University City Police Department Community Meeting

The University City Police Department holds it's monthly meeting with UCITY Neighborhood Watch Units on Tuesday, November 25th, 2008 at the Heman Park Community Center (975 Pennsylvania) from 6:00 pm. until 8:00 pm. The purpose of this forum is to meet and discuss problems, share information, plan activities and coordinate efforts. With the recent car break-ins in Gannondale, a group from our neighborhood will attend this meeting. If you are curious about joining us, please contact Bryan S. Young (7536 Cornell) at 727-3579.

The 2008 Halloween Report (David Tyndall)

Gannondale retained its status as a destination neighborhood for Halloween 2008, with an unofficial record 120 trick-or-treaters counted at one house which had counted "only" 86 children in 2007. Not only were the crowds larger, but more of them arrived later in the evening than last year, as shown in the accompanying chart:

From Blogger Pictures

Weather was just about perfect both years -- sunny with highs in the 60's last year, sunny and 70+ this time around -- so the only apparent difference was Halloween falling on a weekend night this time around. Not sure what this means for 2009, when All Hallows Eve will fall on a Saturday. One guess: An earlier start, and an even larger number of ghoulish visitors!

David Tyndall (7540 Stanford)

Great Forest Park Balloon Race 2008 by Paula Pini (7501 Gannon)

On September 20th, my mom (Mary Pini) and I were standing in Gannondale’s Triangle Park during the Block Party when I looked up to see a giant Pepsi Can floating in the sky - a hot air balloon! We both knew what to do - get the camera and run! The chase was on - on the ground as well as in the sky.

We ran east on Cornell, turned north on Jackson, ran around University City High School to Shaftsbury and continued west to North & South as we watched the balloons float in the sky. They led us to the landing spot (marked by a giant white X on the ground) in a tiny clearing just north of the B'Nai Amoona Cemetery (only four blocks from Triangle Park!)

The Macy's balloon was the "rabbit" this year (due to problems with the Energizer Bunny balloon) and was chased by all the other balloons. The Fontbonne University balloon team won the race by dropping its "bomb" (a beanbag with a streamer attached to it) closest to the X-marked spot and landing nearest to the center of the X.

Question: I thought the winner was the balloon that lands closest to the "rabbit" balloon. Is using a beanbag "bomb" and landing near a X-marked spot a more common way of deciding who wins a hot air balloon race?

We watched the Citi balloon drop its "bomb" and land second. More balloons followed closely behind. At one point, we saw four balloons on the ground in the clearing at the same time. How they could all fit in this spot was amazing! Later I heard the Pepsi balloon came in third place, but I don't know where it landed.

This was not the Pini family's first balloon chase. We have chased balloons on Great Forest Park Balloon Race day many times in the past. When I was in high school, we lived in the University City Loop area and balloons landed on building rooftops, parking lots, and just about anywhere they could find a spot. Another year mom and I chased the balloons by car to the Westport area. The Wherenberg Theatre Popcorn balloon just missed landing on my car by a few feet - I almost had the biggest bag of popcorn ever on top of my car. Hey, if the popcorn had been real I just might have let it happen!

We look forward to many more balloon races in the future - it's an experience you never forget. But maybe one day it will be me floating above the treetops watching others running after my balloon.