This year, a massive dining and entertainment hub known as the St. Louis Ballpark Village is set to open across the street from Busch Stadium. It is described as "sports anchored entertainment district." It is also the sort of place where the bars have a dress code to keep out what your bigoted great-aunt might call "the wrong element."
The Ballpark Village itself doesn't have a uniform dress code, but many of the bars and restaurants that make up the entertainment district do, and those dress codes are awfully persnickety. Eight of the bars located in the village share the following post-9:00 p.m. dress code:
The following is not permitted under our dress code after 9pm: sleeveless shirts on men, profanity on clothing, exposed undergarments on men, sweat pants, full sweat suits, excessively long shirts (when standing upright with arms at your side, the bottom of your shirt can not extend below the tip of your fingers), jerseys (sleeved jerseys are permitted in conjunction with a cardinals game or any other major St. Louis sporting event), athletic shorts and excessively sagging pants or shorts bandanas.
The Budweiser Brewhouse's dress code has the added stipulation that no hats of any kind are allowed on the bar's second floor. Hey, Budweiser Brewhouse, you ain't Per Se. Get over yourself.
Incidentally, Cordish Companies, the Baltimore-based development company that brought Ballpark Village to St. Louis, is the same company that built Kansas City's Power & Light entertainment district. Two lawsuits have recently been filed alleging that Power & Light specifically discriminated against black patrons. One of the suits alleges that Power & Light employed white men who were instructed to start fights with black patrons in order to get them kicked out:
Glen Cusimano, a former security liaison for the Power & Light district, alleges in a lawsuit filed in Jackson County Court that Cordish Cos. and others engaged in several racially discriminatory practices, including having white men start arguments with black patrons to get the patrons kicked out of the area.
Sounds like the Ballpark Village is going to be a neat place.