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According to the Daily Mail, the city has approved purchase of the eyesore/perennial problem Middle East Mart, with the transaction planned to be completed this summer.
The transit mall will indeed be shifted slightly south on Laidley Street. According to a CURA presentation I was at awhile back, the issue with a more significant relocation is that the transit mall was built with federal money -- doing too much with it would open up a massive can of federal regulatory and funding worms. The current plan to move it south will at least reconfigure it so that ticketing and waiting areas are out of the way of the main walkway route, rather than smack in the middle as they are now.
They keep saying south, but the rendering from March shows it at Laidley/Lee, which would be north. Wherever it is, its relocation and the police substation will drastically enhance the area.
I'm not entirely sure why the entire city seems to hate that little store at the Transit Mall with such passion, but whatever. /shrug
I go in there to buy juices/snacks before I catch the bus to work all the time. the guy that runs the place seems like a pretty nice guy, never had any issues with him.
maybe it is just something I don't notice because my only business at the Transit Mall is to catch a bus, and I don't spend any significant time down there other than waiting for my bus.
I guess this will just give those other two little shops on the other side of the Transit Mall more business.
Location: New Albany, Indiana (Greater Louisville)
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Is there any talk of merging Charleston with other nearby cities? Seems uneconomical to have a bunch of separate gov'ts in a small area. It also helps how the community looks on paper, Charleston looks tiny at 50k when the greater area is much larger
Is there any talk of merging Charleston with other nearby cities? Seems uneconomical to have a bunch of separate gov'ts in a small area. It also helps how the community looks on paper, Charleston looks tiny at 50k when the greater area is much larger
It's been tried. Unfortunately the part of the state Charleston is located in right now lacks the mentality to see the positives of any type of community merger. Economics and population decline would seem to only make sense that some type of consolidation of services and governmental agencies should happen. I think the southern part of WV won't see any improvement until the older generation dies off to give the rest of the region a chance to grow. I don't say these words out of malice or unkindness but it's just where it stands right now. There are cities in WV looking at doing this. Most recently Beckley has been looking into it as well as Fairmont. If the Fairmont merger would ever take place they will become the most populous community in the state and Beckley would probably be the third or fourth most and they are south of Charleston fwiw.
The City of Charleston itself has taken more than one run at metro government in the past 20 years or so. Fairly recently, they studied the heck out of Louisville and made a presentation on all the good that consolidation of services and agencies has done that city/area. It makes almost too much sense, both in terms of government efficiency and on paper (under a metro system, Charleston's population on paper would go from 50k to almost 300k overnight).
But the smaller 'burbs fight it tooth and nail every time because they're afraid of change. And as John pointed out, will probably continue to do so until fresher, more open-minded blood is in charge.
Metro government has gotten a lot more complicated. Charleston EMTs don't want to merge with the county service because they earn more than the county guys. Now Charleston has instituted a User Fee and a City Sales Tax. Does that mean that Dunbar businesses would have to collect the User Fee and send it to Charleston? South Charleston offers twice a week trash collection. Would that be cut back to once/week? Would Charleston start supplying "free" trash bags to all the other communities?
I'm sure there are a LOT more issues, but it is not just a matter of waiting until all the old guys die off and the new generation will vote it in.
Good news for people who live in and around Arlington Court.
The better news for the city at large is the second half of the article, which details that the Brawley/Slack redesign will hopefully begin this summer, starting with the Mall-to-Slack portion. The next phase would be Brawley between Slack and Capitol St, with the Slack Plaza (renamed the John Slack Green) coming in the third phase when additional funding is secured/allocated.
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