Steve Mensing, Editor
♦ The “Slide in the City”, promoted by Downtown Salisbury Inc. is coming to Main Street in Downtown Salisbury, N.C. on August 29th. The “Slide the City” is giving endless flashbacks to the Downtown merchants who recall when the Sleepy Hollow film crews “iced” local business by shutting down the streets. Retailers and eateries were hung up on the ropes with their consciousness in orbit while those who manipulated the background scenes “helped” themselves Salisbury style. For over a week of filming, the downtown merchants ate nothing but lost revenue. The local restaurants saw their promise of a big pay day in the sky disappear while the film crews gobbled down “union” food.
Now DSI wants to shutdown 4 Main Street blocks and “cap” business cold for 2 days straight. And those merchants who complain are being told they are “negative”. So Salisbury. Anybody who takes issue with the status quo in the Bury is called “negative”.
About “Slide the City”. Picture a water slide the length of 3 football fields running from Salisbury Square down South Main. No Parking whatsoever on South Main and the streets are to be shut down on Friday to ready the 1000 yard slide. And half of those businesses are dangling by a thread in “Boomtown U.S.A.”
Slide the City:
To the untutored eye it appears as if the Downtown merchants are about to take another hit. Is this “Sleepy Hollow II”?
If the merchants laid down for the highest municipal taxie waxies in all of North Carolina to support the “fabulous” Empire Hotel, maybe they’ll give it up for a lost business weekend? I hope not.
Its alleged Paula Boland of DSI and her assistant quit attending the merchants meetings weeks ago. The DSI gals didn’t want anymore disrespect from the ungrateful merchants. The nerve–the sense of entitlement of those people daring to carp about the highest municipal service tax in the state and then whine about getting nothing but lip service and the honor of putting up with a decaying hotel that NOBODY wants. Gosh would you want to be torn apart by rabid bats or go straight to the basement when you hit a soft spot in the floor? Or lose brain cells to lead dust?
It won’t be helping the merchants when the County puts the kabash on their parking lot for a weekend and buses kids over from the West End Plaza and back. I mean, what is a family of four going to spend when they come in with 4 tube floats, 4 towels and a change of clothes to schlep around town? Then stand in line for an hour (That is if anyone shows up). Take a $20 ride down a water-wasting ride; then hop back on the bus unless they’ve paid for the big day pass. Is this even right for Salisbury? After all 25% of our city lives below the poverty line and lacks much spendable income. This looks way out of range for most local children and their parents.
And running an event on August 29th when a lot of people leave the Bury except the folks who are scraping by? Are people really going to come to Salisbury with its “rep” around the state? Will the city’s undermanned police department be able to afford any semblance of protection?
http://www.slidethecity.com/events/salisbury/
