Downtown Retail Shuffle
This is an interesting time to stroll around in Downtown St. Louis.
While I have been skeptical for a long time about downtown's (re)development, it is nevertheless very exciting to see the number of new retailers moving in.
Granted, most are well out of my price range, but it's still interesting.
Closings
The (in)famous Jack Carl's 2-Cents Plain on the "forgotten" 1100 block of Olive is closing up, and with it goes an enigmatic piece of history, one of the last reminders of old Gaslight Square (along with O'Connell's Pub out on Kingshighway and Shaw). With Brady-Drake Printing having moved out from 1113 Olive across the street to 7649 Delmar in University City, and the United Way having moved out of 1111 Olive into an (incredibly ugly suburban-style) building of their own at 910 N. 11th, across from the St. Louis Public Schools in a similarly ugly building. Apparently, the Convention Plaza West office park is no longer suitable for the banking back-office operations once located there - after all, a lot of that work is done overseas now. So, those ugly early 1980s glass-and-steel boxes are available for non-profits and government entities to buy up, I guess.
Blustein's Bride's House, located at 1010 Locust for many, many years (and in business since 1918) has moved out to the Mid Rivers Mall area of St. Peters. The building is now owned by the same group of investors that owns the Alverne Chapel building next door - competely empty, save for a controversial nightclub with a 3 AM license (and serving sushi) called Ten14.
Most recently, the tiny 1015 Cafe, owned by an African immigrant couple I believe, in the lobby of The Locust Building at 1015 Locust, closed up shop. They'd only been there a few years; before that, the cafe there was under a different owner with a different name.
The adjacent watch repair/jewelry shop space also inside the 1015 Locust lobby has been empty for a while now - Johnstone Jewelers had moved into there from Oakville, was there maybe 18 months, then moved out to Crestwood. Meanwhile, the former Cass Bank space in the very front part of the lobby has been sitting empty for probably three years now.
Openings
Despite the loss of some fairly old-timers, the number of new retailers downtown is quite impressive! Two, whose home bases are in Webster Groves, are particularly interesting:
Salt of the Earth, 1121 Locust in the Alexander Lofts, sells interesting home furnishings, mostly hand-crafted stuff from Mexico, Italy, and other places. I think the space they occupy used to be both Papa John's Pizza and the Hollywood Rubber Stamp Company. Papa John's is supposedly going to re-open in the space at Tucker and Locust that used to be the AmerenUE walk-in payments center (closed probably in 1999); for now, all downtown deliveries are made by the location on South Grand near Gravois. Hollywood Rubber Stamp, an African-American family-owned business, moved a few blocks to a storefront at 700 North Tucker Blvd., in the old Globe-Democrat building.
Kenary Park Florist and Gifts, 1315 Washington Ave., has a great array of real and silk flowers, as well as clever little gift items. Their original location is on West Lockwood in Webster Groves.
Then there's Case Semplice, a new high-quality kitchen accessories place, which opened in July in the upper-loft level of the Ambiente Collection space at the corner of 10th and Locust. The proprietor is Chuck Cantrell, a fellow who lives downtown and used to work for a software firm called Blue Martini.
Relocations
Heuer Locksmith and Hardware is moving - again - from the corner of 11th and Locust in the Louderman Lofts. The Louderman was once-upon-a-time called the Landmark Louderman Building because of its owner, Landmark Bank, and a former home for city agencies such as LCRA and SLATE. Landmark Bank, meanwhile, was bought out in about 1991 or '92 by Magna Bank, which was bought by Union Planters in '98, which was bought in 2004 by Regions Bank. Regions Bank does have a branch downtown, but it's in the Gateway One building at 7th and Market.
Heuer used to be the Alverne Chapel building across 11th from their current location. But the new location for Heuer is 919 Locust, in the ground floor of the St. Louis Design Center, now owned by the Roberts companies - which, incidentally, is also one of the major landlords near their other (original?) location, at 1250 N. Kingshighway just south of Page. Heuer owns its own small commercial building there.
There's also the aforementioned deal with Papa John's at Tucker and Locust.
So, the section of downtown south of the Washington Avenue Loft District, and west of "Old Post Office Square", is really starting to shape up. Once called the "armpit of downtown" by some, now there is some activity starting to happen.
I am concerned that it'll be difficult to sustain all these high-end home furnishings shops in such a concentration. Besides those I mentioned, UMA, Ambiente, Lee J, MacroSun, and Niche have all opened or moved to downtown in recent months; and the Mossa Center has been on Washington for at least 15 years now. While they all have interesting stuff - that, again, I simply can't afford! - I wonder whether they'll all make it long-term. Once the loft-buyers have bought their $20,000 worth of furniture, will they go back to those places again? Are folks who live outside downtown coming to these places? Time will tell.
I wish all the businesses good luck in this endeavor, but I wonder how many of them will survive.
