gonna be success.

I told them like, we gotta do them, like we gotta get next door, because we had this spot first.

This opened like a year before.

So I'm telling like, we gotta have next door, we gotta get next door, I gotta do the restaurant.

So she came, we got together, and everything's been going great.

- [Leah] Although her stepdad is a major support in her business journey, it's actually her dad who's the inspiration behind the creation of Latte Lounge.

Tell me your journey to this.

- So at the age of 14, I lost my father.

It's a very traumatic experience.

I missed a whole lot of school.

I didn't really know what to do, how to do, how to cope.

My mom could only do so much to help us get back to what you consider a new normal.

Just to make that switch from seeing someone, and then not the next day was very devastating.

Obviously, I was grieving at the time, and I still had to go to school be normal, but I literally couldn't.

I couldn't see sunlight, I couldn't hear loud noises, anything would trigger a migraine.

So I turned to caffeine.

And at the age of 14, I started drinking Starbucks like nobody's business, triple shots every day.

I literally needed it just to cope with life.

So knowing that Starbucks didn't need my money, I can invest it back into myself and my own community.

And so after two years of battling with depression, battling with grief, God was like, all right, it's time to get up, and let's turn this test into a testimony.

- [Leah] As a business woman, she expanded beyond lattes by transforming her daily affirmation practice into a children's book, which in turn inspired her new doll line.

- [Nyshaun] "I am" are two very powerful words that we learned at a very young age in my household.

- So everything that I didn't receive as a child, I would put that down to make sure that I implement that as a parent to my children.

So I began to make them at a certain age sit down, they would have to say affirmations, and "I am" Nyshaun based her whole life after the "I am."

- My mom and dad spoke life over us, literally told us that we could do anything.

And I truly believed that growing up.

And so designing a book that was created for children, you can speak it over them while they're in the womb.

So we've redone our logo, and so Romans 12:2 is now a part of Latte Lounge.

It's to not conform to the world.

And I think that growing up that was, well, not that I think, I know growing up that was a huge part.

My parents told us that we're not made to fit in, we're made to stand out.

And so that's something that has stuck with me literally all the days of my life, and is the reason that I am where I am today.

- [Leah] Recently St. Louis has been recognized as one of the top places for people of color to start up a business.

While we're seeing a rise in business owners, some may still find resources and mentorship hard to come by.

- I reached out to people who were already doing what I what I wanted to do.

And you'd be so surprised at the people that denied me mentorship or denied even answers to my question.

I think mentorships for entrepreneurship is needed in St. Louis for sure.

Like I said, I didn't have that.

And so now that's a service that I offer to other entrepreneurs, young or older.

- [Leah] The life of an entrepreneur may seem fun, free, and exciting, but Nyshaun says there's a lot of hard work required behind that.

- So being an entrepreneur is very rewarding.

I think the world makes it look very cute.

They show the green grass, but they don't show the other side of that.

At the end of the day, when I go home and most people can decompress and cook dinner and relax, I'm working still.

So those are the things that people don't really mention, or they make it to be a cute thing, but it's not extra cute.

Rest is very important.

And so I do make it my business to take specific days of the week and rest.

- [Leah] And her hard work definitely pays off.

With consistent 5 star reviews and over 15,000 followers across social platforms, the Latte Lounge has earned its title as one of the top coffee stops in the region.

(jazz music) - We have another story that sort of fits the "This Week in History" category because 122 years ago in January of 1812, the last and most powerful of the New Madrid Earthquakes shook, and, I mean, really shook this entire region.

But Veronica Mohesky's story is about more than just what happened back then.

Her story is also about what might be considered a modern aftershock of sorts.

- [Veronica] In 1990, the "St. Louis Earthquake Survival Guide" contained important messages that could save Missourians from the massive tremors that were predicted to occur on December 3rd of that year.

- Probably everyone's worst fear is an earthquake hits, the arch falls over, and all of St. Louis is reduced to rubble.

Well, that would make a great Hollywood script, but it's just not gonna happen here.

- [Veronica] But to me, a social media producer in 2022, this video was TikTok gold.

Nine PBS posted four short videos from the survival guide on TikTok and they went viral.

- So they're gonna have to be secured, and I'll show you how to do that later.

Now, put your feet against the wall, brace yourself, and ride it out.

If you're a burnout from the '60s and still have shag carpeting, grab a hold of the stuff.

- [Veronica] All this attention to the videos got me more interested in the events that made the survival guide happen.

So I reached out to the man in the viral TikToks to find out more.

- So they were looking for an individual who knew about earthquakes, who could be the talent, if you would, on this video.

So my boss just turned and looked at me and said, "They want to talk to you and see if you might be interested in doing it."

- [Veronica] That's him, Nick Gragnani.

He's the retired director of the St. Louis Regional Response System.

