These are the people in your neighborhood...

Happy Friday, Internet. It seems we made it through another week, bitter cold and all, hooray! Had an amazing turnout for the Upper King Design District meeting here at Fish on Wednesday night. Susan Lucas, AKA Queen of King Street, asks everyone to just put the name of their business on their name tag, so it facilitates people introducing themselves. Great idea.

Here's something I've been finding so puzzling: how so many businesses on King Street don't know OTHER businesses on King Street. For instance, I spoke with a couple of folks from the Lower King area who have never ventured to Upper King. Personally, I'm a walker, and I like to know the neighborhood. But I'll tell you, it's such a huge thing to be able to put faces and names with businesses. Getting to know someone and speak to them outside of their businesses is so interesting. I venture to say that if merchants and business owners from say, East Bay Street for example, could have peeked in our meeting the other night, they would have been insanely jealous. This meeting was just that good. I was looking around at one point during the evening and could not believe the collective creativity and positivity the room contained. It was a palpable energy. My neighborhood rocks. I just want to put on my cardigan and flip my shoe!

What's also cool is how Spring Street is exploding. If you haven't been over there recently, do yourself a favor and take a walk. Talk about creative energy: try Suite Sole and Maddison Row to get things started.