What the Corridor REALLY Needs is Another Shopping Center

chickaree wrote: 2 acres? I feel like my neighbors are too close and I have 20! Maybe someday the folks behind us will sell us theirs.

Yeah looking to maybe move 1 day, but we only have 1 neighbor with 5 acres the rest are empty acerage or a cabin that no one lives in. And then the rest is National Forest out the back door.

Ah, that's nice. I find I can be more charitable towards my fellow man when he's not right up in my face every second.

chickaree wrote: Ah, that's nice. I find I can be more charitable towards my fellow man when he's not right up in my face every second.

Yes we do like that we have 1000's of acres of nut'n out the back door, but the little annoying peeps that show up every so often on holidays have made us MTN Snobs.

Dang snobs! lol

Maybe someday I can get back in the mountains, where the nearest neighbor was a mile away, but in the mean time I can envy you

Times and places change, but up here is still pretty damn good. Enjoy what you've got, not dwell on what you've lost.

The Viking wrote: This post just shows what a pathetic POS loser and waste of human you are! You don't give a sh** about anyone but yourself. And you wonder why you are so miserable? And don't say you aren't. You are a vile hate filled 'person' who tried to bankrupt businesses and put people out of work and tell others to do it too? Well I am glad that you are the smallest of minorities in this country. One who will always put themselves first. You are NOT a good neighbor nor the type of person we need in this community. You are sick in the head and most everyone knows it. You will always want to CHANGE everything including yourself. You will NEVER be happy with anything in this world. What a sad life. And THIS is why I stay off of this site. It just pisses people off to see a person with so much hatred for everyone other than themselves. I would never tell people to try and bankrupt a business and cause others to become unemployed. Enjoy your misery you pathetic waste of skin!

Yep - the bolded sections are definitely the adult approach. Yep, right. Good job with that adult approach.

I'm going to complain about those centers as long as they stay empty, because the landlords are too greedy to make the rents reasonable, and too unwilling to make the place inviting to new businesses. Because a whole bunch of us would shop up here, if the stores could afford to be up here. Maybe forclosure is the right way' maybe a bank run or foreclosure sale will bring in landlords who actually have a clue what the area can sustain rent and CAM wise and not run businesses out of their own centers because they think they to have thr same profit margin from a 1/3 full center that they woud from a full center.

And don't bother to spew about mortgages and so forth - bottom line, if they dropped the rent to a reasonable rate, they'd be full, have their mortgages paid, and still have decent profit.

As for homes - mine's been here since 1955, we are the third owners, and except to clear a couple trees, nothing was dug out or skimmed off, or "scaled" just to put this former vacation home here. Face it, thos area was all started as vacation home, and besides little stores like the one at Pine Junction, none of this was meant to be permanent, except for a few ranchers wo liked up the hill better than the plains.

But you want to promote this area so much, want to do something about all the ugly empty useless space (which offends me, because clearly they didn't find out the reality of it all when they started to even consider buildng), then do it. Because I for one would love to work for a business up here - hell, I'll happily be a store clerk again to avoid that daily drive of an hour each way - not to mention the cost of the gas.

But don't go on and on about how you support ALL local business, because you don't. My store was there for two years, and never once did you set foot in it - I know, I was there. Doubt you'd ever st foot in my store neighbor's shop either, and she's been in the same spot 22 years. But know I don't expect ANYONE to support EVERY local business - that's just ridiculous. Especially when we have so many of the same things here, from grocery stores and coffee houses to auto repair. Honestly, half of Des Moines doesn't have as many auto repair places as we do from Morrison to Bailey.

But please do go ahead and lobby businesses to come fil those empty storefronts, because it would help people like me not be so bedamned disgruntled about the empty buildings just sitting there and deteriorating - and they are deterorating - all untenanted buildigs do.

Wow.. I missed all the good parts of his infantile tirade! (Obsess much?!) If he has such a loss-of-control and anger-management skills over my suggesting that I wasn't going to shop at the K&G, I can't imagine what he would do if he'd been FOR the Parks & Rec Center!... Yeah, I'm pretty selfish about not wanting to pay taxes for someone else's recreational experience too... "You and your stupid, stupid minds..." -- ("Plan-9 From Outer Space")

And I'm still waiting:

He can take "hypocritical" and shove it up....... For someone who basically doesn't care much about other people's jobs, isn't it amazing that he's suddenly bat-sh*t crazy about the 2 or 3 at the Kum & Go...?? I'm still waiting for an answer to MY question: He's either an investor, a partner, or good buddies with the a**holes who built it... Which is it? How much money did he lose?

[crickets chirping]

I hardly think my refusing to shop at the K&G is going to cost anyone their jobs... But isn't it fascinating how much he suddenly knows about pregnant cashiers?---and cares about them?

I'd still rather see a broken-window'd eyesore standing there as a warning to other "build-it-and-they-will-come" scrape-off and throw-it-up greedy bastards. (I'd still rather see a restored hillside...but that's another conversation.)

THIRTEEN PAGES OF COMMENTS!!!!!! Man, I haven't had this much fun since the pigs ate my sister. rofllol

In all seriousness, I would have to say that any banker that loans a dime to a developer to build another strip mall or tract of houses along the 285 Corridor right now is certifiable. There simply isn't enough business or money along the corridor right now to keep the businesses afloat and there won't be until folks buy all those empty houses we already have.

As for young families and folks buying those empty houses....well folks won't buy those houses until two things happen. First thing is they need a good paying job with some benefits. Good luck finding one of those in Colorado these days. The next thing they need is a loan from a bank. And because many folks aren't employed or are underemployed, they don't have the credit worthiness (in the eyes of the banks) to be loaned the kind of money they would need to purchase a home.

I don't mean to oversimplify a very complex problem..but that's how it boils down for me. What's not clear to me is how we break this ring of ugly cause-and- effect events so we can get the engine going again. I'm disheartened by the prospect of this ugly thing going on for a decade as that means an entire generation of young people won't be afforded the opportunities and privileges us older folks were given. Many young people are deeply in debt the moment they walk across the stage to accept their college diploma. And the prospect of them finding a good job is not good.

The one common denominator I see here is the banker. I have no love for bankers or their part in this nasty business. When we come out the other end of this long tunnel (as after the Depression) I think many people (a whole generation) will see savings, credit and banks in a new light and this is good. Our children and grandchildren will wonder why we are so tight with a dime. Those who lived through this will smile inside and reflect back on how we allowed others to control our life. Another lesson we will never forget.

Banks used to be accountable for the loans they wrote so they were scrupulous about who they wrote loans to and they would work with the lendee if problems were encountered. Then they started selling the loans and once they found out it was more profitable to sell band loans, insure them and then collect when they failed all bets were off. What is truly stunning is that this administration has taken no steps to stop this practice. I guess all those big banker campaign contributions paid off too. Obama is as profitable to them as a failed loan. And about as helpful to us.