Sunday, April 4, 2010

Downtown news isn't good

I know I’ve said this before, but have you been downtown lately?


If you have, you can easily see its getting bad.

M&T Bank no longer has Saturday hours and will close for good in June.

The former American Bank (one of its any names) and CAP offices is closed. Friday when I was downtown, I noticed a “for lease” sign on the building. It’s red and white on the Locust Street side and you can hardly miss it.

So, what happened to plans for the Timeless Inn? Even though I saw people coming out of the building the other day, it’s starting to look like time might have run out on that project.

Across the street, we have a vacant lot that is now the scene of a daily yard sale. That site has already violated the borough’s ordinances for the number of yard sales in a year.

Now, let’s add two ore death wishes downtown. Ray’s on 4th is closed and Emily Keyser-Gofus is moving her Flowers, Herbs and Arts store up town to North 11th Street. Saturday was her last day downtown.

So, we have more vacant buildings. Just great!

The only thing left on that corner is the Columbia Presbyterian Church, which isn’t bad at all.

Perhaps, its time to have one of those “town” meetings to make a big push to come up with a plan to fill these structures and not with “pie in the sky” ideas either.