urbanSTL

hebeters2 wrote:Like Working at Home? It Could Become Permanent
A survey of CFOs shows that 74% will move at least 5% of their previously on-site workforce to permanently remote positions post-COVID 19.
https://www.industryweek.com/talent/art ... -permanent

https://marker.medium.com/7-predictions ... ac052c8514

“2. Remote work will become the default
Many will find they prefer working remotely and, when the crisis recedes, it will become hard and expensive for some companies to deny them that option, while others will want to take advantage of this new preference. Remote work technology will improve, enabling the sort of mingling previously thought to require in-person meetings. This will cause a severe downturn for commercial real estate as companies drastically cut the size of their workspaces”




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The next step after letting someone permanently work from home is outsourcing that job overseas. 

hebeters2 wrote: ↑

Apr 16, 2020

Like Working at Home? It Could Become Permanent
A survey of CFOs shows that 74% will move at least 5% of their previously on-site workforce to permanently remote positions post-COVID 19.
https://www.industryweek.com/talent/art ... -permanent

Weird Doesn't really seem like a decision for a CFO to make. That's more the purview of a CEO or COO. Unless it's just referring to the workers the roll up to the CFO, which would be pretty limited. 

Star Clipper on Wash Ave is closed. Sign on the door says they are moving to a new location, but no address yet. Nothing on social media either. 

Also the Boom Boom Room is moving into 1229 Washington Ave, looking in the window it looks like a pretty sweet space. Construction hasn't been active since sh*t hit the fan, but they still have the speaker on the door playing 1920s music so I suppose that is a good sign.

Also some construction happening to the old Las Palmas space. Looks like they are ripping out the kitchen and framing up offices. Kind of a disappointment for a nice corner retail spot. 

GoHarvOrGoHome wrote: ↑

Apr 27, 2020

Star Clipper on Wash Ave is closed. Sign on the door says they are moving to a new location, but no address yet. Nothing on social media either. 

Also the Boom Boom Room is moving into 1229 Washington Ave, looking in the window it looks like a pretty sweet space. Construction hasn't been active since sh*t hit the fan, but they still have the speaker on the door playing 1920s music so I suppose that is a good sign.

Also some construction happening to the old Las Palmas space. Looks like they are ripping out the kitchen and framing up offices. Kind of a disappointment for a nice corner retail spot. 

Star Clipper move to Fairview Heights, ILL 

^Star Clipper is owned by Fantasy Books and Games, which already has a location in Fairview Heights. I'm a miniatures gaming guy, not a comic book guy, so I haven't even managed to so much as visit the Washington location. I've gotten the impression it's essentially a comic book and collectible card location. And of their four stores, that one would almost certainly be the one with the highest rent and the least flexibility. I bet they just consolidate.

Gaming and comic book stores are a particularly interesting proposition to me. I am an enthusiastic gamer. I am an avid modeler. I have an enormous collection of generally well painted models and a not unimpressive library of gaming books. I love painting and I buy enough stuff I have to apologize to my sweetheart more often than I'd care to admit for overspending. But . . . I rarely ever go to gaming stores because they just don't carry anything I want to buy anymore and I often find the atmosphere a tad off-putting.

Is it me? Am I just that danged old and square now? Stuck in my vintage gaming ways? (While constantly looking for new rules or new miniatures I like.) Is it the culture of the stores? (Which tends to run somewhat testosterrific and perhaps a tad under-socialized.) Is it just the fact that I got my start as a plastic modeler and never much got into the "gamier" modeling supplies? (These days I use mostly things bought at Jo-Anne's or Lowes.) Are there enough folks like me out there to even support a store?

I just don't know. And it gives me the sads. And even if I don't go there . . . the death of a gaming store still makes me sad. I want to like gaming stores. I want to shop at them and spend time there getting to know folks like me. Really. I swear. I have t-shirts with orcs and metal bands on them too, even if I play classical music and mostly dress in button down shirts these days . . . well . . . before the pandemic, anyway.

Anyway, very sorry to hear that.

And remind me to go give Moonbase Market a visit. Maybe they'd make a good hole to the "Gateway Regional Oldhammer Group." (Ideally I really want this to be inside city limits. For reasons.)

</nerdiness>

----"Is it the culture of the stores? (Which tends to run somewhat testosterrific and perhaps a tad under-socialized.)"---

I once walked into a gaming store with a lady friend. It was like somebody hit the "pause" button. All gaming stopped. A hush fell over the store. All eyes went to us (or I guess to my lady friend). It made us both feel very uncomfortable. Very weird. We enjoyed the attention for a while, then got the heck out of there. 

I'm a model builder too (see my avatar). I've given up trying to find supplies at hobby/model shops. Since Tinker Town closed several years ago, I get all my supplies online.  

