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Post by Kyle Mitchell on Feb 19, 2014 13:32:57 GMT -6
In case he reads this, the ideas here would be great. A place that vendors could rent a booth, and it would be great if there was a little tea room, tucked in a corner!! Or, an arcade focused on younger children. Laser tag on the second floor? The train idea would be great, too. I'll be glad to set up a meeting with him for you Helen. The first idea was tried not too long ago in another building, but they couldn't get enough vendors. Like I said, he did consider the family entertainment center. We researched prices on laser tag equipment for him. That kind of stuff isn't cheap to do right. We were really disappointed when he came back saying that it was just too risky of a venture. I really would support that type of thing down here though, it would be great. Maybe if you were willing to put up some of the costs to take some of the risk, I would think he might go for it. If you, or anyone is interested in doing something there, I can set up a meeting. I could let you look at the space if you would like to.
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Post by Kyle Mitchell on Feb 19, 2014 15:27:02 GMT -6
Streator used to have much more fighting when there were more people living here! There were more people and a lot of fighting. Now there are a lot less people. Very interesting!
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Post by helencrump on Feb 19, 2014 15:39:29 GMT -6
If I had wanted to open a business, or own a building downtown I would. My comment was directed toward someone who both owns a building, and according to you, is looking for a use for it.
I believe the vendor venture would be perfect for him. He already owns the building. Having it occupied, would save him money. He could offer a booth to the vendors for free for 6 months, till it caught on. Having the space without overhead, would make a huge difference. In 6 months, there could be a lot of advertising done. Seems to me, you haven't given him very inspirational advice. After all, he was willing to go the aquaponics route, with a history of little profit. The tea room/craft store has a chance of building into something lucrative. Given the chance to build up, before the overhead defeats them.
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Post by Kyle Mitchell on Feb 19, 2014 15:52:52 GMT -6
Sadly, the only time I hear about these type of things, is on here. You do an excellent job of perpetuating this reputation of bar brawls, men exposing themselves, etc. If people are fearful of coming here, you do a great job keeping it that way. Yes, the City does a pretty good job of keeping the news of these fights out of the paper. My customers kept seeing them though. If you don't think that a lot of people do talk about them even without being in the paper, you are wrong. I am confident that it is the on-going excessive fights that perpetuates that reputation. You probably didn't hear me talking about them publicly in the first couple of years that I was here, because I was spending my time having private meetings with City leaders instead, asking that these problems be taken care of. Was there someone before me that was talking about the excessive fighting? Do you really expect me to believe that Streator's reputation is from my talking and not the many fights that have happened over the past several years? So If I do not talk about them, the reputation will change, even with the fights going on? Instead of covering up the problems, I feel that action needs to be taken to change them. If you have cockroaches, do you just shut off the lights so that you don't see them? Do you also advocate for privacy for sex offenders? If people can't see how many there are here, we wouldn't get a reputation for having a lot of them. Shhh! If you don't talk about the one living next door, you won't have to worry about your kids.
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Post by helencrump on Feb 19, 2014 16:01:36 GMT -6
Streator used to have much more fighting when there were more people living here! There were more people and a lot of fighting. Now there are a lot less people. Very interesting! It is indeed, interesting. This town was built on sweat and brawls, with mines running under its belly. taverns were its mainstay. it developed and expanded with shops of all kinds. when the malls pulled the shoppers away, the taverns are still hanging in there. interesting. indeed. gambling seems to be doing well, as it always has. it's gone through changes, but still going strong. maybe you should turn to those businessmen for guidance, Kyle.
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Post by Kyle Mitchell on Feb 19, 2014 16:05:05 GMT -6
I believe the vendor venture would be perfect for him. He already owns the building. Having it occupied, would save him money. He could offer a booth to the vendors for free for 6 months, till it caught on. Having the space without overhead, would make a huge difference. What are you talking about, no overhead? How about his mortgage payment, property tax, insurance, management, etc., etc. Do you know how much it costs to heat and cool 10,000 square feet? I'll see if I can set up a meeting for you to give him inspiration, if you like.
