Anyway, there's a couple things I've noticed lately that I thought I'd share. First, The Malt Shop on 5th and C street has closed. Marvin, the owner (and a Kensington neighbor of mine) said the building owners bought him out. I don't know what that means for the other businesses in the same building, but I would miss Javier at the pizza shop if all those businesses succumb to the same fate.
The other thing is that across the street is the Everything $5 store and the 5th Avenue entrance to the House of Blues. Marvin once told me the store was going to become the "Everything $10 Store" and I'm glad that's not true after all, but it still changed...
I took the picture almost as a joke, but actually it got me thinking about the economy which made me think part of the problem is probably the rise of gas prices and to me that inevitably leads me to think about this bullshit war and our bullshit administration. So it's no laughing matter that the $5 store had to change to the Everything $5.99 store. For the people who shop there because they have to, this will make a dent in the wallet. Many of downtown's poor rely on the businesses in this corridor because the goods they sell are generally cheaper than the rest of downtown. The other day, a homeless woman was crying in 7-11 because she didn't have enough to buy one hot dog(I bought it for her.) It's a damn shame this city cares so much about pleasing the rich, buildings stadiums for the über wealthy, pleasing developers by overusing emminent domain all the while not doing dick about the problem of homelessness, replacing SROs (single room occupancy dwellings), or managing the double whammy of mental illness combined with homelessness. End rant.
Downtown is always changing but sometimes it happens too fast and leaves too many people behind.
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