2011 Best Alternative Arts Space; 2011 Staff Pick: Best public brainstorming

All original indications pointed to Urban ReThink growing into something that was designed to be detested: A floundering economy and lack of interest in print product shuts down another brick-and-mortar independent bookstore (Urban Think), a sneaky marketing campaign solicits opinions on what to do with the space, and then it opens up with promises of rental “co-working” space for the fictitious urban-minded intelligentsia of Orlando. Pah. But what really happened is something to embrace. Developer Craig Ustler has wisely allowed Urban ReThink to develop into whatever it damn well pleases, with spoken word, film or music events filling the calendar nearly every night. It’s a bit like Starbucks with wine during the day – all laptops and smart whispers of creative commerce underscored by hiccups – but in becoming a sparse gathering space for the perpetually ambitious, Urban ReThink may have just become the best thing going in Thornton Park.

> READ MORE