Up-Down Arcade Bar Wins Legal Challenge, Gets Liquor License at Long Last by Sara Henske.
The headline above, posted yesterday on the Riverfront Times website, provided a long-awaited answer to CWE residents who have been wondering about the status of Up-Down Arcade Bar’s liquor license application. The owners of Up-Down, who signed a lease for the iconic space at 405 N. Euclid occupied most recently by Herbie’s Vintage 72 and began renovation work over a year ago, ceased work when faced with a challenge to the issuance of a liquor license for the premises.
Photo courtesy of Up-down Arcade Bar
Here’s the latest post from CWEnder Jack Grone, publisher of the online journal McPherson, detailing his investigation of Tax Increment Financing (TIFs) in St. Louis. The TIF Trade: A Curious Case of Missing City Data 
is hardly light reading, but Grone has the skills to make a challenging topic easier to understand.
The article mentions TIFs that were awarded in the neighborhood, including Cortex Innovation Community and The Orion at Euclid and West Pine. Read article in its entirety here.
Rainy Day in STL by Kristen Kempton
Multi-talented CWE-based artist and fashion designer Kristen Kempton, whose label FINK (Fashion +INK) is created completely from scratch using fabrics she hand-prints with original hand-drawn artwork, posted news that one of her designs appears in the 2017 movie ZenDog.
According to Kempton, ZenDog’s main female character, “Maya,” wears the FINK dress (shown in a Monica White photograph above) under a vintage faux-fur coat in a scene set in Chicago.
To view more of Kempton’s wearable art, paintings, photographs, and home decor, visit her website.
photograph by Matt Miller / For The Washington Post
You’re Going Where? St. Louis, an article by Washington Post reporter Kate Silver published in The Chicago Tribune, mentions the Central West End and Forest Park as “not to be missed” when visiting our town. I don’t think there is a travel article about St. Louis that doesn’t mention gooey butter cake, and Silver, who was born in St. Louis but not raised here, is no exception—she mentions it twice.
Nicki thanks for jump starting my week with an excellent article on how TIF’s came to be and how they operate in STL TIF’s are often discussed among residents here in the CWE and throughout the city with a lack of clarity about the issue. I hope others take the time to read, terrific job presenting the information.
Arthur: Thank you for commenting. Jack Grone did all the legwork on this, all I did was bring it to everyone’s attention. He’s a fabulous reporter, and St. Louis is fortunate that he’s pursuing these important topics.