Westside Retail Development

[dubone]

Warning, a joke will be written in the subsequent paragraph. Please take no offense, as it is purely not intended to be serious in any way.

Joke commences here:

"Do they take food stamps at that Starbucks"

[Drums and cymbals]

[Crowd is awkwardly silent]

[Arlyn15]

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/business/15095572.htm

Well whatdya know... Starbucks has opened a Wilkisnon Blvd location (with the help of Magic Johnson)... now if only Starbucks could open an Eastland location.

There is some "financial guru" out there, I can't remember his name but he's written several books, who argues that the "latte factor" impedes many couples road to wealth. Essentially, he argues that buying one expensive cup of coffee everyday, overtime adds up to be a lot of money depleted from savings. It seems strange to me that you would bring in a Starbucks to help out a struggling community.

[Mobuchu]

^^^Yeah really. Give them a D&D/Baskin Robins for a good cheap coffee and a place for kids to get some ice cream.

And lol @ Dubone

[DigitalSky]

Essentially, he argues that buying one expensive cup of coffee everyday, overtime adds up to be a lot of money depleted from savings.

Good thing I don't drink coffee

Give them a D&D/Baskin Robins for a good cheap coffee and a place for kids to get some ice cream.

That would have been better

[StevenRocks]

Starbucks is a nice step forward for Wilkinson, but I wouldn't hold my breath for an Eastland store.

[voyager12]

Regarding the Wilkinson Starbucks...I was surprised at first as well. Until I read an interesting article in The Observer. Starbucks apparently has a separate program that focuses on placing certain Starbucks in majority minority communities that are in transistion. Nearby residents are encouraged to apply. There is an arcane Starbucks acronym for the store on Wilkinson but I forget what it was. Anyway, I think its a wondeful idea. There were some great quotes in the article from nearby residents who felt proud having their own Starbucks as a great symbol of a neighborhood turning around. I hope other chains will be as proactive and progressive.

[dubone]

I think this will be great for the area, as I'm sure it will put Wilkinson on the radar of other retailers.

Wilkinson really is starting to turn around.

Now, all we need is a streetcar, and to get Hyatt to focus on their coins!

[voyager12]

Ah, I just hopped over to The Observer site and saw the Magic article. I was referencing a much earlier story that only focused on Starbucks selecting Wilkinson and did not mention MJ at all.

[A2]

I think this will be great for the area, as I'm sure it will put Wilkinson on the radar of other retailers.

Wilkinson really is starting to turn around.

Now, all we need is a streetcar, and to get Hyatt to focus on their coins!

Ah you bring up the coins! That shop actually does quite a bit of business and has been in Charlotte for decades dealing in Precious Metals, Collectables, Stamps, Guns, and Safes. I pray they are always around. They are some of the best business people I have had the pleasure of personally dealing with.

REMEMBER:Guns don't kill people, people kill people. I have grown up with Guns and will always cherish the 2nd Amendment that allows me to bear arms. This country was founded on certain principles and rights that MUST be upheld. Hyatt is one of the BEST shops in the Greater Metro for Coins and Guns. I do wish they were closer to a neutral area as to take away any criminal element that might exist, but unfortunatly Crime is everywhere.

Their businsess has stood the test of time and hopefully Starbucks, Streetcars, and Wal-mart will be able to accomodate them as a contributor to the neighborhood as much as I have.

A2

[voyager12]

Now I get it. I having a hard time remembering a Hyatt Hotel in that area and tying in coins

[dubone]

Hyatt Guns and Coins consistently shows up on the list of the most prolific gun shops on the east coast, and is often used by people buying guns and taking them back to their more restrictive states.

A2, people are evil and stupid. People with guns are evil, stupid and deadly.

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad to have the sales tax being collected, and good business people in business. But I think it is just too much of a shame for the highest volume gun dealership in the [state/region/city?] to be in a fragile neighborhood struggling to turn from its crime ridden past.

[dubone]

Speaking of crime affecting westside retail, I had to go to the westside wally world on Thanksgiving night for an emergency pie episode (apparently, the dessert I had purchased in advance was not acceptable, and had to find someplace open that sold frozen punkin pie).

Well, there just happened to be a large group of flamboyantly effeminate black teenagers that were going through the store tossing stuff off the shelves, and making serious amounts of noise yelling at the everybody. While I was checking out, they got kicked out of the store. While I was walking out, they were causing a ruckus outside. One ran back to the store, passing me by a couple of feet, with a baseball bat saying 'I'm going to mess that b_itch up' (It was more like 'Ahm gonna meth that bitth up').

It was quite a bizarre situation. I almost said 'Happy Thanksgiving' to the guy, but I figured the irony might have been lost on him.

[SmellyCat]

The last time I was at the Wilkinson Walmart, a female friend of mine was blatantly hit on - no lie - about 5 or 6 times by store customers. I've never seen anything quite like the chutzpah these lowlifes had. Not only was it insulting to me and my ego (considering she was standing right next to me a few times when it happened! ) but she was obviously creeped out and vowed she wouldn't go back there.

[DigitalSky]

I wonder how often incedents like this occur at the Wilkinson Wal-Mart store.

[dubone]

I realize it was Thanksgiving, but frankly, in a neighborhood with poorly behaved residents, there should have been police on duty if the store was going to be open. For my own purposes, I was glad it was open, but in general, if someone ended up getting hurt badly, it should not have been open if an officer couldn't have been stationed there.

Either that, or they should ban teenagers that aren't accompanied by their parents or something. (I'm not really giving solutions, but in general, something has to change).

The people on the westside need to stop acting like punks, or they won't continue to have the job growth that is starting to come back to their neighborhoods. They are religating themselves to permanent underclass status, because they can't properly handle what is given.

