RFP Staff
♦ Burglaries, break-ins, and unlawful entries continue at a breakneck clip throughout Salisbury. Especially hard hit are the Downtown restaurants, lounges, and shops. Good grief how can these businesses survive with limited foot and vehicular traffic, violent crime stalking the area, little parking, and the high overhead artificially created by the largest municipal district tax in North Carolina to keep a decrepit former flophouse on life supports? Oh yes, how about a possible a A-bomb property tax raise to give our police a sub-marginal pay boost, shylock style triple net leases, the opening of new restaurants that puts the competition out of business. Top it all with panhandlers, sucker punch artists who could be stuntmen in making of “Concussion II”, shoplifters, gang taggers and graffiti artists, window “rockers”, and bad check artists. We’re not even going to mention the expensive chicanery of overages on Downtown renovations or the abuse games utilizing historic codes. Ah the survival of the fittest in the musical chair playland where the hang time for new retailers and restaurants is often less than a year.
Lest we forget the internet mega-goliaths like Amazon.com are brutally underselling both chain and independent retailers into oblivion. It’s a wipeout. As consumers we love it.
Meanwhile people with spendable income are flying out of the Dodge City of the Piedmont when they unload their houses on a crowded market by dumping their real estate agents and practicing the art of “For Sale by Owner”. Successful practitioners of “for Sale by Owner” do their own closing with budget priced lawyers and free forms available on the internet. Cut out the middle man–sell your house in less time and at less of a loss. In the very near future the RFP will provide articles on how free yourself of real estate agents and win at “For Sale by Owner”.
Sources in the Salisbury Police Department and friendly Downtown business owners shared with us that the popular Sweet Meadow Café at 111 N. Main Street (The old Bernhardt Hardware Building) was the victim of a burglary–attempted breaking and entry sometime between Monday night and early Tuesday morning. A backdoor to the café and door handle were damaged in the break-in attempt.
At this time it is not known if anything of value was stolen. The owners Heather and Scott Teeter were recently in the news for their understandable struggle with taxes and the opening of a Go Fund Me site to assist them from going under. Many of their friends and neighbors have contributed to save the Sweet Meadow. We hope the miscreant(s) who attempted this break-in are soon caught and are put on display in stocks in the “Square”.
Social media announcement of the attempted break-in:
Sweet Meadow Café, 111 N. Main Street, Salisbury, N.C.
Location Sweet Meadow Café, 111 N. Main Street, Salisbury, N.C.:
Citizens having any knowledge about this crime are urged to call the Salisbury Police at 704-638-5333. If you fear retribution, want to remain anonymous and possibly collect a reward of up to $1,000, information can be submitted 24/7 via the web: http://tips.salisburyrowancrimestoppers.org/ or by calling the Salisbury-Rowan Crime Stoppers at 1-866-639-5245.
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♦ Maia Janashia Smith’s Review of the Rowan Free Press Report of Maia Closing Her Popular Fashion Store by the Square:
The Rowan Free Press Report:
