RFP Staff
♦ City planners are beaming over the possibility of the “infill” restaurants such as Panera Bread, Jimmy Johns Gourmet Sandwiches, and Golden Corral. Yet it appears they gave little thought about how chain “infill” restaurants will put a major hurting on downtown independent restaurants like the Sidewalk Deli, Spanky’s, Uncle Bucks, and Cartucci’s.
Developer Victor Wallace, of the prominent Wallace family, sagely acknowledged when Cooper’s restaurant closed, that each new restaurant in downtown results in the closure of an existing restaurant. Mr. Wallace recognized that downtown, with its limited visitors, could only support so many restaurants. So, the city planners’ heralding of Smart Growth “infill development” of area restaurants appear to have looked past the resulting closure of downtown restaurants. Consumers naturally flock to safer locations with parking near a well-lighted dinning venue and in an area unsaturated with aggressive “alms seekers” for their next pharmaceutical “fix” or their bottle gang brethren woozily trotting down Main Street.
With Golden Corral (likely to become a monster all-you-can eat draw) and Jimmy Johns Gourmet Sandwiches coming to “town”, the Downtown Salisbury ONLY crowd need not blame county commissioners when two Downtown restaurants shudder there doors and give up their window space for “Downtown Window Art”. But a silver lining exists in the economic misfortune: with more shuddered downtown space, there will be fewer consumers clogging downtown streets. And with much “calmer” traffic, perhaps no businesses of any import will be left to protest the choking of traffic to single lane in each direction, with an equal number of bike lanes. Be careful what you ask for because you just might get it.
Jake Alexander Blvd appears to be prospering as the Downtown lurches toward certain death at the hands of the highest taxes of any downtown area in North Carolina and ever increasing vacancies. We look for more residences to be set up in the downtown’s former shop spaces. It takes a dedicated bunch of pioneers willing to forego motorized vehicles, and willing to pay the 65.69 cents city property tax on top of the $65 cents county tax, plus the 81.24 cents Municipal Service District “downtown” Tax.
The coming downtown homesteaders may enjoy the convenience of a converted “Food Desert Bus” where they might swipe their EBT and credit cards to deliver fresh, locally grown produce, if they are too proud to catch a bus to Walmart, K-Mart, or Big Lots to buy their food.
Downtown Salisbury may overnight become a trendsetter 3rd world rickshaw and bike community with zero need for much of a tax base. Such a visionary community might be a perfect fit for years to come after Salisbury bellies up.