Due to his expertise in natural disasters, he had a brush with fame in 1990.

- I would start off in the morning and I had a a suitcase.

They had a slide projector in it and slides and all kinds of brochures and videotape.

I would start in the morning at schools talking about earthquakes.

I'd work the afternoon lunchtime with the Kiwanis Clubs and the Rotaries.

I'd finish up at night at community centers and stuff where people just wanted to know more information about earthquakes and how to prepare for this supposedly coming earthquake.

- [Veronica] The reason for Gragnani's busy schedule in 1990 can be traced back to one person.

- There is a probability, an enhanced probability of a large earthquake along all faults in the 30 to 60 degrees north latitude range.

- Iben Browning was kind of an interesting individual.

He was well educated, but he was also kind of a self-promoter as well.

- [Veronica] Christopher Alan Gordon is the director of library and collections at the Missouri Historical Society.

- By training, his actual field of study, he was a zoologist, and then he became, basically, a self-educated climatologist.

Somewhere along those lines, he also begins to theorize about seismology and earthquakes and geology, and he began to make predictions about quakes and so forth.

- [Veronica] Gordon says that at a Missouri Governor's conference, Browning made his famous prediction.

- He made a prediction that 50% chance or a greater, that there would be a 6.0 to 7.0 point earthquake that would occur in the New Madrid fault region, and that this would have devastating consequences over an area like Memphis, Tennessee and St. Louis and this entire region.

- [Veronica] Eventually, Browning had his prediction down to the date December 3rd, 1990.

- You cannot pick a day and time when an earthquake's going to occur.

You can predict over a period of time, over a period of years, a percentage of that just because of the activity and the buildup of energy on those fault lines.

But it's still just a guess.

- [Veronica] And although some experts knew better, many people in the area surrounding the fault began to worry.

- Keep in mind, there will be an earthquake in Missouri.

An earthquake can happen at any time without any warning whatsoever.

- [Veronica] Gragnani said interest in earthquake preparedness took off during this time.

- I mean, I would show up at a meeting where somebody said, "Could you come talk about earthquakes?"

And there might be a dozen people there.

When this started, I was at the Florissant Community Center, and I think there was over 500 people in the hall.

The fire marshal had to close the doors because there were so many people in the room, and it exceeded the level of what was safe for having that number of people in the room.

You know, just two years ago, nobody really cared, or wasn't that much interested in earthquakes, and now it was really a true panic.

- [Veronica] And there worries weren't unfounded, catastrophic Earthquakes had hit Missouri before.

The most famous being the New Madrid Missouri earthquakes of 1811 to 1812.

- There was an earthquake as no one had ever felt before.

It was something that severely shocked people, scared people.

You know, even after that first earthquake, people began to move out of the region.

Then there were two more powerful earthquakes.

Actually, the most powerful of the earthquakes occur in February of the next year.

New Madrid as a town was basically devastated.

- [Veronica] These three major earthquakes destroyed almost all the buildings in the sparsely populated southern Missouri town, and are estimated to have reached between 7.0 to 8.8 on the Richter scale.

- The most devastating of the earthquakes, and this is probably what people equate with this event is that the Mississippi River in one section actually backed up and ran backwards for a while.

- [Veronica] But even if people in the St. Louis region weren't familiar with the New Madrid fault line, several other events caused earthquakes to be fresh on their minds.

- [Reporter] You are looking at an earthquake.

This one hit the San Francisco area last October.

Here, in the St. Louis region, an earthquake is not a question of if, it's a question of when.

- FEMA just coincidentally that same summer of 1990 released a report on what would happen if there was a devastating earthquake in the New Madrid fault region.

So that was kind of fresh information that was just coming out.

And, of course, it was saying without the right preparations the losses would be devastating.

There was also in 1989, kind of a fresh memory of people watching the World Series, and they saw an earthquake live on television during the 1989 World Series.

So people were thinking about that.

Then in September of 1990, there was actually like a 4.7 earthquake down in the Cape Girardeau area.

- All of a sudden we started getting phone calls, and we were getting phone calls from the press saying, "Do you know about this Iben Browning and the earthquake prediction that he is making?"

- And it kind of snowballed from there.

And so local newspapers pick it up first, and then the television stations start talking about it.

And before long, it's just national attention.

- [Veronica] But Browning's unfounded prediction caused real changes in St. Louis.

- In Missouri alone, there was $22 million in new earthquake insurance.

- [Veronica] Wow.

- That was taken out in the months before.

It's unnecessary insurance basically.

And, you know, schools would close.

Things like emergency management agencies were having to print all these disaster literature packets and things like that.

- Just duck, cover, and hold.

- [Veronica] This includes the creation of a certain earthquake survival guide, but not all of the effects of the frenzy were bad.

