Let me echo Glo Nickerson's challenge on Subterranean's facebook page. She writes:

"Will each resident of U. City able to read, join me in buyng at least one book during the month of MARCH. We can no longer sit back and do nothing when a business is struggling. This community is and has forever sought after the business owners in U. City for IN-Kind donations. Now this is our opportunity to give back."

My husband and I have already transferred a number of our amazon purchases to Subterranean - both in store and online at http://store.subbooks.com/. We encourage you to do the same.

Contd. in next post...

Furthermore, I encourage Subterranean to consider bringing back used book sales big time. The U-City Public Library receives many donations of excellent condition used books every month (the library may kill me for suggestion this, but I think they would still get plenty of donations). And I'm not talking about stuff no one wants or everyone already has, I'm talking about good, sometimes hard-to-find stock. I venture to think at least some of the book donators might love a local place to buy, sell and trade books. Not to mention the many college student and faculty populations close by.

To become a really viable used book seller might indeed involve a different location with more space for stock to sit around until the right buyer comes along. I think the prospect of moving could be an exciting one for Subterranean. BUT ONLY IF THEY STAY IN U-CITY. Having our own independent local bookshop is part of the fiber of this community. I can think of a number of possible locations with potential.

Finally, could the Loop association find grant funds to subsidize rents for struggling local businesses? It seems like opening up the playing field to chains (Verizon, Noodles & Company, etc.) may be driving rent prices up. That’s unfortunate.

PS. This article is part of my first ever tweet at http://twitter.com/weeklyucitizen! Very soon I will be launching a new U-City-themed blog: local news commentary, local business reviews and more at http://www.u-citizen.org/.

The U City sales and property tax rates are too high.
The property owner or the city can supply you with the property value, mortgage rate, insuance rate and property tax rate. These may give you an idea if you are paying a fair price, if not you may use this as a bargaining point. Plus the actual value of property has gone down, if your building is reassesed at a lower value it may help the owners tax rate, but not help if they want to sell soon. If you move out does the owner have someone waiting to move in? Probably not.
I think the City and Loop need to remain in competition to lower the cost of doing business and the City may not have the same traffic, but they may have better incentives if you are willing to move east. If you are in the City, you may want to contact Andrea Riganti, Lehman Walker or maybe Joe Edwards to find out what incentives U. City has to offer? Either way the City and Loop should be competing for your store!
U. City does have a Loop Special Business Tax Rate that is higher than the 8.425% regular sales tax rate and this does nothing to help you compete, but in April 2010 the City raised their sales tax rate by 1%, this needs to stop!

Love the bunny idea. I've offered to help Ms. von Plonski with a good old-school flyer campaign on the WashU campus. Students don't monitor local comings and goings, but I know I will be hearing a lot of "Man, I loved that place, why'd they leave" on the WashU campus if Subterranean is gone. So, inform them of the situation. They might act.

The used bookstore I cited elsewhere as a potential model for Ms. Plonski does a DJ night. Now, that is because they also sell music. But, you get the point. Doing this type of community outreach consistently can have a big impact.

Non-profits should totally team up with Subterranean. Anything can help.

Agree 3rd Ward about taxes here. We have moved 15 times and U city property taxes are the highest of anywhere we've ever lived. When we think of retiring from military (tho looking for another job) we will consider all of that- the mortgage, the taxes, etc. I see many more homes for sale here than when we moved two years ago. And on our street alone, prices have dropped 70K-100K. That is scary! Esp if you have to move due to job, again.

Also know a person looking for a location for business but U city makes it difficult with rent prices. In my neighborhood a building has sat empty for at least a year while there are people looking to open businesses but with 1100 a month rent for a small space, well, not feasible for those I know. One went to Webster where rent is less than half that with a high traffic area. As a newcomer here, love the loop but i find myself going there less than the first year. i want the funky and eclectic, but also need to buy milk, house items, (ACE hardware sets up in places like this) need a more 'main street' area sometimes. I heard a grocer was coming but not seen it. And this is probably not feasible, but have they ever thought about closing the Delmar street and making it an entirely pedestrian area? part of it? I think traffic/parking keeps people away sometimes. I don't know the history or if there is a street to reroute, probably not, but in other areas I've lived, those have been available and big pedestrian draws.

Thanks Gena for the info, hopefully we will have a Chamber of Commerce in the near future, our Mayor Shelley Welsch proposed the idea while campaigning. We also have a shopping area on Olive that needs redevelopement, but the powers that be, (Joe Edwards), don't want U. City to expand beyond the Loop. A Chamber of Commerce would really help businesses such as Subterranean and help mold the Loop into something more family friendly without becoming a franchise row. Economically people are looking for staples more than fun stuff which the Loop is full of, and higher rent causes higher prices for fun stuff; not a good way to do business at the moment. A Chamber of Commerce could help with rent price management, but unfortunately it may be a few years away.
The City does have a taxpayer funded account to pay for a Delmar/Olive Trolley but unfortunately the previous City Manager and Council under Mayor Adams redirected money from it to the General Funds. This is not illegal but unethical. This fund is supposed to pay for shutting Delmar down to only foot traffic with a trolley. I could go on and on about corruption in U. City's govt., but this is not the place! U. City isn't business friendly, but it takes years to undo bad policy.
Great observations on your part, and if you feel like expessing these concerns to anyone, call City Hall and ask for Andrea Riganti or Lehman Walker, we need a Chamber of Commerce!

FYI: the grocery store that was schedule to open on the East side of Delmar is no more. Here is bit from Sauce Mag posted on NextSTL blogsite on February 3, 2011.

“We have ended our negotiations with Washington University. They have allocated building funds to other residential projects and commissioned a study to explore the retail environment in The Loop which will be completed in October 2011. Without their upfront funding to whitebox the building shell, our project appears dead.” Washington University currently owns the property which was formerly occupied by Dobbs Tire and Auto Service." Sad, I know. I was really excited.

Here is the link to magazine. http://www.saucemagazine.com/blog/?p=8223

Michelle, thanks for the update about the grocery store. I've been asked about it, so glad for the info.