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
More Domain-Name Silliness
More Domain-Name Silliness
Some people will do anything for money. Including selling out an entire country halfway around the world.
After finding out about the dot-museum domain, I found out that a number of nation-states and colonial territories have had their formally assigned two-letter country-code top-level domains (ccTLDs) hijacked by so-called entrepreneurs. Most of these businesses are based in the U.S. Examples include:
.la - advertised as the "new domain name for Los Angeles, Louisiana and Latin America." At first, they were billing it just for Los Angeles, CA "the world's first city to have its own official Internet address" (huh?).
But, the thing is... .la is actually the ccTLD for the People's Democratic Republic of Laos.
The Lao PDR government is an extremely repressive, communist regime, and it deliberately stifles access to the Internet for its people. This is well-documented. Nevertheless, in 2002 the Internat Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) reaffirmed that the domain belongs to Laos. So, hopefully, if "regime change" ever occurs, it can be utilized by Laotian people - not by Angelinos.
.cc - This was heavily marketed as "the next .com" especially by media powerhouse Clear Channel Communications, which not-so-subtly tried to identify the domain with itself. Around 2000 or so, ads for the now-defunct spot.cc domain name registration service ran constantly on ClearChannel stations. Today, eNIC still markets the .cc domain, although not as heavily as back during the .com boom.
But - .cc is actually owned by... the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, a chain of South Pacific atolls that's an offshore territory of Australia. The resident population is about 629. At least these islands supposedly got some kind of remuneration - an undersea Internet connection and some computer training programs - from the deal.
.tv - This domain, for obvious reasons, is quite popular among pornography distributors and the like. It is managed by a division of VeriSign, the same company that handles .com and .net.
Of course, .tv ... is owned by the Republic of Tuvalu, another Pacific island chain. Tuvalu gained independence from Britain in 1978, and has just over 10,000 residents - and a 15-member Parliament.
Originally, Idealab contracted with the Tuvalu government for a long-term lease to obtain rights to the .tv domain. The funds allowed Tuvalu to join the United Nations and the Commonwealth for the first time, in 2000. Schools and infrastructure have been improved, too, but the amount of money has not been nearly as much as predicted. The country has for years also sold its telephone lines to 'chat' line and telephone gambling providers; and postage stamp sales are another generator of foreign currency. Tuvalu still uses the Australian dollar as their local currency.
However, since most of the people there are conservative Congregationalist Christians, thanks to the work of 19th Century British missionaries, there is some concern about these somewhat morally questionable sources of revenue. On the other hand, they have no other option (except, perhaps, bailout by New Zealand and Australia).
There are many other examples where "domain hacks" have been used rather cleverly, to make a word using those last two letters at the end.
For example, del.icio.us uses the .us domain, and the blo.gs aggregation service now owned by Yahoo uses the .gs ccTLD, which is assigned to the British South Atlantic colony of South Georgia and the South Shetland Islands - a colony less well-known than the nearby Islas Malvinas, whose ccTLD, incidentally, is ... .fk.
Some people will do anything for money. Including selling out an entire country halfway around the world.
After finding out about the dot-museum domain, I found out that a number of nation-states and colonial territories have had their formally assigned two-letter country-code top-level domains (ccTLDs) hijacked by so-called entrepreneurs. Most of these businesses are based in the U.S. Examples include:
.la - advertised as the "new domain name for Los Angeles, Louisiana and Latin America." At first, they were billing it just for Los Angeles, CA "the world's first city to have its own official Internet address" (huh?).
But, the thing is... .la is actually the ccTLD for the People's Democratic Republic of Laos.
The Lao PDR government is an extremely repressive, communist regime, and it deliberately stifles access to the Internet for its people. This is well-documented. Nevertheless, in 2002 the Internat Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) reaffirmed that the domain belongs to Laos. So, hopefully, if "regime change" ever occurs, it can be utilized by Laotian people - not by Angelinos.
.cc - This was heavily marketed as "the next .com" especially by media powerhouse Clear Channel Communications, which not-so-subtly tried to identify the domain with itself. Around 2000 or so, ads for the now-defunct spot.cc domain name registration service ran constantly on ClearChannel stations. Today, eNIC still markets the .cc domain, although not as heavily as back during the .com boom.
But - .cc is actually owned by... the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, a chain of South Pacific atolls that's an offshore territory of Australia. The resident population is about 629. At least these islands supposedly got some kind of remuneration - an undersea Internet connection and some computer training programs - from the deal.
.tv - This domain, for obvious reasons, is quite popular among pornography distributors and the like. It is managed by a division of VeriSign, the same company that handles .com and .net.
Of course, .tv ... is owned by the Republic of Tuvalu, another Pacific island chain. Tuvalu gained independence from Britain in 1978, and has just over 10,000 residents - and a 15-member Parliament.