In fact, the panic caused St. Louis to adopt safer construction codes.

- [Reporter] Steps have already been taken to reduce the risk of earthquake hazards.

The city of St. Louis recently adopted a tougher building code.

A new construction is being designed to withstand seismic forces.

Older buildings like this Veteran's Administration hospital at Jefferson Barracks are being reinforced in case of a major earthquake.

- [Veronica] And while Browning's prediction was bogus, that doesn't mean that St. Louis is out of the woods.

Gragnani says an earthquake is still very likely for our region.

- So in reality, yes, we have a risk, and I do believe that someday we're going to get some level of an earthquake.

What we were trying to do is trying to tell people you can't worry about just that day.

You've gotta be prepared forever for always being prepared for something like this.

- [Veronica] The 1990 panic may seem silly now, but the information from the survival guide is still relevant.

So don't forget to pack up your safety kit because, and it's worth repeating, it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when.

- Have a flashlight and portable radio.

The radio is really important.

You wanna keep in touch with the outside world.

Now, both of these are powered by batteries.

- We've done stories about food drives, but it's not always just about how much food people need.

They also need healthy food and advice on preparation.

And that's particularly important in this city for low-income pregnant women.

Jess Pierce went to find out about Operation Food Search's program.

It's called Nourishing Healthy Starts.

- I heard about the program from my gynecologist when I found out I was pregnant, and she let me know that this was new, and asked me if I would be interested.

I wanted to do something different and anything about food I'm in.

So we had our first meeting, and there was just probably two of us in the beginning, and I was already interested in learning better ways to feed the entire family rather than, you know, going out and getting fast food all the time.

It just, it helped to have something to look forward to.

So these recipes and these things that they would share with us, you always wanted to go home and try it with your kids.

It was a fun thing to do while you're pregnant, you know?

- Operation Food Search is a hunger relief organization, which means essentially we are providing food to the community.

But we decided many years ago that we want to do more than just provide food in an emergency basis.

So now we have a lot of programmatic efforts, a lot of different ways that we're providing food.

One particular program called Nourishing Healthy Starts.

- Nourishing Healthy Starts is a program that works with birthing people that are also food insecure.

So if they're having trouble receiving food, obtaining food, paying for food, then they become part of the program.

What that looks like is basically they receive weekly food boxes.

They're able to receive support from maternal health advocates that provide resources, supportive services, if they need assistance getting enrolled in WIC or Medicaid.

If they need any sort of educational services for other children that may be in the household, they're able to assist them with that, and they receive those services through 90 days postpartum.

- One of our biggest goals is to ensure that all mothers in the program have a baby that's born at an average or above average birth weight.

We know that below average babies have a plethora of different health impacts that could happen, and a lot of times they end up in the NICU, which then, you know, in turn can follow them for a really long time in their life.

And so we're trying to ensure that through proper nutrition that babies are born at a healthy birth weight, which really just sets them up for success longterm.

We have a team of really great professionals.

They are doulas, which means they understand all aspects of bringing children into the world and the care that is required both pre- and post-birth.

And they're also social workers.

So they understand and are very well connected in the community to all the resources that mothers need.

And so they're able to listen really intently to what mothers are struggling with, what they need, and make those connections for them and work through problems with them.

We know that the stress of food insecurity, especially not being able to feed your children is really significant.

The stress causes depression, which leads directly into postpartum depression.

If you can secure that piece of their life in making sure that they not only have food during the period that we're able to provide it to them, you know, to their doorstep, but giving them the skills and the tools that they need so that afterwards when we're no longer providing it directly, that they feel a lot more confident that they will be able to provide for themselves and for their families.

And that does a lot for your wellbeing.

Just that confidence and knowing, okay, this is gonna be okay, like I can do this.

I can prepare the types of meals my kids would like to eat.

I can prepare and eat the types of food that are nourishing for me that are gonna make me feel stronger and healthier.

That goes a long way.

- We had meetings to where we would brainstorm ideas for the program.

It allowed us mothers to talk as well.

We were able to talk about issues we all had and different ways of handling it.

So not only were we getting good information here about food, we were getting like a support system, support group, if you will.

I'm not in the program anymore, but my favorite thing about this place and this program are the people and how they care and how they want to know your opinion, and they take it into consideration, and they try to make the program better.

And just the way I was treated, my sons, the whole program almost had a domino effect with my life.

The program gave me a lot.

It's hard to put into words.

- And that's "Living St.

Louis."

We like hearing from you.

Whatever you've got to say or suggest, send it to us.

We're at NinePBS.org/LSL.

Well, thanks for joining us.

I'm Jim Kirchherr, and we'll see you next time.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) - [Announcer] "Living St. Louis" is funded in part by the Betsy and Thomas Patterson Foundation and the members of Nine PBS.