While Madison fiddles with tax kickbacks for wealthy cronies, downtown Madison continues its unabated decline. Elisa Sand notes the passing of Bub's Service on the south end of Egan Avenue. Car man and pastor Verlyn "Bub" Hanson says that, 26 years after first taking over the service station, he's just getting too old to keep at work like this. Your last chance to get gas and maybe a peek under the hood on Madison's Main Street is Friday.
(In possibly related news, Phillips 66 continues to offer gas and service on the newly renovated Main Street in beautiful downtown Spearfish.)
Madison will see another darkened storefront relighted: Radio Shack moves into new digs in the old Dakota Drug building on Main and North 1st. Of course, this will live the old Radio Shack building right across the street empty.
But you know what they say, when two doors close, one door opens!
Cory, there is at least one very big change happening in the not too distant future. I cannot say what it is but I can tell you that you'll definitely notice.
Michael, don't play Dwaine Chapel. We get secret dribs and drabs like this all the time, but we never see real change or improvement. Put it on the table. Involve us. Tell us what's going on and how we can help.
Could it be... a Grocery Store? Wait.. I will take what is behind door #3! Big Bucks Big Bucks NOO WHAMMY!
Cory, don't you know that retail development is like a game show? You never know what kind of prize awaits you, and if your lucky, you'll make it to the Showcase Showdown!
The problem with ANY new business that might come to Madison is that there will be people that are upset, mad, judgemental, or offended.
If another grocery store comes to town, and they have a liquor section, Cory will be upset because it could have sold locally grown produce in the same spot as it is peddling liquor. It is a BUSINESS. Not a charity. They are in business to make a profit. The profit they make gets portioned out in salaries, donations, etc. Without a profit, they become nothing more than a....... blog.
Sorry, forgot to mention the game show analogies were really bad.
Jim, thanks for providing a perfect example of a straw man argument so that commenters here can avoid that logical fallacy in the future.
Jim, you again get so obsessed with criticizing me that you fail to address the main point. Main Street continues its decline. Are you seriously suggesting that my blogging is seriously keeping businesses from making certain decisions? I appreciate your vote of confidence in my influence, but if my occasional words of criticism are more powerful than all the tax breaks and marketing that the LAIC can muster, then Madison has much bigger problems than you think.
The point: Main Street is fading, and the LAIC is ignoring it. Solutions, Jim?
Cory-
I did not criticize you, and I surely am not obsessed. I simply stated what you have spent countless posts saying, and that is that you do not agree with the booze section that was installed at Sunshine. You felt it could have been used for other items.
Please stop flattering yourself in what you think your blog does to the Madison business community. It does get people, like myself, thinking and talking, but I doubt there have been any power lunches to decide a business plan that centered around what CAH wants. Again, I appreciate your dogged approach to finding a solution, I just feel that there is not a cure-all business that could come to town that will answer all the questions, or fulfill all the needs that shoppers are going out of town to take care of.
Madison mainstreet is becoming a haven for open storefronts. I am not sure what the LAIC has to do with that, or what needs to be done by the LAIC to stop the trend. Small businesses are failing, or the owners are retiring. Other potential business owners have to look at the track record and wonder if the Madison business community is something they want to invest in, even before picking up the phone to talk to the LAIC and get waylayed by the smoke and mirrors that you have pointed out, and that I agree with you on.
Let's be serious for a minute. I am in favor of Madison prospering. I am also very much in favor of maximizing my money and spending it as I see works best for me. If that means I take my business elsewhere, I will. If I can get a fair deal in town, I spend my money in Madison.
Erin, I am not sure what you said about me, but I think it is safe to assume it is not very flattering. :-)
The store that provides one or two jobs fills a storefront, but struggles every day to survive. Places like Prostrollo Auto Mall, Pamida, and Sunshine provide far more jobs than Black Studios ever will.
So what, Michael? Let Main Street and small shops die? Ignore them in our economic development policy? Let our tax dollars focus on policies that further concentrate power and wealth?
Jim, the problem here is that the Lake Area Improvement Corporation doesn't consider Main Street worth improving. It doesn't focus any energy on rebuilding a vibrant downtown business district. It thus ignores a key part of economic development. It's as if we were paying a football coach who always called passing plays. Sure, you can score points passing, but you can't win regularly if you don't play a complete game.
