Right here in Summit City...with a capital *C*, and that rhymes with *D*...and that stands for DUMB!
Dumb, as in WTF are people thinking anyway?
Man, it feels like a day I should be out on a street corner going "...And Here's your SIGN"!
Take this morning...a nice day to truck out early (temps in the mid-50s) get the week's shopping done with the missus, and get back to "Homestead Heights", and do as little as possible until the "locals" start their daily round of $hit, made to annoy the deceased AS WELL AS the living.
OK, so we hit K-Mart for some sale items...they're OUT of them. Didn't know EVERYONE suddenly needed a Uniden - 5.8 Ghz 3 handset cordless phone system w/ digital answering machine...did you?
Came as a complete SHOCK to me...no $hit!
Anyway, we DID find a few other things, and as we motored along to checkout, I found it was strangely VACANT...as in NOBODY was at ANY register. Now this is happening at 0845...and K-mart OPENS at 0800. SO what's the deal here?
After questioning one of the VERY few staff people there (no one was even stocking shelves), we found out that the register people DON'T come in until 0900!
Well spank me rosy.
Who in their right mind opens a store with only ONE person (service counter worker) to man a SINGLE register when early is the BEST time to shop (avoiding crowds and traffic)? What "if" a sale was going on, eh? I know my wife was ready to ditch what we were going to purchase and walk the hell out.
And she'd be right to do so. It's called customer SERVICE for a reason.
We did get rung up and trucked on over to Scott's for groceries....and surprise AGAIN. No SEEDED RYE BREAD. Not even in the damn freezer (I STILL know how to thaw stuff). NO scallops, NO 8-piece fried chicken out, NO signs with sale deli items, and only ONE register open there as well. But at least there was more than 3 people in THAT store!
After that, over to Family Dollar, and lo and behold....they had what we wanted (and then some). Got ourselves a new hummingbird feeder for $2! Can't beat that with a stick.
OK, so now we're getting someplace...finally.
Over to Walgreen's for the last items, and found every damn one (even the coupon items we were looking for)...amazing! At least THEY know how to open early with adequate staffing! The new manager there seems to be more on the ball than others in recent memory. Always a good thing in this part of town. That's what I'm USED to.
On the way home, we see some police cars in the 500 block of Pettit and in the alley. Remarkable how SOME people just cannot act properly before 10 A-frigging-M! Hope it was a drug bust. We LIKE to see that around here...sends a message (like the song goes...'We're not gonna take it....") to these moronic thugs.
It simply amazes me how the SOUTH side of this city is ignored in so many ways.
Sure, we may have a new Wal-Mart...AND a new Menards...AND a new Police/Fire Academy, but we didn't really need to lose what we used to have in the process.
Southtown Mall was nice...really it was.
it was the surrounding NEIGHBORHOODS that changed...and not for the better.
THAT is what killed Southtown Mall, and it's what continues to injure this once nice part of Fort Wayne.
Wouldn't it have been nice to have ALL the monies that were spent tearing down Southtown mall, fighting Wichart in court over the property (anyone still recall THAT clusterf$ck?), and the subsequent abatements that went to secure the businesses currently there?
Then again...wouldn't it be nice to have DECENT neighbors...and corner stores...and a lot less hassle?
Hell, it would be worth having higher taxes IF that were the case.
Still, it will all come down to PEOPLE...
It always does...whether they wear baggy pants walking down the middle of our streets, or nice suits behind the wheel of city-supplied vehicles...or even staunch "hold-outs" like ourselves that still believe that this part of the city is worth reclaiming.
Some people we need (like the good ones)...others, we simply DO NOT (and you know who they are).
In any event...
DO have a SAFE weekend, wherever you happen to go.
2 comments:
Whichard (Whitchart) or whatever the hell his name was is a first-class scumbag for not doing anything about Southtown and not wanting to let anyone else do anything about it. Southtown was a nice alternative to Glenbrook. Happy childhood memories there.
I know...having studied achitectural drafting in school for 3 years, I found the place fascinating, and I came here when it still had about 50% of the stores left.
My wife recalls the "glory days", and from she has told me,plus what I saw of what was left, it should have NEVER been torn down.
Then again, the CRIME around here should have never been allowed to flourish to the point that would make vacating Southtown Mall a necessity.
The crime alone hammered way too many nails into that coffin.
And many of our neighborhood echo those hammerfalls, unfortunately.
Thanks for your comment, Gloria. I intend to do a retrospect on Southtown before the summer's over.
B.G.
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