Folks, I'm sure many of you remember when Granite City was getting the latest chain restaurants and stores, plus we had many mom & pop businesses in town. New homes were being built all over town, in multiple subdivisions. And we had several grocery stores, chain and local furniture shops and new car dealers to choose from. That was simply because it was a growing community.
Around forty or so years ago, Granite City's population peaked just shy of 41k. Today, the population is down over 25%. Unfortunately, most chain restaurants are not interested in a shrinking community, including 54th street.
Many are dumping all this blame on the mayor and the economic developer, and they do share some of the blame. But like the old saying goes, you can't get blood out of a turnip. How a community like Granite revives itself is accomplished by remaking the community. Re-branding it, like they've tried to do with some success downtown.
But I also have heard that Rural King might be interested in coming here, but the mayor has set rules that restrict gun sales in the city. If that is true, one has to realize that if Jim's downtown decides to downsize and close one of his two local stores, it's going to be Granite due to this rule.
Again, Granite City has a hard sell to lure a new business to a shrinking community, but the thing all of us CAN do,instead of fretting about it, is give the local businesses that still do serve us some business.
Maybe the administration downtown needs to re-asses their sometimes rigid stance towards what goes in downtown, because makes it even harder to lure business. Another goal would be to develop a partnership with the retail business we do have in town. Maybe find ways to assist with promoting local business that already exist?
But none of that is easy...
Oh, I know I could think of several other local restaurants that I like; Apple Tree, Uncle Lynnies, Jacobmeyer's, Itty-Bitty, to name a few.
on February 16, 2019, 10:52 am, in reply to "