Again With The Grocery Stores

Grocery stores are in the news again.

The Business Lexington recently broke the news that I have been sitting on for a few days so I guess it is okay to talks about now.  The Kroger store in Chevy Chase has had a parking problem for lo these many years.  About as many years as since the returned to a Chevy Chase location.  As they made the stores bigger, the problem just got bigger too.

The first building that I remember on this property was a Colonial Alber's grocery store and, like Kroger, they sat back off the street with parking in the front.  At that time, the entire block of Lafayette (now Marquis) Ave. was filled with houses and commercial businesses had yet to encroach.  This and a sister store on Southland Dr were their only foray into the Lexington market.  Built in the mid 'fifties, in ten years they were gone.

Masters TV & Appliances had moved from the present Charlie Browns spot and stayed until a Higgin's KRI branch opened.  Neither one lasted very long.  Then came the Piece Goods Shop, a fabric and sewing store, which lasted until the very early '70s.

Kroger, which had had a presence in Chevy Chase since before the war (WWII), had moved to the 500 block of S. Upper St., then decided to return, tore down the old building and (if I recall correctly) brought the building a bit closer to the sidewalk squeezing the parking a little in order to bring in the delivery trucks to the rear.  Over the years, they have had two expansions and have approached their 40,000 sq. ft. limit for the B-1 zone.  Parking and the increase in population/area from which they draw has become a greater and greater mismatch, even after they acquired additional property.

A possible solution, placing the parking on the roof.  Hey, why not, it has been done successfully in Florida.  (I guess that goes along with Florida's own Fark tag.)  My feeling is that the engineering and the space necessary for the ramps up and down is going to be too costly and that it might be better to excavate for all the mechanical, food prep and offices.  That would leave much more of the ground floor for sale area.

I like the idea if it being right up on the sidewalk (10 feet back)and a possible cafe style seating area.  Even a art style bus stop could be designed into the facade.  Bring back the old type display windows and an awning and you have the urban feel of the rest of Chevy Chase.  It does seem strange to be talking about parking solutions in such a walkable neighborhood as this is.

The title does say stores - plural - so what is the other one.

A legal ad in the Wednesday Herald-Leader stated the intention of applying for a couple of liquor licenses for the old Joe's Crab Shack location on Nicholasville Rd. near Regency Center.  Also, within the last few weeks, an amended development plan was approved for a mystery tenant and the 15,000 sq. ft. structure is clearly labeled as a grocery and an attached liquor outlet.

Do we know any small footprint stores which would like to keep its plans quiet for a while?

The name on the legal ad was ......................Trader Joe's.

Finishing What We Started

Does anybody remember this piece of topiary and how it was to look during the World Equestrian Games?  

This wireframe of a raring horse was planted with 7 varieties of clematis representing the 7 continents from which the games contestants came.  It was placed more than 2 years ago and the plants were to be tended and fed so as to be in full bloom during the games.  It is supposed to be a legacy of the games for the "Horse Capital of the World", yet it seems to be dying back.

Last year the vines had risen to the height of the base of the neck, now they barely make it to the hindquarters.  Someone has really fallen down on the job of maintaining this piece of public art.

The State Government and the Horse Park were the main driving force behind the WEG and the Lexington Government basically tried to move heaven and earth to be ready in time for the games.  The did move a lot of earth. But this topiary is on State property(the Court House Plaza) and the City made many announcements with it as a backdrop.  Both entities seem to lay some sort of claim to it, but I don't think either of them are doing much for it.  Could the change in administration have had this much effect on things?

Similar type questions may be asked about our street trees downtown.  Since I have been working downtown the street trees on Main St have been put in three times and the trees that were originally put in under Urban Renewal are all gone.  

Does anyone remember the well shaded plaza in front of the "Gold Bank", otherwise known then as Citizens Union?  Or the benches under those shady trees?  All gone.  Something about the public using them during the day.

Our downtown street trees have been placed in tree wells and either mulched or surrounded with a grating of some sort. Then we just sit around and watch the weeds take over, the brick pavers buckle and the iron grates lift due to the roots being confined to the wells.  Eventually, the trees encounter stress or disease and begin to decline and die.  We have an urban forester on staff but he and his crew are kept busy looking at what we can do next, while the present situation continues to devolve.

