December 2006

Tom Atkins started a “mini Renaissance” of downtown in 1999 when he and his son, Scott, started renovating what has become the Atkins City Centre at 9th and Cherry streets, housing the Columbia Art League, 9th Street Bookstore and the Cherry Street Artisan. After winning several historic preservation awards in 2002, the Atkins duo turned

For Columbians whose experience in dance audiences has been limited to viewing annual performances of The Nutcracker by tulle-bedecked amateur or out-of-town troupes, the term “ballet” has just taken on an entirely new meaning. The first performance of Columbia’s own brand-new professional dance company, the Missouri Contemporary Ballet, invigorates hope not only in the vitality

After more than two decades in the commercial door business, Bob Drainer and his two partners recognized the sound of opportunity knocking when they heard it. Exactly 25 years to the day after first opening Triple B Doors, Drainer and his partners, Bruce Wilson and Buster Caudle, sold the business to a Davenport, Iowa, holding

The Missouri Department of Economic Development (DED) is continuing its efforts to enhance services to the employers and entrepreneurs who call Missouri home. Under the leadership of Gov. Matt Blunt, we have reorganized the department to focus on attracting and retaining good, family-supporting jobs and have merged key departments to improve services to job creators.

In a recent editorial, local environmental pundit Ken Midkiff, conservation chairman of the Ozark chapter of the Sierra Club, posed the following question: “Does the city council represent the public, or does it represent a few rich folks? That is a rhetorical question, and the answer should cause a bit of self-examination by Darwin Hindman,