^Come on, I look more yuppy than hipster and the Tick Tock is my favorite bar in town 

Well, it started out with a downtown gaming store. (Which still seems darned odd to me.) But I could very much see the argument that we could use an urban nerd/geek support thread. And some of that is still relatively urban, and at least before Covid St. Louis was building a rep as a growing boardgaming powerhouse. (I sincerely hope we can retain that after.) And some of that might almost be high enough budget to justify downtown rent. Heck, I bought a St. Louis produced cardgame in Peterborough England. (Unstable Unicorns. It's . . . wrong. Very wrong. But it looks very funny.)

CRM was the last real blow to me. I went in there sometimes even when I lived in Columbia. And almost as soon as I move back, bam . . . But they never really did the model railroad thing, so far as I'm aware. More a temple to injection molded styrene. Astro's/Hobby Haven was a personal favorite. Used to know the owners fairly well. Liked The Hobby Shop on Hampton a lot too. (Though that was much more gamey.) There's still a few places, but they're getting fewer and farther out.

^Sorry to hear about your poor experience Framer. I would like to say there are places with much better socialized gamers and much better newcomer culture, but I'm not sure which places that would be here, and I doubt any of them would have the supplies you would want anyway. I just WISH there were a good hobby shop were all of us could meet and coexist with our diverse, but not unrelated hobbies. Lord knows I could stand to learn from you.

shadrach wrote: ↑

Apr 29, 2020

I could write paragraphs about my South City ‘hipster business’ pet peeve (cough, cough ‘Cash Only‘ cough, cough)....

Wow, we’re in the weeds.

For the good and for the bad, "hipster businesses" led part of the local business anti-mall revival. 

^One of the neat things I saw in the UK was healthy malls in urban cores. Oddly, I actually like malls when they're not surrounded by seas of parking far out on the western fringes of nowherseville. Our comparative lack of downtown retail is something of a failing, I'd say. Not that "hipsters" are to blame for this, mind you. Quite the opposite, in fact. I'd personally pay the blame at the feet of subsidized sprawl. And I sincerely hope, even believe, that things will improve if we quit paying for new roads and expanded sewers out of general budgets. One of these days, as the transportation model evolves, denser urban environments will regain their luster and downtown malls will come back . . . albeit likely in a very different form than St. Louis Center. After all, what is a mall but a sort of "department store" where the "departments" have different owners and operators. Or a modern day agora. In the end, they're just a forum where people can conduct the business of buying and selling stuff, and those will always be with us.

symphonicpoet wrote: ↑

Apr 30, 2020

 In the end, they're just a forum where people can conduct the business of buying and selling stuff, and those will always be with us.

Not necessarily in physical form, with the rise (and triumph) of online retail.

^We may buy more online, but I doubt very much online retail will ever completely take the place of physical retail spaces. Even reigning god-emperor of online retail is building actual stores now. It turns out a blend works best . . . ignoring the occasional zombie plague. So yes, necessarily in physical form. Online may be big, but it's a little premature to say it's "won." What percentage of all retail is online in the U. S.? How about globally?

Shopping spaces will always be with us.

symphonicpoet wrote: ↑

May 01, 2020

^We may buy more online, but I doubt very much online retail will ever completely take the place of physical retail spaces. Even reigning god-emperor of online retail is building actual stores now. It turns out a blend works best . . . ignoring the occasional zombie plague. So yes, necessarily in physical form. Online may be big, but it's a little premature to say it's "won." What percentage of all retail is online in the U. S.? How about globally?

Shopping spaces will always be with us.

16% and growing
https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/arti ... ar-review/

Praise the street gods, finally! Hopefully this resurfacing comes with some additional biking provisions. Would love to see somethings similar to the Tower Grove/Arsenal refresh.

sc4mayor wrote: ↑

May 01, 2020

^ Yep.  Wanted to asked if any additional improvements were planned for Tucker.  That road is more than wide enough for a protected cycle track which I thought had been suggested/studied at some point? But I doubt very much we’ll be that lucky.  Tucker could also use some wider sidewalks and bump outs.

This was the last news I had heard of Tucker being changed. Looks like they are in the funding phase who knows how long that could last now though. It would be nice to have Tucker go down to 2 lanes with parking and then bike lanes on both sides. 
https://trailnet.org/2020/03/11/tucker- ... l-forward/

Great news.

Slightly off topic, is it true that Tucker used to have an outdoor market in the middle of the street? I thought I remember seeing a picture of it at one time on this forum.

At the very least they could fix the lights on Tucker. They're way, way too long. They're set to encourage 40-50mph traffic.

Several of them have some pretty bad pedestrian/turning traffic interfacing, where pedestrians basically have to play chicken with a line of turning cars.

We have to have the worst stoplights in the country. They're timed abhorrently, so they're awful for all involved, cars and pedestrians.

You are completely correct about the market in the middle of Tucker.

Also La Bamba on Wash Ave has been rebranded to be another Burro Loco


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A while back a restaurant by the same name (out of state) sent La Bamba a nice polite letter to change its name

GoHarvOrGoHome:

Also La Bamba on Wash Ave has been rebranded to be another Burro Loco

Here's hoping that this means we will get a real La Bamba somewhere in the city, finally...