I see in today's Tribune that business editor, Jo Dee Black, told us about a grocery store opening in downtown Seattle. She managed to link this store's opening with the closing of Great Falls' downtown Albertsons.
I don't know about you, but boy am I glad to hear this. Makes me feel much better about the closing of a grocery that serviced local folks hard-pressed to shop anywhere else.
For those of you who can hardly wait, the 18,000 square foot Kress IGA is scheduled to open in June, just a couple of blocks off Pike Place Market.
Maybe the Great Falls Albertson downtown shoppers will car pool on over for the grand opening.
I don't know about you, but boy am I glad to hear this. Makes me feel much better about the closing of a grocery that serviced local folks hard-pressed to shop anywhere else.
For those of you who can hardly wait, the 18,000 square foot Kress IGA is scheduled to open in June, just a couple of blocks off Pike Place Market.
Maybe the Great Falls Albertson downtown shoppers will car pool on over for the grand opening.
11 comments:
lmao, nice...on my way.....(rolling eyes)
Wow...what on earth does that have to with Great Falls? Why doesn't she give us the grocery situation in other communities, too? Sheesh.
That has got to be one of the lamest examples of "reporting" I've seen in a long time.
Typical of the Tribune's "Business" section. They have three reporters, with no business background, to come up with this kind of tripe.
I read it twice because I could not believe I had read it correctly. I really have not been concerned at all with where the inhabitants of downtown Seattle shop for their groceries. However I have been asking my customers and friends that have relied on the downtown Albertsons how they are getting their groceries now.
Fortunatly, we have IGA on tenth that delivers. That may be of some help.
the downtown is dying and our city leaders appear clueless. For openers, get rid of the meters and make downtown accessible without be penalized for going there. since I received two parking tickets last year for overstaying my 2hr limit, I have not returned nor wil I!
So, anonymous, it's the "city leaders" fault that downtown is "dying," but you refuse to spend money there because you won't drop $.25 in the meter?
The business section of the Sunday Great Falls Tribune just drives me crazy too. And this Sunday's edition was just the latest example, unless of course the articles are about business in general and not Great Falls business specifically.
As a long time observer of downtown Great Falls I believe the reason downtown has declined is the result of the decline of the lower north side and lower south side as viable residential neighborhoods. This decline was the result of several factors. The first was a reduction in the sheer number of children (baby boomers mostly) that used to live in those neighborhoods.
Constructing 9th Street as a through street happened first; followed by construction of the 5th and 6th street one ways, further dissecting the neighborhoods, especially the south side. When CMR High School opened the lower north side kids were "districted" out of that neighborhood. That was followed the decision to move the junior high school to the East Junior High campus which required south side and north side kids to travel long distances as well. Moving the hospitals south of 10th Avenue South pulled the medical offices from downtown followed by the drug stores.
In addition, single use zoning eliminated the downtown "hotels" and pretty effectively wiped out those residential opportunities for people who also worked downtown (in the bars and restaurants for example). In most cases, once empty, the upper stories in the downtown buildings were never used again. As those workers disappeared, so did the retail shops, drug stores, movie theaters and grocery stores, making downtown and the lower north side and lower south side an even more unattractive place to live. The noise of cars "cruising the drag" also made downtown a less desirable place to live (but we sure had a good time).
My solution, for what it's worth (and obviously that's not much) is to get residential uses back into those three neighborhoods. The school decisions are made and won't be changed. The day of neighborhood schools is gone. The answer is to eliminate the 5th and 6th Street one way couplet and probably the 1st and 2nd Avenue South couplet as well, before the south side residential uses on those streets are gone completely. We can't continue the tear downtown buildings down and make downtown blocks into parks and empty parking lots and parking structures. Low income subsidized housing will not save downtown either and has probably contributed more to the problem than they've helped
Anonymous
Anonymous;
Very cogent comments. You are right; traffic patterns are a big part of the problem. However, I would suggest to you that this is not a problem unique to Great Falls.
Downtowns everywhere are having a hard time competing with the 'big box' marketplaces that the rise of information technology has made possible in recent years. I find it very useful to look at how other towns have managed to keep their downtown districts alive.
The first lesson is that you can't compete with Wal-Mart. A downtown store just can't be the cheapest place in town for goods. Available square footage is smaller and the economy's of scale possible in a 50,000 sq. foot store just do not exist in a downtown storefront.
So how do you compete? A downtown store has to carry the niche products you just can't get in the big box stores. These hard-to-find products usually are at a higher margin, but people go to you because they can't find it elsewhere.
Other than niche products, a downtown should sell convenience. Part of the reason I live downtown is that there are weeks when I don't have to turn on my car. I live, work and play in the lower North side. This is part of the reason that the loss of a downtown grocery store is such a hard blow.
However, I think that my perspective is a little brighter than yours. The recent remodeling of the Gibson Apartments into townhouses has shown that a market exists for mid to high income housing in Great Falls. In addition, the ongoing renovation of the Maryland apartments on 2nd Avenue North into 41 mid-income apartments should alleviate some of the downtown housing shortage that now exists.
By the way, to anonymous of 4/21 at 4:27 p.m., if you are frustrated by parking downtown now, imagine how frustrated you would be WITHOUT parking meters. Without metered control, the 400-odd parking spaces downtown would just be taken up each morning by the people that work downtown. They would park there at 8 and not leave until 5. I submit to you that parking meters are a necessary evil; necessary so that everyone can use a very limited resource.
"So, anonymous, it's the "city leaders" fault that downtown is "dying," but you refuse to spend money there because you won't drop $.25 in the meter?"GeeGuy,
YUP! We don't have that hassel at the shopping centers. Do we. If you believe these meters are so great, how come shopping centers don't jump on that one? How come most cities I have been to, first removed them to vitalise their downtowns and provide easy access to the shoppers?
It is the hastle and inconveniece that peeves me not the damn two bits sir!
Anon;
As I mentioned before, the problem you refer to is tricky. In addition to retail, there are many non-shopping places of employment downtown (county offices, city offices, law offices, accountants, post office, NEW, banks, etc.). All of those people want a place to park, and the city encourages them to rent space in the parking garages it has built downtown.
However, a rental space there costs. If free, unmetered parking was available downtown, I submit to you that those employees would choose to park there for the day. If that happens, retail customers would have no-where to park.
I think that the answer might well be to provide downtown merchants with free parking vouchers/coins/whatever. However it is logistically done, downtown merchants could give customers a, say, free 1 or 2 hour parking for patronizing their store. The hassle might still be there, but it would remove a lot of the stigma.
As you might be aware, the city is proposing increasing downtown parking rates. We will be discussing this proposal at the next Neighborhood Council 7 meeting, on May 12 at 7 p.m. at the Community Rec Center. Mike Rattray is scheduled to give a presentation. I encourage you to attend and let city officials know your views!
Treasure State Jew,
You have soom good points. If everone thinks that meeter are necessary to control non patrons, here is another idea. Give the stoe front owners a bag (Maybe with their name on) to bag the meters in reasonable front of their business during their operating hours. I am sure(maybe) that they could/would montor the fronts of their own building for those non-patrons who would choose to take advantage. It seems to work for a few who now pay the city for that privalege-just make it free- the city will get its due with thriving business. This could be done as a test in selected sites to see if it works!
I have lived in cities who had the same sort of problems when the shopping centers and big box stores came in. They made specialty shops with quality products, specialized dining, entertainment, traffic flow, walking streets, and EASY ACCESS, amonst others to solve the problem.
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