Ok folks, let's do this.
We have all read and posted about various things on here but let's try and figure out where our business or lack of have gone and why.

I will start and just so you know, I have thought this through very carefully and asked myself this question over and over.

This is some of my thoughts.

Major corporations or chains have money and we all know it talks. They put together teams and do studies on traffic flow, consumer needs, and every thing else that they can do and learn to see if where they build or open will turn a profit.

The average person who self-employs doesn't have this luxury, they open in a neighborhood they are familiar with or see progress happening. At least that's what we did. we saw a legendary business that sat and had a dream that we could bring it back to life in our way, not theres. I know what there sales were, I know they employed a lot of people over the years and I know they brought a lot of out-of towners into LP. They didn't have this happen overnite, it took many years and with each decade they embraced it by making it bigger and buying lot after lot until they had enough property to control a whole city block. smart thinking for that time, bad for this time.

I see Sears shopping center with no more that 8 shops open. How sad is all that? Where did they go? Why did they go?
You cannot drive down any major street in the city and NOT see a business that is long gone. I keep telling myself that it will get better, it's sorta like the movie, if u build it, it will come and u hope and pray that it happens.

Its not just LP. I live in melvindale when I am not living in the restaurant and we have closed up shops too. The difference being we are a much smaller city so there arent as many.

I see and hear a lot from people about the NW side of town but I still open our doors everyday and I still pull weeds, (which is a waste of time) and I still wash my dirty building down with the hose. Yes, the traffic fills a white building with scum every day, but I want the traffic if I want business.

As Rocky stated in another post, it is sad and depressing to see the other cities looking like they have struck gold(not his words) but I know Dix gets more traffic that Outer dr. It is a main street that leads to all cities.

I guess what I am saying is I don't have the answers of why we are struggling so bad but I do know for a fact that a new business is going across the street and was met with resistence which totally blew me away.
I, like Rocky, don't wanna close up but we need to figure out why every business is pulling out of town.

If we can figure that out, maybe we can prevent more from leaving. I have to be honest, from what I know and see, no business is gonna enter or spend money building or renovating if there isn't a demand by the public for it. That is what I see will drive them to other cities in search of that store or restaurant they want or need.

I'd love to hear input on why it is that we are losing our businesses and why more aren't entering.

Pam

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"studies on traffic flow, consumer needs, and every thing else"

I say that Lincoln Park needs to do the same thing. I have been suggesting this for a while. What sense does it make to have a DDA without any direction.

They can only get direction from thses types of studies, than we can approach small and big business alike with facts.

These facts will help convince them that Lincoln Park is worth the investment.

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The entire downriver is a unique situation. It seems that each city has it's large retail center, but yet they all compete with one and other. Take Best Buy as an example. They are supposed to move from Southgate to Taylor. They would never think of operating two stores that close to one and other, let alone open one in LP, Wyandotte, Riverview and Trenton.


I used to travel a lot on business down the I-75 corridor between Toledo and Cincinatti. It seems that at about every 10-15 miles there is a decent size city the size of LP. Each city has it's own shops and restaraunts and seems to do pretty well. Granted there wasn't a best buy in every one of these towns, but they all had something different.

My point is that I think the downriver communities are too close together. We tend to share too many places like Best Buy, Olive Garden, Home Depot, etc. We cannot change the entire make up of the Downriver, but LP needs to find it's niche and figure how to fit in. I think Wyandotte has done an excellent job of this, but they have an advantage with the waterfront, parks, and golf course.

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The DDA does do traffic studies, depending on the project. I doubt they will pay to do one for a private business coming into town, but I know they've done them for their own efforts. They're trying to redevelop Fort and Southfield by altering the traffic flow in that area. They did a traffic study for that to see if it was worthwhile or not.

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Our DDA does have a 'Strategic Plan' that was written by Beckett & Raeder several years ago. I've got a copy of it here. I can get anyone who wants a copy a copy. It is a good plan but our DDA went from having two different Economic Development Directors (Joyce Seitz and Charlie Steen) each for approx. a year to Mark Lloyd with McKenna fthree days a week for about another 6 months or longer. Mark was doing a good job but left to go work for City of Ann Arbor and McKenna put two people (Darrell Fecho and Devony Donnigan) two days a week. Then the city reorganized and Bill Hatley was put in charge of the DDA and EDC. Thus, with all this constant change it is hard to stay on course to what is described in the strategic plan. When we had Joyce, Charlie or Mark at City Hall they attempted to bring in new businesses. Joyce was a hard worker and would call anyone any of us asked her to call. Charlie did try to get the Heritage Newspapers to move to Lincoln Park. Mark was working on getting a outlet mall developer to the old Hall Transportation buildings on Howard Street as well as locate a building for the Secretary of State people. Darrell and Devony were there the shortest amount of time but were working on a marketing brochure.