Sometimes, looking for the next big thing just gets in the way of finishing or maintaining what we have.  We are continually painting the doors and windows and ignoring that the foundation leaks.

Public And Semi-public Spaces

Since my last post, I have been trying to be cognizant of how we also maintain our private open spaces as well as the public space I spoke of earlier.  This would be the sidewalk cafe type spaces that our downtown restaurants are allowed to use in order to bring vitality and vibrancy to the streets of Lexington.  Some are the patios around the campus area and some are the tables and chair along the newly widened sidewalks downtown.

The front porch dining and drinking areas near campus are all on private property but the mess that can be left behind from a good nights partying has to go somewhere.  I believe that most of the establishments really try to patrol after themselves on the big nights but when it is just a small crowd and the litter is miniscule, I know that there can be lapses.  I watched as the patio at the "World Famous" Two Keys has being hosed down the other day and as the water rolled off on to the sidewalk, it carried a fair amount of cigarette butts into the new rain garden facility, joining some that were already there.  

I know that the sidewalk abutting a property is the responsibility of the property owner, as pertains to repair and snow removal.  Some of them actually do such repair and clearing. Just who is supposed to maintain the rain gardens and keep them clear of debris is unknown to me.  I do think that the adjacent property owners should not be helping to pollute things further.

The sidewalk cafes add just the right touch to our downtown dining atmosphere and the addition of some mature shade trees would help even more.  It is a shame that we have been either selecting the wrong species or damaging the ones that are installed, but we have switched out trees on Main St. at least three times since 1972.  Our downtown trees never get to the nice shady size which is good for sitting out under.  Most diners need their shade.

The shade comes in the form of table umbrellas, but what is good for the diners is not always good for the pedestrians passing by.  I need to duck or tilt my head whenever I (6'4") pass by these areas, although Mrs Sweeper (at 5'3") walks by unimpeded. The tips of those stays would poke me right in the eye.

The restaurant servers who work these tables are pretty conscientious about keeping the area clean but the the bar areas can get quite messy.  It may be the alcohol or the age/mindset of the patrons.  Go figure.

In general, I think that it is the total mindset of Lexingtonians that is at fault.  Have we not noticed that with the indoor smoking ban and all the outdoor "smoking stations", out sidewalks and especially the street intersections are still filled with butts and wrappers.  As I left work the other day, I saw a few ladies exiting the rear door of the circuit court house, one of them lit up, and headed over to the parking garage.  After a few quick puffs and before she could enter the elevator, she flicked a half smoked cigarette into the street.  She was walking past a receptacle for said butt at the base of the steps, but hers went into the street.  I am not sure that I could find a better example of public service and disservice in the same package.

If we really want to change our city for the better, we will need to make a major adjustment to our civic attitude.

My Ideas From Greenville - Without Making The Trip

The word is filtering back from the Commerce Lexington trip to Greenville S.C. about the lovely landscaped public spaces and the many shaded garden spots which dot their downtown.  The implication is that we here in Lexington could and should do similar spaces.  We can, but it would not be the same.  I don't think that we know HOW to treat our public open spaces.

For the most part, we are pigs when it comes to using our current public space downtown and elsewhere.  

I was at Thursday Night Live, an idea that we borrowed from Greenvile, and watched as our young, vibrant revelers began their evenings drinking festivities and the aging rockers mixed with the other downtown dwellers, all to some really decent music. Some were there to be seen and some were there to partake of a free event so graciously provided by sponsors there to take your money any way they can.  

On the one side there were the roped off sections of the bars and restaurants along Cheapside and alcohol flowing as quickly as they could bring out a fresh supply.  Tables, chairs and patio umbrellas for those who got there early.  Lots of smiles, handshakes and hugs and kisses all around.  There is one tree on that side of the pavilion and the area around the base, just a patch of bare ground, was used as a staging/storage space for the outdoor bar.  Nothing like what is described from Greenville.