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Post by Kyle Mitchell on Feb 19, 2014 16:10:44 GMT -6
It is indeed, interesting. This town was built on sweat and brawls, with mines running under its belly. taverns were its mainstay. it developed and expanded with shops of all kinds. when the malls pulled the shoppers away, the taverns are still hanging in there. interesting. indeed. gambling seems to be doing well, as it always has. it's gone through changes, but still going strong. maybe you should turn to those businessmen for guidance, Kyle. Bahahaha, that is funny, guidance from them. What are you trying to say. Does it take selling alcohol for a business to survive here? Yes it does seem that gambling is doing well. I notice on football Sunday's that there seems to be even more people parking in front of the hydrant. Maybe there should be a five minute parking zone.
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Post by helencrump on Feb 19, 2014 16:16:30 GMT -6
You said he owned the building. now you say the bank owns it?
You said he was willing to go aquaponics, even with little or no profit. he just wanted a use for the building. now you say thats not so?
You spew about the fines of an empty building. Now you don't think putting that money toward getting a business up and going would be a positive, rather than a continued empty, fine drawing building?
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Post by helencrump on Feb 19, 2014 16:34:16 GMT -6
It is indeed, interesting. This town was built on sweat and brawls, with mines running under its belly. taverns were its mainstay. it developed and expanded with shops of all kinds. when the malls pulled the shoppers away, the taverns are still hanging in there. interesting. indeed. gambling seems to be doing well, as it always has. it's gone through changes, but still going strong. maybe you should turn to those businessmen for guidance, Kyle. Bahahaha, that is funny, guidance from them. What are you trying to say. Does it take selling alcohol for a business to survive here? Yes it does seem that gambling is doing well. I notice on football Sunday's that there seems to be even more people parking in front of the hydrant. Maybe there should be a five minute parking zone. There's many old families retired on their businesses. And others following in their footsteps. Yes, as you keep talking about your difficulties in making a business survive, maybe you should discuss their success with them. Someone on here once mentioned that both you and your wife were (are?) frequent visitors to your friendly neighborhood bar. Neither of you had a problem tipping glasses together at that time. Again, I think this is more vendetta, than cleaning up the town. If it was a true agenda to see improvements, you would be developing a group to deal in a positive way, the issues. Like the efforts that made such a HUGE difference to the pocket park. Oh, wait, all you can do there is find fault with the backdrop. Again, only negative with you.
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Post by Kyle Mitchell on Feb 19, 2014 16:48:14 GMT -6
You said he owned the building. now you say the bank owns it? You said he was willing to go aquaponics, even with little or no profit. he just wanted a use for the building. now you say thats not so? You spew about the fines of an empty building. Now you don't think putting that money toward getting a business up and going would be a positive, rather than a continued empty, fine drawing building? Well if you want to get into ownership issues, I will. Does anyone really own anything? Even if you don't have a mortgage to a bank, you still have to pay property taxes or it will be taken away from you. So where do you want to draw the line to be able to claim ownership. According to you, the bank owns an awful lot. You were the one that said no that there would be no overhead. It is all still overhead for him. Yes he was willing to absorb some of the overhead to allow the Aquaponics project to get running. It does take about 18 months to raise Talapia. You can't fill the grow beds with plants until the first batch of fingerlings have grown. I can't say that he would also absorb those expenses for another project. You could meet with him and ask. What would the city require for that, it might not be normal retail? Would they require a Special Use Permit?
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Post by Kyle Mitchell on Feb 19, 2014 17:00:38 GMT -6
If it was a true agenda to see improvements, you would be developing a group to deal in a positive way, the issues. Like the efforts that made such a HUGE difference to the pocket park. Oh, wait, all you can do there is find fault with the backdrop. Again, only negative with you. Well, I am very proud of the benefit shows that we held at the Majestic for SDAB's Downtown Beautification. American Graffiti comes to mind; I think we wrote a check for about a grand. I know, that shows my poor business sense that Oldtimer talks about. As Katie told me back then, "you can't give away the farm until you own it. I was really enjoying being Neighborhood Watch's Community Service Coordinator, supervising people cleaning up our streets and parks, but when I was declared illegal, it undermined my ability to do the job and highlighted that any group that I may be involved with could suffer from my being a target of the City.