The two Economic Development Directors had more time to do business recruitment than the McKenna people who were only there 3 days a week. Now with the city hall reorg Bill Hatley is in charge of the DDA and EDC. Of course, he has the staff to type the minutes etc. but little time for business recruitment due to his other duties.

It makes sense why a retailer from the Sears Shopping Center would want to move to one of the new Allen Park shopping centers. What does make sense is why the owner of the Lincoln Park Sears Shopping Center is not trying to bring in more retailers or restaurants! For some reason they are just waiting for people to leave.

Lots of the traffic counts and studies that Pam refers to are available online as well FREE . . .check Semcog's website www.semcog.org .

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If the members of the DDA and EDC are not highly-motivated, energetic,creative, innovative, dedicated and forward-thinkers, then I don't feel confident much will happen to the business sector of LP. There are some business owners that seem very devoted to the betterment of the downtown area. BC's Pizza comes to mind to start with because of the way they maintain the exterior of their building. Lobb Florist is another. El Paso restaurant (the place that just painted the side of their building with a very striking color), Painters Supply, Fort Street Brewery to name just a few. It's those owners who should be on the DDA or EDC. Maybe they are, I don't know. Someone mentioned that the owner of Central Work Clothes is a member of one of these groups, well, that person may be a nice guy, but come on folks, can we really expect any innovation, creativity, energy coming from someone like that who has a building that they haven't done any improvements to. It looks like it belongs in Detroit. No personal offense to the owner, just an observation that I don't have much faith in the output of the DDA or EDC if there members don't have well-kept, inviting, clean businesses.

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MrMyers (09-25-05), Robbie (09-25-05), assistant (09-25-05), Rocky (09-26-05)

Jujitsu,

I couldn't have said this any better. You are right on the money and I think our Council members should take a look at the DDA and EDC membership and get some more motivated people on board.

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jujitsu50 (09-26-05)

But my point is that we really need to know the buying habits of the people that live and pass through Lincoln Park in order to know what businesses we should be going after. This would be a study for the cities' benefit, just because it will also benefit new businesses as well should not prevent us from doing it.

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exactly what has the DDA done for lincoln park in the last 10 years? And can someone tell me how are they funded?Do they report to the mayor and council ?

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I agree jujitsu. If these members aren't doing anything productive and just warming seat they need to be replaced. Just because they have done nothing to upset city leaders doesn't mean they deserve to be reappointed.

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Arctic Cat Thundercat Test Pilot

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Years ago Dix avenue was only two lanes in both directions. Take a look at Dix in Melvindale and you can see how narrow Dix used to be in LP and Southgate.

The wider you make the road, the more traffic you attract and the more the road becomes a super highway.

I agree with Mr Myers thoughts about the traffic flow. It is a little hard to get a new customer to notice your shop when he is doing 45 mph in the left hand lane.

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Congratulations Councilman Mario DiSanto. The Dean of the LP Council

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then what would it take to bring a resolution to the table to lower the speed limit downtown?

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Business are leaving because the people that have been running this so called city are out for themselves and no one else. Where does Duchane have lunch, I can just about guarantee it's not in LP.

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I think that you can leave Mr. Valso out of the bunch. He cares for all of Lincoln Park.

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I hear he love to plant trees for us.

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See what I mean.

Always going that extra mile.

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I hear he has some almost new carhardts, maybe he could donate them to one of the LP out of work contractors.

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Oh, I forgot, they are new. Just in one picture.

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One problem is that despite the fact that we have three vacancies we have no one to fill them. There are business owners that would be great for the DDA but they are not interested in sitting on the board for one reason or another. Typically the DDA meetings are at 5 pm, 2nd Tuesday of the month, but are now at 4 pm till the end of the year since Bill Hatley is teaching a class at Henry Ford Community College. 4 pm or 5 pm is not good for many of our business owners.

From what I hear from Bill Hatley, City Hall has a very hard time filling vacancies on various commissions.

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And this is the purpose of the 'traffic calming' plan that the DDA is trying to get through MDOT. Traffic would be slowed down so that people notice more of our businesses. It worked for Michigan Avenue in East Dearborn according to Beckett & Raeder who originally did our 'traffic calming' plan.

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