On the old courthouse side there are two trees and their patches of dirt which were used for some seating and stroller parking or just plain walking over.  You see, the sidewalk was filled with sponsors booths and a couple of expensive new autos on display.  Not a blade of grass in either of them.  Between the bourbon beer truck, the new autos and the food/wine tents clustered at the front "entrance" to the space there was no space left to get around.  The lush greenery spoken of in Greenville is not to be seen in Lexington.

Between the kids, the dogs, the jostled drinks and the sometimes breezy gusts of wind, by the end of the show the ground is littered with spilled food (with or without containers), napkins/wrappers, cigarette butts and who knows what all.  Were we all raised to do this kind of thing in our own homes?  I don't think so.  So, why do we do it in our cherished public spaces.

The new Court House Plaza is no different.  The grassy lawn is beginning to show stress and wear along the edges of the pavers and the vegetable oil stain from the Kettle Korn booth of last falls Spotlight Festival is still visible.  Chewing gum blotches and butts are a common sight no matter how many folks they have sweeping the place each morning.  Young children running from fountain to fountain and sometimes a discarded or forgotten article of clothing will join the wet litter at the drain.  Why do we do this?

Our new, wide sidewalks and their environmentally correct rain gardens are sparsely planted and occasionally weeded, but the litter which shows up in them is usually left for a few days.  I have noticed that they have irrigation tubing, for when it is really dry, but it is supposed to be buried in the mulch and not laid out on the surface.  Since we have spent so much money of designing and building these things, shouldn't we act like we are going to maintain them correctly?

Should I even mention the Phoenix Park?  Have we not abandoned that to the "homeless" and others who are down on their luck?  This park, with the intellectually enhanced library on one side and a fountain and mock stream on the other for the non-readers.  How else would the parents let their children play and climb on the rocks, when it is plainly signed as prohibited?  The park benches are all scratched and faded as are the lighted bollards while graffiti mars the few tables there.  Do we even care about this place?

Thoroughbred Park is too far east for most downtown people to get to and Triangle Park is being rebuilt ( I can't wait to see how quickly we can get to work on that  one) and still we want to take over a portion of the CentrePointe block - as public open space.  Are we nuts?  We don't take care of what we have in the way of non-revenue producing property and we are asking for more.

Greenville has spent three decades bringing their streetscape plan to life and has some apparently beautiful downtown trees while we are on our third set of saplings along Main and Vine since they went one-way back in the early '70s.  There is no reason to bring ideas back from these quality cities if we do not also bring the will to use them in a sustainable manner.  Private property owners can evict and prohibit those who abuse their open space or they can charge sufficient fees to cover the maintenance or repairs.  Public spaces have no such luxuries. 

We HAVE to quit abusing our public open spaces.

CentrePointe, Why Now?

The other day I indicated that I believe that the CentrePointe project will begin to move forward - sometime this year.  I know that many of you will say that the recovery has not come that far as yet, but I think that things are starting to break.

It has to do with the economic effort known as QE2, or a second round of quantitative easing.  This is a way of increasing the money supply and (in a manner of speaking) stimulating the economy.  This latest round is winding to a close at the end of the is month and some investor fear that capital may begin to flow away from the emerging markets and back to the safety and security of the American dollar.  That could be why the story that I was told featured a large Spanish equity trust and the desire of said trust to invest in American commercial development.  I wonder, are the Spanish moving their money before the coming restructuring of the Euro by the European Central Bank?

The figure that I heard was nearly $40 million in advance and the rest to follow.  That would be enough to start CentrePointe, no matter what the eventual project will look like.

For the next few weeks - the DDA and the planners of the Fourth of July have the block until the 10th I suspect - nothing will be apparent concerning impending construction.  I even doubt that this years Spotlight will be able to use the space, and frankly, I think that the Short St. corridor is the better location.  I am keeping my eye out for someplace to put the fill which needs to be removed (Oliver Lewis Way Phase II?) and the fleet of trucks to haul it.  The dry heat of August and September could make downtown Lexington quite dusty this year.

I think that the clock is ticking.

CentrePointe. What do I know about it?

