A gate provider's delight

On Monday, the New York City Council decided to ban the use of opaque storefront gates in favor of eliminating graffiti and beautifying city neighborhoods. However, the Council is not supplying funds for new see-through gates, laying the responsibility on store owners to carry out the legislation.

The ban will officially go into effect in 2026, a whopping 17 years from now. I suppose they figure that it will take that long for some of New York City's store owners to save up for a new gate. New meshed security gates can cost thousands of dollars, which is a lot of money for inner city store owners who are already struggling to protect their money and keep their businesses afloat.

And while this is a very bad thing for business owners, it's a very good thing for local gate providers and locksmiths.

With all new storefront gate installations required to be mesh after 2011, the storefront security gate industry will certainly spike overnight. The demand for mesh gates will rise and since currently there are not a significant amount of providers, the costs of gates will skyrocket, making them even more unreachable for small business owners. In an economy as tight as it is now, this law is sending local small businesses into a downward spiral.

Is the elimination of residential expression worth the demise of local economic stimuli?

Hyperlocal, an international movement

Another revamp! This thing's starting to look pretty damn sharp if I do say so myself.

Also, I was talking to a Norwegian journalist yesterday (how often do you get to say that?!) about changes in the industry here in America versus across the pond. He mentioned a newspaper in a small town in Finland (I think) that has launched an online site devoted specifically to local history.

He said it's a branch of the newspaper's web site, and the paper is slowly going back in time and cataloging the town's history. It's apparently a huge hit. People have the option to comment on whether they were at a certain event or what significant things happened to them during a specific time period. They're encouraged to share their family lineage - if grandma helped stock the food bank during a crisis or if great-grandpa served in war. It helps bring pride to the town, and it's probably a big boost in ad sales for the paper, too....

I found this interesting because it sounds to me like there's an international focus on the localization of information. All over the world, newspapers aren't zeroed in on the big picture anymore. Of course, "big picture" news needs to be and will still be covered, especially through sources like the AP, the NYT, CNN and a handful of others. But ultimately, local news is where it's at - even in Finland!