Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Printer cartridge re-furbisher Cartridge World on Forest Drive have closed their storefront operations. I used them for a LaserJet cartridge a while back, and it is still working fine in my printer.

(Hat tip to my sister)

Big database crash..

Bear with me while I bring older posts back manually. It will take a while, and I'll probably have to lump all the comments together on each post.

Well, I had written a few paragraphs about the State Fair, mainly lamenting the demise of the Steel Building, had got it posted and even had a comment on the post when my whole database went *Kaflooey*!. Enjoy these pictures of the State Fair while I try to get back to a somewhat normal state..

UPDATE 28 October 2015

OK, I'm not going to be able to find the original text in google cache, so the post went something like this:

It turns out 2014 was the end of an era, though I didn't know it at the time. This year, the Steel Building which has been a central focus for the Fair for all of my life was gone. In its place is an open plaza called Hampton Plaza, this year the site of an animatronic exhibit called Enter The Dinosaurs. The function of the Steel Building has been largely picked up by a new building at the South wall called the Goodman Building. It houses many, though not all, of the exhibits and vendors typically in the Steel building, but seems designed to be slightly more upscale. The Cantey Building has been extensively reconfigured for the Art exhibit, and is now much better lit (and the upstairs arcade is unused). The flowers have moved across the corridor from the Ellison Building to the Cantey Building and most of the agricultural exhibits have made the opposite move.

Anyway, if you've followed my Fair posts, you know the kind of thing I like, and these pictures are more of it.

I'll also note that the Televac 86000 handwriting computer is still gone..

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D's Northeast onSparkleberry is closed again.

This is worth noting, but since I already have a page for it, I'm going to turn off comments here, update the old post and redirect the discussion to there.

I took a few minutes to walk Crowson Road between Devine and Fort Jackson Boulevard today. I did not attempt to go onto the old Kmart which was rather cordoned off, but work is definitely underway back there. I heard from a waitress at Ruby Tuesday that the pet store unfortunately lost some animals during the flood. Currently none of those stores are open.

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One of the most iconic images from the flood was the inundation of the TitleMax building on Devine Street. Some other pictures were actually just as incredible, but the bold color scheme of this storefront really made it stand out. One such image is here, and one shot from the other direction is here.

I finally got a chance to take a look at the damage last Saturday (17 October 2015), and it is even more severe than I expected in that while I thought the building would be a total loss, I was somewhat surprised to see the lot a total loss as well. I'm not sure it comes across well in these pictures (shot against the sun for the most part unfortunately), but the whole lot on the Liberty side of the building has dropped at least three feet.

The Free Times suggests that the site will not be rebuilt:

"That was built in the floodway; it would never be allowed to be built today," says Erich Miarka, program director of the Gills Creek Watershed Association. "Since that building was completely destroyed, I don't think they'll be allowed to build there again."

As an aside, I'm not sure how you get two street numbers offset by six in the same building, but that's what seems to have been the case.

UPDATE 19 January 2016 -- TitleMax now has a sign up for their new location:

UPDATE 18 February 2016 -- It appears something is about to happen here, as the property is now fenced off. My guess would be a demolition:

UPDATE 28 March 2019 -- Well, today was the last day for this iconic building. It was still partly standing when I took the first couple of shots, but when I got done eating and drove across the street, it was pretty well flattened. I expect it will be on WLTX tonight, as they had a camera crew there:

UPDATE 19 January 2021 -- It appears a carwash will be going in here:

Also, adding a map icon.

Hopefully I can add some commentary tomorrow, but for now I just want to get these pictures out there.

UPDATE 16 October 2015: Ok, I was under the weather for a few days, but let me add a little text here now.

First, I am happy to say that even as these pictures were taken, on Sunday 11 October 2015, recovery work was in full stride. All the flooded and gutted buildings on Forest Drive had evidence that of ongoing work and cleanup, and I noticed today (15 October 2015) that the Garden Center in Forest Lake Shopping Center was once again stocked and open for business.

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As you may have guessed from the infrequency of posts lately, I've been out of town. It sounds like everything broke loose while I was gone. I see today I can't even count on driving back.

Everybody keep dry and stay safe!

UPDATE 6 October 2015 -- These pictures come in from commenter Rick who says:

The first picture is of a brick retaining wall next to my driveway where we park behind the house. So much water came down the hill in my backyard, about 35 feet of the wall collapsed.

The second photo was taken with me standing at the end of my driveway. The dam at the lake across the street from my property breached and so much water came rushing by it pushed a car into the ditch.

Sorry about the quality of the second photo. It was raining hard and I must have moved while trying to hold the umbrella. I did not check the photo before rushing back inside.

Well, we can see the car going off the road, which is the gist of it..