TrusT Facade renovation

Last night Mrs. Sweeper and I went downtown, not to the Thursday Night Live but, to the gallery opening at Gallery B.  I am not particularly fond of the group who played last night and I do like looking at good art.  The guys from the new TrusT bar were there showing off their "signature" drinks and talking about the upcoming grand opening.  I will say that if they are taking as much care in details on the inside as the are on the outside, the place will look fantastic.  The new facade is looking nice.(see left)

There are some folks downtown who are making things neat and clean.

The artwork was interesting and sometimes I think that I can do better (and times when I know that I cannot) but it all looked a bit pricey.  Maybe I just don't know real art when I see it.

We then did wander down to Cheapside to see if we could run into some friends or at least some folks that we knew.  She says that I cannot go anywhere without knowing someone and this night was no different.  We even got introduced to some new people, and as usual, when folks find out what I do the topic moves in a singular direction - CentrePointe.  

CentrePointe. What do I know about it?  Have I read anything about the new plans and how forward thinking it is?  What is my opinion?  Well, where do I begin?  I usually start by trying to gauge their thoughts and just why they have them.  Then I try to counter their passion for making this space a socialist common area from what used to be (and still is) private property.  One woman last night is looking for an enclosed play area for the children living in the recently built condominiums and apartments.  She also wants NO hotel and NO residential of any kind on that block, as we are getting overbuilt in residential downtown.  It came as a surprise to her that most downtown dwellers are single or childless couples and that many condos are rented out - not owner occupied. 

Many people are of the old school of thought, that we need more retail to bring folks back downtown, while I know that the retail will return when the residents do - and not before.  We have tried the "bring retail" method before and the "bring offices" method, now we are on the "bring entertainment" kick to revitalize downtown.  So, now we have offices in old stores and new bars/restaurants in old offices and some struggling residential redos in both.

The conversation then turns to the things that are missing.  Specific, non-mainstream, limited appeal types of venues and facilities that the infamous "they" need to provide for some of us older folks.  The old folks are not the only ones who do it, in fact it is most prevalent in the younger "creative class" ones that I hear from.  I rarely hear the words "We need to..." it is always "They need to provide...".  When someone does come along and announce their proposal for a solution, the chorus then rises "But that is not what I want".

Ms. Gang and her group were here and the endured the heat of the old courtroom and the cacophony of opinions from young and old, knowledgeable and not and pledged to involve our local talent.  I hope that she likes herding bees.  Ms Gang is talented and has some good ideas, but if what I heard in the last week is true, she will have to work very quickly.

The City will be utilizing the CentrePointe "pasture" for music and food vendors during the Fourth of July festivities, but soon after that I am expecting and announcement that funding is in place(not coming but in place) and excavation for the parking levels will break ground very soon - like before Fall.  What will rise above them is anybody's guess, but they will sit above them soon.

If you were Dudley and the funds were in hand, would you go with what you have approval for or wait for a new round of controversy.  Would you build on the limited good will that has been generated in the community or do you tweak again the design that many say is a timeless facade befitting our emerging downtown?

CentrePointe. What do I know about it?  Maybe nothing, but I am going to wait and see.

Lextran, Really On The Move?

Look at what I saw on the lot at Lextran. It appears as though they have taken delivery of some new vehicles and have applied a new look to them. One or two of them looked to be shorter units and destined for the areas with lesser clientele.

My best hope is that they will not clutter them up with the tacky ads for the Lottery and such just yet.

Now, they need to get on with their new headquarters.

Choices, Lets Talk About Them

Everybody is talking about it. IT is everywhere that you turn. IT is the talk about the rising price of gas, of food, of just about anything that we buy-from household goods to daily utilities. Everything is going up. And there is nothing that we can do about it. We are stuck.

We are just going to have to get used to it. There doesn't seem to be anyone who can do anything about it. So we get mad about having to pay more at the pump and complain that the oil companies did this to us. By golly, we are Americans and gas should only cost around $1.50 a gallon. I hear that Europeans pay roughly twice as much as that, but I don't care about the Europeans and what they do with their time and money.

Somebody should make the oil companies do more for us – not to us. Somebody should make it easier for us to do what we want in order to get through life. We should be able to live anywhere that we want and be able to go anywhere that we want and anytime that we want. Oh, and it should be cheaper.