One time, for example, I was coming home from the airport on Wilkinson. For whatever reason, I had to pee so bad, so I stopped at the gas station. They had no public restrooms. I asked why, and they said because they caused too much crime.

It seems to me there is something seriously wrong in that community when they can't even handle having bathrooms open to the public, or a Walmart open on a holiday.

[grecowfu]

I realize it was Thanksgiving, but frankly, in a neighborhood with poorly behaved residents, there should have been police on duty if the store was going to be open. For my own purposes, I was glad it was open, but in general, if someone ended up getting hurt badly, it should not have been open if an officer couldn't have been stationed there.

Either that, or they should ban teenagers that aren't accompanied by their parents or something. (I'm not really giving solutions, but in general, something has to change).

The people on the westside need to stop acting like punks, or they won't continue to have the job growth that is starting to come back to their neighborhoods. They are religating themselves to permanent underclass status, because they can't properly handle what is given.

One time, for example, I was coming home from the airport on Wilkinson. For whatever reason, I had to pee so bad, so I stopped at the gas station. They had no public restrooms. I asked why, and they said because they caused too much crime.

It seems to me there is something seriously wrong in that community when they can't even handle having bathrooms open to the public, or a Walmart open on a holiday.

[voyager12]

I am a loyal Target shopper for a variety of reasons, but I have gone with a friend of mine to the Wilk Walmart during the day and night and we have never had any problems. The surrounding neighborhoods are somewhat unstable and there may be some spillover into the store but I think these are isolated problems. It's not fair to draw a direct correlation between a few incidents by hoodlums that cause problems at malls and stores all over town, by laying the fault on the doorsteps of the majority of responsible citizens that live on the Westside.

[dubone]

You're right, grecowfu, I definitely don't think the whole community is bad, and I hyperbolized a few things above. I am very supportive of the westside, and their attempts to come back in to the mainstream for commercial activity, jobs, rail transit, etc.

There are, however, very serious crime problems on the westside. That is not everybody, but as with many things, it is a percentage of bad apples that ruin it for the bunch. The "they" I wrote above was referring to the bad apples on the westside.

Other communities in this city, with different demographics, do not have the same level of problems. The proof is in the pudding with the high crime numbers. The fact that gas stations no longer open their restrooms to the public, and banks no longer have ATMs, is an indicator of the health of the community.

In fact, I almost wonder whether wally world was open that day because they haven't yet learned of the problems that come with doing something like that.

Because I'm just a little bit crazy, I probably won't stop going to the westside to help support their businesses just because a lunatic with a baseball bat ran past me. However, it is still a terrible thing that people are actively ruining positive momentum for the rest of the people in the community.

[grecowfu]

I'd say that its a rather circular state of affairs. Grocery stores, nice shops, high quality restaurants, and interesting retail will not come into "bad" neighborhoods or neighborhoods lacking the level of affluence required to keep them going as businesses. The neighborhoods remain blighted because it is a fact that crime is higher, but the lack of jobs, community life, and commerical activity, perhaps, perpetuates hopelessness. I don't know. Anyone that gains access to a high quality education or well paid job moves to the side of town where Walmart isn't allowed to come! I guess that I should admit here that I am, and hope to be, a lifelong student of philosophy so just keep that in mind when you read my posts! From my reading I really just wonder what it would take to come alongside people so that they can gain the kind of agency to remake their enviroments, economically and in every other way. Not that we should have the presumption of encouraging a sort of uniformity to a mainstream ideal of what a community should be. Alas....

[dubone]

It is a cycle, you're right. It seems to me that the business owners in this area have been trying to change the cycle of poverty. With home prices what they are in the westside, the jobs at Walmart actually provide a living wage. There was rush for those jobs, so that seems to confirm that.

The issue is how do you have near perfect levels of civility in those public places among the people that go there. I have my opinions on the causes (drugs, poor parenting, drugs, and economic segregation/white flight, drugs).

[mallguy]

Freedom Mall is a slum that should be demolished. Who would want to work in a run-down building with peeling paint and a parking lot full of holes?

The Wilkinson Wal-Mart is fine, and Eastland Mall is an ultra-upscale luxury mall compared to Freedom.

[dubone]

The county is renovating that space just as they would upfit any office space they would take over. They spent a lot on a new roof last year, and are certainly going to repaint it and perform other standard maintenance items.

The idea is that Freedom Mall not be a mall, but rather a county office building that is more accessible to citizens needing to meet with county offices than other places. It was cheap space, needing a benevolent buyer, and needing a conversion of uses. Overall, it seems to be a good idea to me.

[mallguy]

You're right; I just think the government needs to do a paint job on the mall ASAP and at least fill some of the holes in the parking lot NOW. Freedom Mall looks disgusting on the outside; the former Target has large swaths of brick where the paint has completely come off, and the paint around the building is faded and peeling, and there are large holes in the parking lot. It's disgusting.

For half-abandoned strip malls across the street to look better than the property that the government bought a few YEARS ago to fix up and restore to health is disgraceful.

[cinco]

the freedom mall site has had workers on site now for almost a year. they are currently working on parts inside the mall - so, any visible upfitting would not be noticed. they will move to the outside after they have finished inside. as for the parking lot... it is hideous and it's size is outdated. i think they should subdivide some of the massive parking lots for other uses... they probably will.

in any event, the construction on this site moves @ a snails pace - but, thats the county for ya. just look @ how long it took to build the new courthouse uptown. i think the freedom mall site will take longer than that.

[uptownliving]

Yes indeed, the long term plan is to reclad the exterior of Freedom Mall for Mecklenburg County offices. It should eventually look something like this: