There was an article about the local Smashburger franchiseein the newspaper today that demonstrates one of the points that I have beentrying to make for years about downe towne Middletowne and the way that CityHall tries to direct business there.

You can read the entire article here http://www.middletownjournal.com/news/middletown-news/upscale-smashburger-looks-to-expand-in-area-1356491.html, but the following excerptis the key point that I’d like to discuss:

“We’re always looking for sites”for the next round of Smashburger openings, “but locations are not easy to find— or not as easy as we thought it would be,” Rodenkirch said.

Kessling said she and Rodenkirchare looking for a site in Beavercreek near the Mall at Fairfield Commons. “It certainlyhas the traffic flow and the income levels they’re looking for", she said — andin the Lebanon and Mason areas of Warren County. “We have to find the rightspots for a restaurant that sells a $6 burger,” Rodenkirch said.

This demonstrates that even a $6 hamburger restaurant doesmarket studies/analyses prior to committing their capital to a location.  I doubt that these people would ever decideto put a Smashburger into downe towne Mid-Pointe Middletowne, no matter how many taxpayerdollars were wasted on olde tyme facades or how much the mayor hypes the firstFridays.  This location simply does nothave “the traffic flow and the incomelevels they’re looking for”!!!

This is the same reason that we won’t see a high end bookstore, or any other national high end retailers that the local elites pine for, ever locate here.  Suchcompanies always do a market analysis prior to committing to a location, andonce they analyze the downe towne Mid-Pointe Middletowne market, the ball gameis over.  The denizens of City Hall andthe wannabe high society folks on South Main just do not skew the marketstatistics enough to make it a smart business decision.  As long as City Hall keeps waiting for thesehigh-end businesses (and keeping all others out) they are just dooming our former downetowne to maintaining its ghost town status forever.

Gentlemen
Just give these HISTORIC DOWNTOWNERS a few more weeks and they will put another eatery out of bussiness.
Don’t ya just love that big ugly purple building…

I had my biggest laugh of the week by reading pages 21 &22 (of 125) of this week’s City Council workbook.  These pages were part of the minutes of oursham Historic Commission’s January 12 meeting, and documented one of theirkangaroo court sessions.

It seems that an outsider (Ms. Chee Chee Rose) wanted toinstall “scrolling electronic reader boards” on the side of a downtownbuilding.  Even though “the combined areaof the signs falls within the amount of signage permitted” and “the downtownstandards allow for illuminated signs”.

Mr. Kohler “noted that while these signs donot look historical in nature, the Commission may still determine thatthey are compatible with what the Commission believes the theme of whatdowntown may be.”

One of the vigilantes Commission members “felt thatthe signs were not aesthetically compatible with the character of downtown.”

The “Commission” unanimously rejected the signs!!!

What is so laughable about that, you ask???  Has ol’ Presta gone off his medicationagain???

Just a year ago, this very same aesthetically-concerned gangfound the hanging of a couple of hundred junk auto hoods tobe historically appropriate and completely compatible with the characterof downtown, RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET fromthe requested location of these signs!!!

What a sham this “commission” is!!!  It should be disbanded due to embarrassment,if for no other reason.