After this post was published and reposted to various social media, Red Brick published the following letter on social media and the leasing manager took to NextDoor to highlight the company’s recent efforts to maintain its properties and admit the company’s past reputation was not the best.
In reality, Red Brick has to put money into its properties for maintenance because it is the law. Red Brick’s properties were not in Conservation Districts requiring inspections and occupancy permits. Now they are thanks to 7th Ward Alderwoman Phyllis Young. Coincidentally, Alderwoman Young’s election opponent in 2013 was a business tenant of a Red Brick company.
The response by Jack Coatar’s campaign to all this bad publicity was to roll out already known endorsements. No attempt was made to distance him from his mentor and former employer Brian Wahby, mentioned in the post. Quite the contrary, Wahby is embraced as an important endorsement.
Most peculiar was the phrase, “Coatar has also earned the endorsements of the 7th Ward Regular Democrats,” which is a political action committee formed by Wahby the first week in January of this year and has never had a meeting or worked the polls. It is Brian Wahby under a different name.
In the end, no one has denied that Red Brick has previously been a problem or Jack Coatar’s relationship to the company.
We stand firmly behind- Don’t Like Red Brick? Don’t Vote for Jack Coatar.
— Marie Ceselski, 7th Ward Independent Democrats
In the weeks leading up to Mardi Gras Grand Parade in St Louis, one apartment management company strikes fear in many Soulard and Benton Park residents when its green, purple, and yellow Mardi Gras rental signs go up on their blocks.
Red Brick will rent you a short term lease party palace for a small fortune.
A group of guys, mostly young but of drinking age, will rent one of these apartments for a few days. They will lay down plastic thinking it will help prevent damage and they will get the deposit back. They will order kegs. Invest in Hurricane supplies. They will buy bales of toilet paper. They might even buy a bunch of chips, hot dogs or a cheap frozen pizza. Then they will put out word that they are open for business: all the beer, bathroom privileges, and a place to crash during Mardi Gras for $50, $100, or more per person. Under age? No problem.
The result is young drunks in unsafe numbers on porches, stairs, verandas, decks; a gauntlet of foul-mouthed creatures blocking access to neighboring apartments and homes; juvenile behavior resulting in damage to or theft of the property of others; public urination as sport; and the vomit, let’s not forget what power drinking Hurricanes without eating anything but a bag of chips produces.
It’s very hard to crack down on these illegal hotels/bars. The Red Brick Mardi Gras rentals signs are not necessarily located at the actual rental locations. They are sometimes not even located on Red Brick property.
You often do not know a party palace is next door until it is too late- Friday night before Grand Parade when you notice 50 people are going in an out of an apartment.
And that’s just Mardi Gras. Most of the Citizen Service Bureau complaints I have made over the past three years have been Red Brick related addresses.
Red Brick has chosen Jack Coatar as its candidate for 7th Ward Alderman and invested $1,000 in his campaign.
It’s not a surprise. Brian Wahby, Coatar’s mentor and former employer, worked for Red Brick, maybe still does.
And you may have noticed an impressive display of Jack Coatar signs in the 7th Ward. Most of the signs in front of apartments are Red Brick related properties. They are in the same locations used by Brian Wahby during his disastrous campaign for Treasurer. It doesn’t mean there are any voters at the address, let alone Jack Coatar voters.
Whatever Red Brick wants from Jack Coater, it can’t be good for neighbors of their apartments.
7th Ward candidate Chelsea Merta is already helping some residents with problem property complaints.
Chelsea Merta will be an alderman independent of Red Brick.
Elect Chelsea Merta 7th Ward Alderman.
— Marie Ceselski, 7th Ward Democratic Committeewoman
7th Ward Independent Democrats
The Board of Election Commissioners is open for In-Person Absentee Voting…
As a follow up to the offer to help candidates for 7th Ward Alderman understand campaign finance laws and election rules (
7TH WARD ST LOUIS 