Is Springfield a viable retail market?

[mtraininjax]

I remember a few years ago how the folks in Springfield were thumping their chests about Main street and all the redevelopment. Seems to me those same folks need to rejuvenate the pride again. It's not over, far from it.

[thelakelander]

I think redevelopment is right around the corner.  Its just not going to come in the form of what many people envisioned this early in the process.  Despite the recession, you have a car wash on the way and proposals for a pedestrian friendly gas station/restaurant and the redevelopment of the blighted Park View nearby.  City Kidz is also in the process of expanding.  The community needs to support these developments and push for more.  Even though they may not be the Publix or Cracker Barrel some believed would come, additional development generates more traffic which makes the corridor more attractive to additional retailers.  Instead of fighting everything, get the ball rolling and you will see that momentum will be hard to stop.

[sheclown]

Part of the problem is the perceived crime or "unfavorables" who hang out on upper Main Street.  We do have vagrants, sometimes the mentally ill visit us, but Main Street is truly filled with very pleasant people walking by, or catching the bus, or visiting the pawn shops.  

I have fallen in love with the customers who visit Main Street.  The little old ladies who buy up all of the horror VHS tapes, the mentally challenged woman who pays for dolls with grubby quarters and pennies she has earned from collecting cans all over town, the performers who buy our beaded clothing, the families with little children who play in our display window, the rebels who come for the coffee.

These people fill my days.

I've been there for going on a year, and the worst thing to happen to me, is a stolen kiss.  

Springfield is a viable market, but one must grow where he's planted, and welcome all people who walk on by.  Or as a wise friend tells me "greet all customers with eternal optimism."

& I would expand this to say "greet all businesses with eternal optimism."

[GoldenEst82]

What about something similar to what Downtown is doing with its empty space?
Letting artists/creatives rent the spaces cheap?

I know it was discussed in another thread that some building owners have subsidized rent for small retailers.
(ie Zombie, which has now moved)
Would not filling the spaces and having them cared for get them sold faster? I think a buyer would rather see a usable (and used) space, than a dilapidated pile.

Who even owns these derelict storefronts?
They seem to have been abandoned well before SP's re-birth.

It seems that Downtown has had a lot of trouble getting retailers in and staying because they want too much money to rent their space, and retailers don't want to pay out the bum to be in a Ghost town.

The over-valuing of assets seems to be a problem, and I'm willing to bet this attitude extends onto our Main St.

[GoldenEst82]

While I am very new to Springfield (8mos), I personally have drug everyone I know here, and talk up this area to everyone.
I see it as a more hip, urban and communal R'side. (or with the possibility to become so)

That said, I have a very difficult time reading some of the posts on this thread; claiming that the residents of this area have been (what I would consider) rude to Merchants, and ungrateful to them for the personal risk it takes to own your own business, especially in an area like ours.
I just have a hard time wrapping my brain around their logic.

To return to the questions I asked, Why would something akin to that program not work here?
It would mean a slightly smaller risk to merchants (less out monthly), and a pedestrian walk down Main that would be ever so much improved!
I have introduced 4 families to this area since I moved here, (they call it visiting the city) and we have run out of places to walk to! 

[GoldenEst82]

I do not mean to seem thick at the moment, but I have to ask:
Why is a neighborhood organization-comprised of its own residents- at odds with the development of their retail front? What can be the purpose to that way of thinking?

Can it be possible that people within that group have no say in the platforms of the group?
Yes, but Idk if that IS the case.

I am going to say that I am a younger (under 30) person, and I moved here to be part of an artistic and diverse, family oriented community.
What I read on the Forums portrays a very different place. 

[KuroiKetsunoHana]

well, GE, that's partly because this is a forum.  on the internet.  where people come to argue.
i think most ov us are much more reasonable in person than here on the forums.

[GoldenEst82]

  And of the people, that has been true!
I have received nothing less than a warm reception, a few cringes at the word "renting", but warm none the less!

Joking aside, I want to be involved in my community, without involving myself in a decade old feud.

I know this (and others) forums are an outlet, but it does have implications in the real world too.
I have learned a lot about my neighbors, without meeting them, its kinda odd. 

[nvrenuf]

True, but in fairness Main St was torn up and rents for dilapidated buildings were out of line. I'd be interested to hear from those business owners why they chose those locations and if they had given Springfield any consideration at all and if so, again why they chose to go elsewhere.

[nvrenuf]

RIP Fusion. I miss Fusion as do many others based on recent conversations.

[ChriswUfGator]

Yes the SPAR chickens certainly came home to roost didn't they?

Well, at least some of them anyway, since SPAR had most of the ornamental Springfield chickens rounded up and killed. That being the case I should specify I was talking about SPAR's proverbial roosting chickens, and those there are plenty of... 

[iloveionia]

I do however think the Main Street improvements are beautiful. I love the uplights for the trees on the median. Why aren't they all turned on though?

I called about leasing the corner of 7th/Main in the brick building and was told it was fully leased. Wonder what's coming in.

[Springfielder]

They aren't turned on because spar would be billed for them, at least, that's what I understand about them

[Miss Fixit]

I do however think the Main Street improvements are beautiful. I love the uplights for the trees on the median. Why aren't they all turned on though?

I called about leasing the corner of 7th/Main in the brick building and was told it was fully leased. Wonder what's coming in.

SPAR has to pay the utility bill for the lights and doesn't have sufficient funding

[Coolyfett]

How big are these lights?