Bistro 51?

Lots of remodeling going on at the former Icebox Bar and Grille, nee Jays.  Workmen have gutted the interior for the past couple of weeks and a Bistro 51 logo has gone up on the awning facing West Main Street.  I assume the plan is to capitalize on positive reviews of the original Bistro 51, considered one of Carbondale's top restaurants before it closed several years ago.

The original Bistro 51 did prove it possible to run a successful restaurant in the Icebox's location.  It required a reputation for good food in an upscale atmosphere, as well as parking facilities to deal with the little parking available to the building.  The original Bistro 51 dealt with this by offering valet parking so that patrons did not have to deal with it themselves.  It will prove interesting to see how the new Bistro 51 approaches the situation.

TitleMax Coming

The agenda is not posted on the city's website yet, but the Planning Commission will meet on July 17 to consider, among other issues, a couple of zoning requests.  One, from Lindsey Fisher, requests a rezoning of 413 N. Oakland Ave from Low Density Residential to Neighborhood Business, as well as a Special Use Permit to operate an automobile repair service at the site.  Incidentally, just before this meeting, the Zoning Board of Appeals will meet to consider Fisher's appeal of the cease and desist letter from the city that caused the closure of Oakland Ave. Auto Service.  Fisher, or her representatives, looks to have a busy evening.

New on the agenda is a request from Jeff Cerma of TitleMax Illinois for a Special Use Permit for a credit service to open in the old Wendy's location on East Walnut, bringing in another short term loan company right across the street from the one already there and a block and a half away from the relocated State Finance.  I thought we were saturated but I guess TitleMax sees a growing market here for short term loans

Pinch Penny Moving?

Though the agenda has not been posted as of Monday night., one of the items scheduled for the Liquor Advisory Board this Thursday night is a request to transfer of the liquor license for Pinch Penny Liquors to a new location, 701 East Grand, the location of the closed Saluki Bookstore.  It would appear that, instead of 710 Bookstore taking over the space during the redevelopment of their current location, Pinch Penny has decided to abandon its long time location and move across the street, making it a bit more difficult for those drinking at Pinch Penny Pub to pick up a 12 pack or a craft brew before hitting the road home.

The new location certainly given them a lot more space to expand their selection, which, according to the reviews I have read, tops other stores in the area in terms of regional beers and wines. Parking should improve as well as the store won't have to share parking spaces with the other businesses in the current complex.

Lawsuit Against SIU BOT

Press release I just received from Dunham:

Nolan Sharkey filed a suit today naming Jesse Cler and the entire Southern Illinois University Board of Trustees as Defendants.  The suit alleges that Cler, a student at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, is seeking to be certified as the student trustee representing the Carbondale campus on the Board of Trustee.  Sharkey’s suit alleges that Cler failed to comply with the student trustee election procedures, and therefore his name should not have been placed on the ballot.  The suit further contends that the election was flawed because SIU administration and faculty improperly influenced the election.   In addition, Sharkey alleges that SIU-C Graduate and Professional Student Council refused to certify Cler’s election because the elections procedures had been violated.  The suit seeks to have the election declared void, further declaring that any votes that Cler would cast while serving on the Board should be deemed to be void.   Sharkey is seeking a preliminary injunction, enjoining the Defendants from seating Cler until while the suit is pending.   At the time the suit was filed, a date had not been set on Sharkey’s request for a preliminary injunction.  Sharkey, a law student at SIU, was Cler’s opponent in the April, 2013, election.   Sharkey is represented by Darrell Dunham, Attorney at Law, Carbondale, Illinois.

Declaration of Independence

Always worth a read.  Or, if you are the sort who prefer getting their information audibly, you can listen to people on the National Mall read it here and read what some say it means to them here.

D'lish

Seeing construction and landscaping for a new business called D'lish on East Main, across from Hunan.  From the name, I would hazard a food related business no information beyond that.  Anyone have any further information?

Amazon and You

Use Amazon?  Most likely you do, at least at some point.  According to a recent not I saw in Business Week, roughly 36% of all consumer purchases in America intersect with Amazon at some point.  Either you start out looking at a product on Amazon, do some research on it on Amazon or buy it on Amazon, but at some point, if you buy a product in the US, your path moves through Amazon just over a third of the time.  That's a pretty amazing figure

Not so much so, though, when you consider that Amazon's total sales equal that of the next 4 largest online retailers combined. (Amazon's total sales only reach about 10% of Wal-mart's total, so the online retailer has quite a distance to go to catch Wal-mart).  In order to increase its sales and have a chance of eventually overtaking Wal-mart, Amazon had decided to start same day delivery on products other than digital ones.  You would order a product in the morning, and, by the afternoon, it would arrive at your door. In fact, it has introduced this in a few large cities.  

 In order to put the process in place, Amazon will have to drastically expand its distribution network and expose itself to collecting more sales taxes, a major reason why the retailer has thrown  its weight behind the Marketplace Fairness Act.  The company figures that, since expanding its physical presence into more markets will obligate it to collect sales tax in them, requiring all online retailers to collect sales taxes takes away another competitive advantage those retailers would retain over Amazon.