urbanSTL

I appreciate your enthusiasm and tireless generation of ideas. But you seem to be reaching a little with the coffee convention center. And when I say little, I mean a lot

Agreed, but I want to keep this thread active, so I've got to post something every once in a while. Really, I think Cleveland's medical convention center is also dubious, but I admire their enthusiasm. Are we still talking about the non-existent coffee distict as if it is a real thing? I believe we are, so I'm glad we can talk about a non-existent coffee convention center just to keep the meme going.

I'm really confused by Dierkes on this one. Yes there is light rail in the vicinity. There is also heavy rail as well.

I'm really confused by the Chouteau Greenway. Does it remove the rail lines or just bury them? The plan is to replace the railyard with a lake, isn't it?

The Cargill plant is on the riverfront right next to a metrolink station. If East St. Louis had a bigger population and more money, would it still be there? I doubt it. The central corridor is steadily getting wealthier and denser. The grain silo in question is next to some low-rent warehouses at the obvious connection point for the Grove, two medical schools, Chouteau Greenway, and an emerging business district with biotech start-ups and established companies like Stereotaxis. It can't stay a forgotten industrial intersection far into the future.

It depends on our policies, but if the intersection ever gets a makeover, I hope we can keep the grain silos--functioning or retrofitted.

Thomas Coffee scored a distribution deal with Pepsi. This should put them in Louisville, Nashville, Memphis, and Little Rock.

That's big. Bob was optimistic about this when I talked to him back in April: (blog story here: http://tiny.cc/fq3d8). This will give a huge boost to their business.

There's a story about Thomas Coffee in the Beacon. It's a pretty encouraging read. It uses the term Coffee District in the headline and says positive things about our roasting history.

I wonder where they got THAT idea! It's good to see Thomas get more publicity. I noticed they're on the shelves at the Richmond Heights Schnuck's now - bags and cans. I wonder if anyone at Ronnoco or Kaldi's are even remotely interested in a "coffee district"?

Six North at Laclede and Sarah will be moving to Ballwin on January 1. I think to succeed in West County, they are going to have to add a drive-thru and rename themselves Starbuck's.

Because I take the 32 bus regularly and occasionally bike up and down Manchester, I've been trying to see if I could find any points of connection for the relatively established city of Maplewood and the up and coming FPSE neighborhood. I think coffee might be a good place to start. There's a Coffee Crawl in the spring involving the Schlafly Bottleworks, Foundation Grounds, and Stone Spiral Coffee and Curios. Goshen, Kaldi's and Barry Jarrett were involved this past year.

If a coffee themed event happened in the Grove that could coincide with Maplewood's Coffee Crawl, or if events could be staggered back and forth between the two areas, it'd put some people on the 32 or at least generate some back and forth traffic. Kaldi's involvement could open the door for Thomas and Ronnoco to join.

Get the St. Louis Coffee Party to advertise it...