Folks that somebody is us. We, the people of the United States. And nobody did this to us, we did it to ourselves.

Our choices of where to live are predicated on the availability of cheap gas. Our abundance of electronic gadgets is built on the availability of cheap power. Our shopping centers full of mostly over packaged, soon to be obsolete goods are there due to cheap imports – which is also due to cheap oil. These are our choices. They weren't forced on us by government planners, they were chosen by us by our own free will.

I can remember $0.35 - $0.45 a gallon gas when a neighborhood kid could make a few bucks mowing grass for under a buck's worth of fuel. When you could walk to the gas station and back home in just a few minutes. I can remember when downtown was just a quick bike ride or bus trip away. Those days are about as far off as a quick bike trip in to town from Hamburg or South Point. Nobody make people live out there and nobody make them drive their autos in to town. Those are choices of free will.

I can remember when subdivision development patterns began to use the cul-de-sac as an enticement to quiet suburban living. Cul-de-sac lots were desirable and they carried a 10 – 20% premium on land cost, but the choice was worth it apparently. We do have so many of them. We now know that these cul-de-sac areas, and similarly less connected street patterns, can increase the per capita cost of fire protection services by over 400%. Other government services may be increased likewise. Again, choices of free will.

I can remember when an auto vacation involved many days, not hours and special trips used trains while very special ones took airplanes. When they built the Interstates, folks did not want to be tied to scheduled departures of the trains but still tolerated it for the airlines. Now that the trains are gone and the airlines require such a hassle of screening, we are left with the long road trip and the high cost of gas. This is a result of the choices that we made.

What other poor choices have we, the people of the Unites States, made that we will look back on with regret? What choices will we make in the future? Will we be willing to re-think our cul-de-sac subdivisions in a reasonable manner? Will we be forced to re-think the distances that we will have to move ourselves to work, play and shop? Will our food come from longer or shorter distances? Will our energy sources become more local, sustainable and renewable?

Are we up to the challenge of these types of choices, or are those days gone too.

Food And Some Of Our "Bad" Habits

The other day I may have riled some of my readers with some comments about a local “good foods education” program. I meant no disrespect but there is much more in the way of food access and awareness which needs to be taught. There are not enough of these grass roots organizations to adequately rid our urban areas of the food deserts that we know are there.

Food deserts are basically defined as areas of few(if any) grocery stores and other dining places. Fast food drive-ins would not qualify as a dining place in my book and many others. I am also beginning to realize that the chain grocery and supermarket stores are not much better for the “not-so-savvy” consumer and those highly susceptible to marketing techniques.

Today's supermarket is not designed to sell good healthy food for a fair price. Actually it is just the opposite, sell a high margin item for whatever price the market will bear and really maximize the profit. Those items are generally highly mass produced, full of chemical preservatives and full of sugar(though lately it is all high-fructose corn syrup). High margin items are most likely to be placed on sale in order to entice you to come in for all the other high margin items. The money is in the volume of product not the individual item itself.

Supermarkets will average about 500 square feet for every 10,000 of the whole store in fresh fruits and vegetables. In the “big box” style stores (Meijer, Kroger Marketplace, and others) the ratio is probably much less. The rest is all processed, and many are highly processed, foods of varying nutritional value. And it is all designed to sell the cheap stuff.

Consider the typical grocery store design. Nice wide aisles and plenty of space for comparison shopping? Hardly. There are displays to maneuver around and dangling racks everywhere you look. Think of it as traffic calming and impulse suggestions. The more that you see something the more you want it.

Even product location is important to impulse buying. Why is the dairy case in the very back of the store where you have to pass just about everything else just get a carton of milk or a dozen eggs. Then the bakery off to the side which pulls you past some other things that you may not know that you need.

The store atmosphere is very important. Why do they keep the darn place so cold, like the AC in on frostbite? The simple answer is – human instinct. We humans tend to prepare for winter when we chill and that means stockpiling for the winter ahead. People, they are playing with our heads.

Now consider the products that are placed there. Products produced in such volume that no one farm could generate it all. Dairies with bucolic names that have to have thousands of cows being milked 24/7 in order to supply it all. Products that have almost no local representation and are shipped in from thousands of miles away. Food, food everywhere and not much of it worth eating.

