Brenda Berry Simpson withdrew her name today as a candidate for 5th Ward alderman, clearing the way for another term for Alderwoman April Ford-Griffin.

Last year, we interviewed Alderwoman Griffin on her unique fashion sense. Watch the video below.

Alderwoman April Ford Griffin, 38, of St. Louis’ Fifth Ward likes things a little colorful or daringly draped in animal print, but being a civil servant for 11-and-a-half years means less flash and setting an example for the younger ladies.

“I’ve toned down my style,” she said, while admitting, “I like a lot of glitter, rhinestones and pearls.”

She gets her love for an eye-catching look from her mother and grandmother, who are fond of accessories, colors and tons of jewelry. They’re a family who likes to give you a look to remember.

“My mother has lots of jewelry. Rings on every finger. As many bracelets as you can on one wrist,” Griffin said, rings on her fingers dazzling. “I love jewelry … but I don’t come to the board room looking like Mr. T.”

Instead, Griffin dials the flash down a notch and goes for a more conservative, tailored look, pictured here in a gray suit and white blouse by Ann Taylor Petite, topped with her red, rhinestone-studded Prada frames and finished with a touch of flare from her black alligator cowboy boots. Made in Las Vegas, Griffin saw the boots as the way to make a statement with one singular fashion item of high quality.

“You can wear them with jeans. You can dress them up and dress them down,” she said.

Griffin said she was partial to the cowboy boot for its longevity as an American fashion staple. Sticking with staples is part of her style. Since she can’t afford an array of trendy items, she focuses on garments of high quality that are “timeless.” She gets some of her clothes from stores like Cache and Ann Taylor and is partial to Dillard’s as her department store of choice. But to get some of the best quality for a lower price, Griffin is big about consignment shops.

While she gives her mother and grandmother credit for her style, Griffin tips her hat to the women she grew up watching at church. Since Griffin was not “exposed to a lot of high fashion” in her youth, she admired the female church-goers for having the ability to be eye-catching yet “ladylike.”

Griffin aspires to dress in that same manor hoping to instill that same pride in young women.

“It’s important for me to set an example,” she said. “You can look sexy while dressed up at the same time.”

Photos by Antonio D. French

See more pictures from our photo shoot with April Ford-Griffin at our Flickr photo set.

PUB DEF SPECIAL REPORT

Poisoning the well of good faith negotiations in trying to reach a compromise on the controversial Land Assemblage Tax Credit is the amount of anger and raw emotion people have towards its chief architect, Paul McKee, and the amount of damage he has done to a community already devastated by decades of neglect.

“Paul McKee creates blight,” said 5th Ward Alderman April Ford Griffin last week as she showed legislators and her aldermanic colleagues long-standing brick buildings which now sit with entire walls spilled out onto its once green yard.

She told the other lawmakers about reports from neighbors of mysterious men ramming Bobcats into the sides of buildings, which only months before housed families, causing the walls to fall onto themselves and leaving the building open to the elements, looters and drug dealers.

Some scenes in the video you are about to watch look like they were filmed in the most devastated areas of New Orleans. Mr. McKee and others will point to these images and say this is why he needs this tax credit. What is important for Missouri’s state legislators to understand, say city aldermen, is that just 18-24 months ago, many of these buildings were homes with families living in them. Then Blairmont came.

This is where the anger comes from.

But after all the anger surrounding this one man, what St. Louis’ Legislative delegation must remember is that this problem is larger than one man, even this man who in the short-term has made the situation worse.

There are 100 million dollars in much needed tax credits on the table. The challenge over the next few days is how to make them available to people who do care about these communities, organizations and developers who are respectful of the people of these areas and sensitive to their desires about the future of their community, and not to reward a man who has for so long, so blatantly disregarded the men, women and children forced to live next to his piles of bricks and self-made blight.

The devil will be in the details.

Click here to download this video (.mov). Here’s the YouTube link.

Click here to watch our earlier Blairmont special report.

Bloggers, feel free to post these videos on your sites.

At a press conference this morning at the corner of Montgomery Street and N. Garrison Avenue in north St. Louis, 5th Ward Alderman April Ford-Griffin voiced her concerns about the proposed Land Assemblage Tax Credit that is once again being discussed by state legislators.

Griffin echoed concerns that the bill needs to be amended to allow others beside controversial St. Charles developer Paul McKee to benefit. According to Griffin, McKee has intentionally allowed his 500-plus properties in north St. Louis to deteriorate — and in some cases, workers have intentionally knocked down walls and destroyed foundations — in order to drop the property values and buy more land.

Griffin said the state legislature should not reward McKee for his poor stewardship of these properties.

Griffin also accused Mayor Francis Slay’s office someone in city government of sending city workers to McKee’s sites yesterday to clean up his lots ahead of today’s press event.

Several other aldermen, including Charles Troupe, Dionne Flowers, Freeman Bosley, Sr., Marlene Davis, Jeffrey Boyd, Terry Kennedy, Frank Williamson, Bill Waterhouse, and Board President Lewis Reed attended the event. State Reps Jeanette Mott Oxford and Jamilah Nasheed, who both helped organize the event, were joined by colleagues Rodney Hubbard, Cynthia Davis (R-O’Fallon) and Ron Casey (D-Crystal City). License Collector and former 19th Ward alderman Mike McMillan also attended.