RFP Staff
♦ Closed since January, Cartucci’s Italian Restaurant, a one time popular restaurant on Brick Street (Fisher Street), officially threw in the towel this week and is trying to sell the business.
Cartucci’s business never picked up again since the restaurant was closed for a lengthy stretch after a kitchen blaze. Traffic on Brick Street measurably dropped off over the past year with Cooper’s closing in 2013 and Bench Warmer’s gasping for air since they were temporarily shut down due to façade collapse. Chef Santos is now the lone restaurant on Brick Street. The only viable business left on Brick Street is “Expressions” a head shop catering to the sex toy and bong crowd.
Previously the owner of Cartucci’s unloaded Cartucci’s Grapevine on Main Street which will reopen as “Jack Rabbit Slim” a music bar in late February.
Salisbury’s Main Street is pockmarked with vacancies and a lack of much human traffic. Several retailers are reported teetering on the brink. So far there’s no relief in sight in 2015. Market-based “traffic Calming” has remade Main Street Salisbury into a virtual ghost town.
Area realtors claim that Downtown Salisbury has reached a critical mass wherein when a restaurant opens another closes down owing to the city’s lack of persons with disposable income. Crime, poor schools, poverty, diminished city services, and blight are leading to a gradual exodus of the city’s working class. The “pullout” is only slowed by homeowners inability to jettison their houses in an ultra slow housing market.
http://rowanfreepress.com/2015/01/26/has-salisburys-downtown-death-valley-reached-a-critical-mass/
