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    Re: A msg for Ed Hagnauer... Archived Message

    Posted by 3Dee on October 26, 2018, 10:47 am, in reply to "Re: A msg for Ed Hagnauer..."

    Everyone sets their eyes to the retail district.

    If I were you, I'd set my eyes on the industrial and residential districts.

    Retail districts are simply an expression of peoples' willingness to risk their capital on a successful Granite City location.

    A decent economic director would be touting things such as access to water and interstates with reasonable access to air transport. But in developing industry in the port or in other corridors, someone else has to be focusing on the neighborhoods.

    A retail district is just a string of places that creates perhaps 1-2 full time decent jobs and a number of minimum wage jobs.

    I agree that a poor retail district benefits no one and is only an eyesore....but for the people to want to take their risk on Granite City...people with disposable income have to want to live or stay living in Granite City.

    Before an economic director could attract a Rural King, Target, or a Meijer (check them out in Springfield and Champaign) or anything else to replace the K-Fart (Sorry feeling immature today)....to get these people to risk over $50 million in a Granite City location and be willing to pay over 100 employees, they have to be assured a return on their investment.

    So before the economic director can talk to retailers to fill Nameoki Road --- or actually build something along highway 3...they need to first look at the job-base in the community and also the people who are living in the area.

    I thought at one time the highway 3 corridor would be really promising....McKinley and Chain of Rocks bridges...nearby.

    Problem is that the central city (that's Saint Louis) is no better....it's all blighted. The highway 3 corridor is not surrounded with money...not in North City, barely in North County, and it continues to diminish in Granite City.

    I used to be so much more optimistic in opining about these matters.

    I just don't think there is an easy fix...and sometimes I wonder if the best option is just to set reasonable goals ----

    What can reasonably be accomplished in Granite City? ....and go for it.

    Don't compare it to the bedroom communities up the bluffs.... being those places CANNOT be accomplished... don't even try.

    Focus on stabilizing home values in the neighborhoods..... and the industrial base.... work hard on both of those.... Make some headway,stop the hemorrhaging of home values and population loss...turn a few trends mildly upward...and perhaps the retail that everyone talks about will improve. Don't expect anything premium...but maybe some of those empty spots will fill up. Will the community support it?



    The house I grew up in....sold in the 70's at the turn of the century.... and recently sold in the 60's...

    But two things that Granite City cannot even help.... 1. St. Louis and North County surround it as do Madison, Venice and Pontoon Beach - these are not wealthy communities. 2. Granite City is in ILLINOIS. (Enough said there)

    So --- set reasonable goals...
















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