Originally, Idealab contracted with the Tuvalu government for a long-term lease to obtain rights to the .tv domain. The funds allowed Tuvalu to join the United Nations and the Commonwealth for the first time, in 2000. Schools and infrastructure have been improved, too, but the amount of money has not been nearly as much as predicted. The country has for years also sold its telephone lines to 'chat' line and telephone gambling providers; and postage stamp sales are another generator of foreign currency. Tuvalu still uses the Australian dollar as their local currency.
However, since most of the people there are conservative Congregationalist Christians, thanks to the work of 19th Century British missionaries, there is some concern about these somewhat morally questionable sources of revenue. On the other hand, they have no other option (except, perhaps, bailout by New Zealand and Australia).
There are many other examples where "domain hacks" have been used rather cleverly, to make a word using those last two letters at the end.
For example, del.icio.us uses the .us domain, and the blo.gs aggregation service now owned by Yahoo uses the .gs ccTLD, which is assigned to the British South Atlantic colony of South Georgia and the South Shetland Islands - a colony less well-known than the nearby Islas Malvinas, whose ccTLD, incidentally, is ... .fk.
Dot-Museum
Dot-Museum
Recently the St. Louis Art Museum unveiled a new web site - with a new domain name!
What was once slam.org is now stlouis.art.museum (or saintlouis.art.museum - both work). And slam.org just redirects to the new address.
In 2001, the Museum Domain Management Association was empowered to manage the dot-museum top-level domain, approved by the Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) in 2000. This was one of three new "sponsored" top-level domains (TLDs) approved at that time and "designed for use within a specified community. Registration restrictions for these TLDs have been developed by the sponsor with input from the community." Thus dot-museum, although controversial at its initiation, is intended as a global standard for all kinds of museums.
The other two sponsored TLDs were arguably even narrower: dot-aero, specifically for the aviation business; and dot-coop, for cooperatives. For example, West County-based Missouri Corporate Credit Union, which is (believe it or not) a credit union serving other credit unions, uses the dot-coop domain.
These three rather obscure TLDs were created at the same time as a variety of somewhat better-known "new" TLDs: dot-biz, dot-info, dot-name, and dot-pro.
There is another, much older option for museums located in the U.S., but most have not used it: the "locality" version of the dot-us TLD. You know, the ones like state.mo.us, slps.k12.mo.us, slpl.lib.mo.us, co.st-louis.mo.us and ci.st-louis.mo.us. The art museum would have been something like slam.mus.mo.us - not exactly easy-to-remember.
Of course, somehow dot-com has become what everybody remembers. Even so, there's always been dot-net, dot-org (which many of the former dot-us entities, particularly K-12 school districts and public libraries, like SLPS and SLPL have recently moved to), dot-gov (owned by the Feds but which has allowed some state and local entities like the State of Missouri and the City of New York to move in to their space), and dot-edu (now open to community colleges, shifting many of them, including StLCC, off the dot-us namespace).
Then there's dot-mil. I don't think anybody else wants into that one. Indeed, civilian Department of Defense jobs are posted on a dot-org, and military recruiting is usually done on dot-coms.
Recently the St. Louis Art Museum unveiled a new web site - with a new domain name!
What was once slam.org is now stlouis.art.museum (or saintlouis.art.museum - both work). And slam.org just redirects to the new address.
In 2001, the Museum Domain Management Association was empowered to manage the dot-museum top-level domain, approved by the Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) in 2000. This was one of three new "sponsored" top-level domains (TLDs) approved at that time and "designed for use within a specified community. Registration restrictions for these TLDs have been developed by the sponsor with input from the community." Thus dot-museum, although controversial at its initiation, is intended as a global standard for all kinds of museums.
The other two sponsored TLDs were arguably even narrower: dot-aero, specifically for the aviation business; and dot-coop, for cooperatives. For example, West County-based Missouri Corporate Credit Union, which is (believe it or not) a credit union serving other credit unions, uses the dot-coop domain.
These three rather obscure TLDs were created at the same time as a variety of somewhat better-known "new" TLDs: dot-biz, dot-info, dot-name, and dot-pro.
There is another, much older option for museums located in the U.S., but most have not used it: the "locality" version of the dot-us TLD. You know, the ones like state.mo.us, slps.k12.mo.us, slpl.lib.mo.us, co.st-louis.mo.us and ci.st-louis.mo.us. The art museum would have been something like slam.mus.mo.us - not exactly easy-to-remember.
Of course, somehow dot-com has become what everybody remembers. Even so, there's always been dot-net, dot-org (which many of the former dot-us entities, particularly K-12 school districts and public libraries, like SLPS and SLPL have recently moved to), dot-gov (owned by the Feds but which has allowed some state and local entities like the State of Missouri and the City of New York to move in to their space), and dot-edu (now open to community colleges, shifting many of them, including StLCC, off the dot-us namespace).
Then there's dot-mil. I don't think anybody else wants into that one. Indeed, civilian Department of Defense jobs are posted on a dot-org, and military recruiting is usually done on dot-coms.
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