Maybe it's a matter of putting forth the effort that will provide the most benefit to the community. Retail is not for the faint of heart. You are almost assured of failure from the start.
...possibly all the more reason, Michael, that the LAIC should show local downtown retailers more support, not ignore them.
There still have to be people wanting to take the plunge. If someone as motivated as yourself isn't willing to try it, why would others do it?
Michael, the fact that I, a guy with no investment capital available, no independent business experience, and a love of and talent for the classroom doesn't give up teaching and take the gamble of running a retail business does not prove anything about the business climate in Madison or anywhere else. There are numerous entrepreneurs willing to take the small-business plunge. The point is that the LAIC does nothing to encourage those new businesses to revitalize Main Street. It hands out favors only to those who are willing and able to do favors for the LAIC in return. And even in that cynically self-interested mode, the LAIC is so beholden to the Toyota lottery and the butt-kissing of big capital that it ignores the potential of small capital and downtown development to boost its own standing. The closing of Bub's Service is simply one more brick in the wall, or better, one more brick taken out of the crumbling wall of Main Street that is a testament to the ineffectiveness of Madison's official economic development efforts.
Should note his shop was listed for sale for a long time as was/is Kearins. No takers.
My wife gave up teaching to spend more time with our kids and run the studio. Even though I have a business degree, I had no experience when we started out. Just like you!
Let's not overstate the similarity, Michael. I am at my best in the classroom. I could run a business, but I do not think I would be as happy.
The downtown retail stores that we all claim are "missing" from Madison are ones that sell dresses, shoes, books, children's clothes and men's suits. We can get some of those items in Madison but our choices are limited.
Many companies make the bulk of their money from service: computer stores and hair salons are a great example. You make far less selling stuff. Margins are tighter than ever before. To make a living you might have to sell $1000 to $3000 in product each and every day of the year. That's tough.
So how do you expect the LAIC to wave a magic wand and fill all the store fronts when it's fiscally impossible for some of the current businesses to be viable without the owners working another job or emptying their savings?
Well put, Mike. Like I have said, there is no cure-all business that can come in and fulfill all the needs or wants of the local consumers. I wish I could come up with the latest and greatest attraction that would bring people to Madison. Even if I did have a great idea, like Cory I am capital strapped.
Not well put, Mike. I don't claim there's one cure-all, Jim. But there are certainly some cure-somethings. Take a look at the LAIC exec's current hometown of Brookings, or his former hometown of Spearfish. Both have downtown business districts with successful retail operators, restaurants, and cultural events. They have downtown development associations that cooperate with their chambers and economic development corporations to boost their Main Streets as part of an overall package of community development. Revitalizing your downtown obviously is not impossible. It's not magic. It's a choice. Some towns choose to focus their energy on it. Madison chooses to let its downtown decline and make excuses for the supposed economic development professionals who shrug at that decline.
Madison lacks a strategy. Dwaine said bring in jobs and retail will take care of itself. Has that been working? It doesn't take the latest/greatest, it takes keeping people in town for the basics. If people drive for groceries to Brookings/SF, then they do everything else there too. A low-priced grocery anchor would give the rest of main street a better chance to development some specialty stores.
Also wonder why Madison doesn't ask people who move why they did so. What worked for them in Madison and what did not. Send a brief questionnaire with the closing utility bill. Seems like info we should know rather than assume to know.
Some of this is a marketing problem. I have suggested on Madville Times that the LAIC expand their web presence with a blog. You discounted that saying that their needed to be substance. If Cory can come up with 3 to 5 well-researched blog posts a day, why cannot the LAIC turn it's writing machine on for 15 minutes every day?
Some of this is a population problem. You need to have feet coming in the door. If your customer base is not big enough, it doesn't matter how well you market.
It used to be a big deal to go to Sioux Falls. Now it's just another day. We don't think of hopping in the car now unlike yesterday.
The people that ran the businesses on Egan Avenue did not necessarily want to close and move on. Maybe it was that it was better for their personal lives. I think of that right now as I work yet another Sunday all day trying to computer work done.
Oh, Michael, I don't discount the importance of a blog for the LAIC. I discount the ability of the current exec and board to create or even understand the kind of authentic content and openness that really makes a blog valuable.
