Meet UrbanMain Steering Committee member Ann Smart. Ann is a longtime Dutchtown resident who has been active in many community organizations and activities. She’ll participate in a new partnership between DT2 • Downtown Dutchtown and Missouri Main Street Connection to enhance the economic, social, cultural and environmental well-being of Downtown Dutchtown. 

“I am a longtime homeowner in Dutchtown. I have served on the boards of DT2 and Dutchtown South Community Corporation. Professionally, I am a Lead Business Analyst, working in software development. I love Dutchtown because of the diversity, architecture, location, value, and most importantly, the community.”

If you’d like to help Ann and the rest of the UrbanMain Steering Committee to strengthen Downtown Dutchtown, please take our survey. It takes just a few minutes to tell us what you think about Downtown Dutchtown today and tell us what you’d like to see in the future.

Take our survey

We’ll be introducing more UrbanMain Steering Committee members over the next several days. Come back to dutchtownstl.org to meet them!

DT2 • Downtown Dutchtown is partnering with Missouri Main Street Connection on the UrbanMain Initiative, a first of its kind program in Missouri. The initiative aims to enhance the economic, social, cultural ,and environmental well-being of Downtown Dutchtown. This pilot program will start with a focus on the area along Meramec between Grand and Broadway.

The process is just getting started. We need your input to gather information on your perceptions of and hopes for Downtown Dutchtown. If you’ve ever lived, worked, shopped, or visited Downtown Dutchtown, we’d love for you to complete our brief survey.

Take our survey

Keep in mind that when we talk about Downtown Dutchtown, we mean approximately about the area in the map below centered on Meramec Street. But these boundaries are fuzzy. Your answers can help us to more clearly define what our neighbors refer to as Downtown Dutchtown.

We’re delighted to introduce our Urban Main Steering Committee, a group of eight Dutchtown residents, business owners, and other stakeholders with personal and professional experience in Dutchtown. We’ll have more announcements about UrbanMain events and programs in the Downtown Dutchtown area over the next few years. Stay tuned!

Last evening DT2 • Downtown Dutchtown hosted our first in-person After Hours event in several months with the Havana’s Cuisine food truck parked at the Neighborhood Innovation Center. In spite of the drizzly weather, we had an excellent turnout and a ton of fun. There were Cuban sandwiches and empanandas, music and dancing, giveaways of Dutchtown Proud yard signs and gift cards to Original Crusoe’s, and community building.

We asked that our visitors wear a mask and practice safe social distancing. We couldn’t have received better support and cooperation.

We saw lots of familiar faces and lots of new faces — well, just eyes, mostly. But it was still great to see neighbors for the first time since COVID-19 shut us in for what seems like months on end.

Neighborhood photographer Chip Smith of Cross Grand captured all the beautiful masked faces in portrait form and has shared his photos with us. It will probably be very strange to look back on these photos in the future, but we’ll still be able to see a resilient bunch of neighbors who turn out and support each other during tough times.

Give STL Day is Thursday, May 7th. This year, we hope you’ll consider donating to DT2 • Downtown Dutchtown in support of their mission of building a stronger Dutchtown community.

We’ve got a couple of different ways you can give to DT2 for Give STL Day or any other day of the year.

Dutchtown Proud Signs

This year, in exchange for your donation, DT2 is offering new, eye-catching Dutchtown Proud yard signs! Show your neighborhood support to everyone passing your home.

These durable corrugated plastic signs cost about $5 each to produce. We ask you to donate what you can to help us cover costs. Anything additional goes straight to DT2’s efforts to create opportunity and prosperity for our neighbors.

To make your donation and request your sign, visit dutchtownstl.org/proud. You’ll be asked to name your price for the sign. You can then check out and pay via credit card or PayPal. We’ll deliver the sign to your doorstep as soon as possible.

Direct Donations

If you’d just like to make a straight donation to DT2, you can always go to dutchtownstl.org/donate and make your contribution via PayPal. We’ve also added a donation item to our DutchtownSTL Shop. Just tell us how much you’d like to contribute, then pay with credit card or Paypal.

If you prefer to donate via check, you can send your payment to:

More Dutchtown Organizations

Looking for additional neighborhood non-profits that could use your donation? Below are a few that are participating in Give STL Day. Click the links to be taken directly to their respective Give STL Day donation pages.

• Dutchtown South Community Corporation
• Franciscan Charities (St. Anthony Food Pantry and Franciscan Connection)
• Gene Slay’s Girls and Boys Club
• Habitat for Humanity St. Louis
• Perennial
• South Broadway Art Project
• Tenth Life Cat Rescue
• Thomas Dunn Learning Center

Updated May 1st at 8am.

While we can’t get together like we used to, Dutchtown-area organizations are still seeking to bring neighbors together and keep us engaged during the health crisis. Here’s a few opportunities for you to see your neighbors’ faces and be involved with your community.

Cherokee Street Cinco de Mayo at Home

The annual Cherokee Street Cinco de Mayo festival can’t go on quite as planned, but the organizers would still like you to bring the party home! Proceeds from the event will help raise funds for Show Up for Cherokee Street, a fund to provide short term relief to Cherokee Street workers and businesses.

Visit the Facebook event discussion to find out ways that you can bring Cinco de Mayo home.

The People’s Joy Parade

While the annual Cherokee Street Cinco de Mayo festival may not be going on as planned, the accompanying People’s Joy Parade will still bring the show to you!

The People’s Joy Parade coordinators will create a video from clips submitted by participants and live stream it on Saturday, May 2nd.

Virtual Workshops with Perennial

Perennial is offering virtual community workshops and classes online. Join the Community Workshop on May 3rd to ask questions about your ongoing projects, take part in a number of classes, or join the Craft Club Happy Hour on Wednesday, May 13th.

Stay tuned to Perennial’s website and Facebook page for more virtual event announcements.

We’ll be updating this page as we become aware of more virtual events for our Dutchtown neighbors. If you know of an event that should be on our list, please contact us.