In this day of energy conservation and the entire country wishing to cut back on energy usage, the modern supermarket is an energy HOG. Keeping the store to sell stuff takes massive amounts of air conditioning effort. Largely windowless walls lead to increased lighting needs and refrigeration cases and storage add to the energy footprint. Massive parking lots as heat islands in summer and frozen tundra in winter, it is no wonder that supermarkets make difficult LEED projects for creating “green” buildings. There is much that can be done, both in changing our shopping habits and changing our supermarket design. The latter will follow the former.

Lexington's two newest urban grocery stores are a start in the right direction, though they probably follow the normal convention on product placement and energy usage, but the industry will not turn on a dime as the saying goes. It has taken us nearly 80 years to learn our bad habits, how long or what dire situation will help us or cause us “unlearn” those habits?

Food and Farm Freedom

Several things have popped up on the radar today and most have something to do with relocalization of food. I am surprised that our local champions of farming and good local foods have not been shouting this from the rooftops. On Monday, the 16^th of May there will be a rally in Washington, DC for Food and Farm Freedom.

You say to me, Sweeper, we have our farms and our Farmers Markets and they all are growing. But there is also a growing movement within the FDA to gain control of all that. Take this from Natural News.

The freedom to grow, sell, and buy clean food is under serious attack. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has made it clear that the agency is not a friend of food freedom and that it is willing to do whatever it takes to go after those involved in the "Slow Food" movement in order to protect corporate interests.

Corporations have noticed that the organic foods movement is making big strides and gaining “market share”. Why else would the mega-foods companies use their considerable clout to lobby the FDA to change the rules for organic products. I will assure you that these changes will not strengthen the rules for anybody. The new rules are noticeably weaker than the European standards and make it so that the factory farms of America can sell you the same old schlock, but labeled as “organic”. An organic label for which they can charge more in the market place.

At the same time, they(the FDA) are starting to ramp up their attacks on small farmers who are finding “niche” markets providing what the big companies don't want to be bothered with. Last summer, they raided the farm of Dan Allgyer, an Amish farmer in Pennsylvania, whom the agency accused of illegally selling raw milk. Raw milk is legal in Pennsylvania. That did not matter to the FDA agents and other law enforcement officers, they raided anyway. They confiscated (that is stole)pictures and other material while threatening “regulatory action” if the situation was not “resolved”

This is a similar tactic used on the farmer that has put together the cowshare program to which I belong. It is documented that they lay in wait for a weekly delivery of milk to the share participants and accosted both the farmer and the owners. The stress was so great that it brought on reactions similar to PTSD and recovery time took months. Lately a simple “farm inspection” has initiated another round from which we are just now getting back to normal. The bottom line is that the FDA is not out to help the general public consumer or the small farmer (the ones who built this country), they are out to protect those who fund their work with lobbyist dollars – big business, the mega farm agri-business corporations.

The Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund (FTCLDF) has actually filed suit against the FDA on behalf of raw milk. The FDA has responded to the suit with statements like “There is no absolute right to consume or feed children any particular food” and, amazingly, “There is no generalized right to bodily and physical health”. Do the rights to eat food come from the FDA or are they in place to protect our rights to eat healthy food?

It is for these reasons that food advocates are banding together to put on the Rally for Food and Farm Freedom at Upper Senate Park on May 16 to push for justice. It would be nice if some of the locals would have a rally here in Lexington, but I have not heard of one. I am beginning to think that the high-tech creative class jobs and the folks that do them, do not care that the FDA is not on their side. Is the Fayette Alliance aware of this rally? Can they pull something together on short notice? How about the various farmers markets? Or the Good Foods Co-op? Is somebody doing something?

Knox Van Nagell responded to a comment of mine (on ProgressLex) the other day with: “Through matching Federal, State, and local funds, the PDR program “purchases” the development “right” from local farmers, and holds this right in perpetuity…resulting in conserved farms that will continue their agricultural operations for the future. “ It is my hope that these “agricultural operations” will be of the small local farmer rather than the agri-business type.

There is nothing about any of this in the local press.