1859 Cafe
This is the Follow-Up of the "Under Belly of Your City" video that I shot 18 days ago. I want people to see that I am not just looking to show the problems in this city. I also want people to see the solutions and this issue could not have been resolved without the help of Alex-Lee and I am sure that there were others involved behind the scenes. Jane Thanks You and I want to say thanks to everyone who played a role in cleaning this situation up. Below is a video that shows how the property has been revitalized.1859 Before the Clean-Up
If we can revitalize this piece of property in just 18 days to this extent, then I know that we can do the same with other blighted properties throughout this town. Please, let's show that we love our home and give it the respect and attention it deserves. Let's put our best foot forward. I truly believe this is a key to turning our Economic Fortunes around.
5 comments:
Way to go...glad to see anything get done around here. Your vids of west 70 really are sad, but it's never been anything great. 100 per cent of the focus in this area has been either on the property between the interstate and mall and strip mall behind it or on a few pockets in North Hickory. Hickory has a dying newspaper with no connection to the community and a wealthy minority that is in many cases living off the fat of dead great-grandpa's fortune and doing whatever it takes to hang onto what's left. I watched them do their good ole boy deals twenty-five years ago that directed business to the vicinity of their property and created traffic situations that are ridiculous for a town this size. The mill owners in this area thrived for seventy-five years off an uneducated populace, but now that the low skill industries are gone, this same populace has proven to be a huge problem: difficult to educate, and as a result, difficult to market to relocating or new industries. I'm not sure that anything short of a population or paradigm shift can save this area from itself or the regressive conservative leadership it's had since the early 80's.
I don't take credit for any part of this except for displaying it. I asked for this to be resolved all the way back to the early 2000s and it took putting it on video to even bring any attention to it.
As for West 70, It used to be where business was done until JC Penney decided to go to Valley Hills Mall in the late 1980s. at one time, Catawba Mall had Belks, JC Penney, Roses was nice then, Radio Shack, a nice atrium, the Terrace 2 movie theatre, the Establishment restaurant, Spainhours, a hair salon, a nice Grocery Store, etc.
Where Hamricks was and where Big lots will be, there was K-mart until about 1992. That was when K-Mart was a bigger corporation than Wal-Mart. The Crown Cinemas were there. The Western Steer and Sizzlin were flooded with Patrons. Howard Johnson's and Holiday Inn were over there. Kroger's was over there. Fang's Chinese restaurant, which was later the Japanese restaurant was Hotttt!!!
I can go on and on. That area did not go to pot until about 1993. that isn't a long time ago. maybe if you are 20-something you might not remember how viable this community was, but it really has only been smothering and smoldering for the last 10 years and it is because the city is as directionless as a punchdrunk prizefighter fighting Muhammad Ali in his prime.
Thank You for your input. It is much appreciated.
maybe next we can take on bill agapion and the hickory automall area...that would be a start to cleaning up 70...tear down old buildings and leave the area for new structures...get rid of the scummy motels...they are just havens for drugs and prostitution...make the owners bring them up to code...who is the council person for this area...maybe we can start with meeting with them to get this started. does the mayor condone this area...is he in charge of this part of town or has he just written it off ...i would like to hear his opinion on what to do...to this point, i believe he has been mum...what are his ideas on the matter...rudy, what do you think. as for the HDR, i have been a loyal subscriber for 40 years...that will stop in octoer when my subscription is up...i pay 27.70 for 6 weeks to read the obits and the harris teeter ad...it takes me about 10 minutes in the am to read this paper that becomes more worthless every day...it looks like the newton paper 20 years ago that was published 3 times a week...i used to get more out of charles deals weekly paper...a despondent respondent.....keep up the good work
i wonder with her comments, if julia rush pushed some buttons on this....she seemed to be real concerned. maybe we should get her involved with the city council..maybe as a prominent business womam. she could push some of rudy wrights buttons...also z ann hoyle is having to defend her seat against two newbys....what can she do to push some buttons on south center street to get reelected.
(from first post) You can't force private property owners to take risks that go against the obvious business patterns in an area. We have more retail and restaurants than we had in the early 90's. They just all moved to that small land space I referred to earlier. I remember when Shell's Motel sat on that hill and the Oasis Diner was the place to go on that end of town. One of the biggest problems is that since almost all new retail or restaurants are corporate, they're not the least bit interested in redeveloping a rundown part of town. They are here to get the money and send it back home--pretty much the corporate version of what the Latinos do. That's why Steve Ikerd looks like the lone horseman out there fighting to save that end of town. What a shame that he was never able to build the shopping area he wanted behind his hotel. When Hickory first became a viable place to work and live, it was because of local risk takers like JP Mull and Lee George. Those are the kind of folks that will have to step forward now.
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