"If Cory can come up with 3 to 5 well-researched blog posts a day, why cannot the LAIC turn it’s writing machine on for 15 minutes every day?" That's a very poignant question, Michael. I generate more ideas and conversation about Madison (not just me, but you, and all readers and commenters!) than the current LAIC exec... and I get paid $100,000 less than Dwaine Chapel for my efforts.
Population: Spearfish used to be smaller than Madison. Sturgis used to be smaller than Madison. They find ways to draw customers and residents.
Running businesses anywhere, Main Street or otherwise, takes time and effort. If we can come up with tax kickbacks to reward businesses in the industrial park that don't really need our subsidy, we can come up with plans to promote businesses on Main Street.
Why should location (Main Street) be a determining factor for support from the LAIC?
Beats me, Michael. I have no idea why the LAIC ignores development just because it's on Main Street. After all, lots of urban planners will talk about the importance of Main Street as the physical and metaphorical heart of the community, the shared living room of a town that helps people feel connected.
As a business owner, I am concerned primarily with making a profit. Location is secondary. Again I ask why a business located on Egan Avenue should be given better support based only on its location? Is not my business deserving of support too?
These are serious issues that someone besides me will question.
Michael, you have it backwards. I'm for promoting the full economic development portfolio. Main Street should be given as much attention as other business locations. Retail should be given as much attention as manufacturing, service industries, recreation, etc. It's the LAIC that's showing blindness and/or favoritism, treating Main Street as if it doesn't matter and focusing solely on its favored cronies.
Not all retail is on Egan Avenue.
Right. But some is, and the LAIC ignores it and everything else that could be happening downtown, despite what urban planners will tell you about the importance of a vital center in a community.
Again, let me emphasize: I'm taking a comprehensive view of community development that creates a diverse mix of downtown business and other enterprises. The LAIC takes a myopic, limited view that hamstrings Madison's ability to attract business, visitors, residents, and revenue.
"some is"
Is this new grammar?
"Not all retail is on Egan Avenue. But some is."
On Michael's tease, is DSU buying Madison Hospital? Where would they move?
Holy cow! Where, indeed? A hospital is quite a facility to convert. I'm sure architects can do anything, and location is logical for DSU, but is the hospital really the best building for DSU to turn into... what, classrooms? offices?
Curious, John: what gets your spidey-sense tingling on this one?
This morning when I drove downtown, I thought I would take an extra long drive down Mainstreet AKA Egan Ave all the way to the bypass. As I drove, I thought to myself, "If I would have one that Powerball jackpot the other night, I could have done some cool things in this town."
I day dreamed that from the old Wenk's plant, all the way south to the Highway Bypass, back east to Washington Avenue, that there could be a whole new business and office district that could combine and connect Egan Ave to the new "mainstreet" that is South Washington Ave.
Imagine, modernizing this whole part of town, with state of the art office buildings, shops, pubs, and hotels. It would be a great way to connect the newer Washington Ave shopping district with the existing businesses on the "old Madison mainstreet".
Let's build a new Conference/Events Center and Hotel, a Movie Theater with 3 digital screens, get the Bowling Alley back into town, and maybe a family entertainment center with roller skating, skateboarding, laser tag, and more. Put these things in a new business district that connects to Egan Ave. and is also close to Washington Ave., so kids can walk or ride bike safely to enjoy these places.
Let's modernize our building fronts and continue demolition on buildings that are past saving or repairing. (A great example would be taking off that old building "Sports Subs" connected to the Sportsman") Let's try to revitalize the core of the town, without moving further south or east out on the Highway. Let's not abandon the center of our city. Let's find ways to buy back these buildings and land, to either renovate, or demo and build new.
Ohh... If only I had one that Powerball lottery the other night.
"If I had *Won*"
We need a spelling and grammar check on comments... or I guess I need to preview and read before posting.... :(
I haven't heard anything about the hospital. That isn't on my radar.
The SPortsman building I believe needs a little work. The plater on the outside of the building is falling out and away with lots of cracks. Someone was replace the Budweiser letters covering the windows on the second floor.
Downtown is rapidly aging and it may be cost prohibitive to upgrade very many of the structures to modern standards.
If there's anything to this hospital rumor, it would vitalize the bypass, and more. Thus far Madville Times readers don't seem to know nothin.