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Post by dog on Feb 20, 2014 12:44:53 GMT -6
You said he owned the building. now you say the bank owns it? You said he was willing to go aquaponics, even with little or no profit. he just wanted a use for the building. now you say thats not so? You spew about the fines of an empty building. Now you don't think putting that money toward getting a business up and going would be a positive, rather than a continued empty, fine drawing building? Well if you want to get into ownership issues, I will. Does anyone really own anything? Even if you don't have a mortgage to a bank, you still have to pay property taxes or it will be taken away from you. So where do you want to draw the line to be able to claim ownership. According to you, the bank owns an awful lot. You were the one that said no that there would be no overhead. It is all still overhead for him. Yes he was willing to absorb some of the overhead to allow the Aquaponics project to get running. It does take about 18 months to raise Talapia. You can't fill the grow beds with plants until the first batch of fingerlings have grown. I can't say that he would also absorb those expenses for another project. You could meet with him and ask. What would the city require for that, it might not be normal retail? Would they require a Special Use Permit? I was doing some figuring trying to compare his property to mine. The taxes and size are about the same. It costs me roughly $100/day in taxes, insurance, gas,electricity, water to stay open. I have no mortgage on the place. If you were figure he might pay $1500 a month on a loan, he is only talking about another $50 a day. He was desperate to do something with the place to avoid a $750/day fine, but you dont think he would spend $150/day to have a usable building. Even if his cost to make it suitable for some of the suggestions named here was $6000/month, that still would put it in the 350/day range which is still less than half of what the fine would subject him to. And that is before any renters were involved to allow him to recoop some of his money. You have read the zoning laws from front to back, would he need a special use permit? It seems if it doesnt follow your agenda, you arent willing to discuss other possible uses for his building.
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Post by Kyle Mitchell on Feb 20, 2014 15:50:28 GMT -6
You have read the zoning laws from front to back, would he need a special use permit? It seems if it doesnt follow your agenda, you arent willing to discuss other possible uses for his building. A Special Use Permit could be required and could probably be justified by the law. With the top secret way that they translate our zoning ordinance, industrial zoning could be required. If you have a Good O' Boy Club Secret Decoder Ring maybe we can figure out what their real requirement might be. I'll talk about possible uses for the building if you want to, but it is just talk. I am not doing any business in there. If you want to talk about actually doing something there I can probably show you the space and set up a meeting for you or any serious person to propose a business to him. I can't speak to what he might be willing to invest in now. If you want to just talk about maybe, could be, dreams of what could go in there, I'll do that too. The Downtown Plan draft talked about a planetarium, maybe it could go there. Maybe it could be the worlds largest yellow thimble store, all different shades of yellow. Maybe....
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Post by father of two on Feb 20, 2014 17:05:25 GMT -6
Anyone that tries to open a business anywhere in this state in this economy is facing a tough battle. I don't mean corporate owned, I mean small town business. It's even tougher here because there's only so many $ available. The more businesses of the same kind thins out the cash for all until someone folds. Trying to compete against the walmarts of the world and their big buying power is hard. I've seen a few friends try to open businesses here in the last few years only to shut their doors within a year or two.
If you want people to travel over here to shop or whatever you have to offer something their town doesn't have. Why drive 15-20 miles when I can get it in my own town? Plus add in the cost of gas and it just isn't worth it for most.
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Post by dog on Feb 20, 2014 17:27:13 GMT -6
You have read the zoning laws from front to back, would he need a special use permit? It seems if it doesnt follow your agenda, you arent willing to discuss other possible uses for his building. A Special Use Permit could be required and could probably be justified by the law. With the top secret way that they translate our zoning ordinance, industrial zoning could be required. If you have a Good O' Boy Club Secret Decoder Ring maybe we can figure out what their real requirement might be. I'll talk about possible uses for the building if you want to, but it is just talk. I am not doing any business in there. If you want to talk about actually doing something there I can probably show you the space and set up a meeting for you or any serious person to propose a business to him. I can't speak to what he might be willing to invest in now. If you want to just talk about maybe, could be, dreams of what could go in there, I'll do that too. The Downtown Plan draft talked about a planetarium, maybe it could go there. Maybe it could be the worlds largest yellow thimble store, all different shades of yellow. Maybe.... Nope, I have my business, I don't need another building or another business in this state. I was only giving suggestions about what he could do. You said he was desperate to do something with it, and had contacted you several times after the aquaponics venture. I thought maybe he was still interested in making use of the building, but I get the impression that if it wasn't the aquaponics, he is just content to sit on it. I just find it odd that you were so eager to help him with aquaponics, and now you are content to not put much effort into making it useful.
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