Quote:
Originally Posted by OA 5599
I'd like to think that "if you build it, they will come", but who knows.
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But doesn't the market really work the other way? That is, you can't afford to build until you have an audience, a clientele, a customer base who will come to what you build.
Leo Cardetti, of St. James, some years ago opened an authentic Italian restaurant downtown right next to campus. There has been talk for years (it still continues) about the need for an Olive Garden here, but the city is too small for Olive Garden to consider. Cardetti's Ristorante operated a few months, but eventually Leo had to shut it down because it wasn't making any money and he didn't foresee it ever making money because there just wasn't enough customer support from either students or townies. And it was a good restaurant.
I recall, too, how a few years ago the city hired a consulting firm from Boulder, Colo., to come up with a downtown reinvigoration plan. They had public hearings, inviting ideas from locals on how to attract people downtown. The preponderance of suggestions boiled down to this: Build more little shops, boutiques, restaurants, etc.
What entrepeneur is going to invest money into a nice restaurant unless he knows he's going to have diners? There has to be a crowd already there. The university is there, but are MSM/UMR/MST students going to visit interesting boutiques or restaurants? Occasionally, maybe, but not regularly.
MSM/UMR/MST students are not typical college students, like the young people in Kirksville or Warrensburg or Cape. These are technologically oriented kids, not party oriented (with the exception of one week in March). The rigorous curriculum demands that their nightlife be spent in the books, on the computer or in the lab. OA, you know that.
If there were a student market to support more downtown bars, restaurants, sandwich shops, etc., those businesses would be there, but the student market just isn't there.
There was talk a few years ago that the University system might even close down the engineering school and consolidate it with the school in Columbia. That sounded like a good idea to me IF the state commission on higher education would transform the campus into a liberal arts school and teacher training institution that would cater to the educational needs of the counties surrounding Phelps, plus those south and southeast, not served by such an institution right now.
Can you imagine the activity we would have in Rolla if we had 6,000 liberal arts students instead of 6,000 engineering/mining students? The UMR tech students need only a computer and a lab. Liberal arts students need places like bars, restaurants, internet cafes and coffee shops to sit around and argue, discuss, theorize and contemplate man, God and their navels. (I know this is true, because I have what amounts to a liberal arts degree from Mizzou.)
About the only result of downtown renovation were benches, matching trash cans and brick "bump-outs" at the corners and the renaming of the downtown parking lots as the festival lots, for the annual arts and crafts festival and the annual Route 66 Summerfest. These changes didn't make a bit of difference in commerce, only appearance; downtown is not thriving, but it isn't decaying and never was that I could see.
Rolla leaders need to figure out a way to get people downtown so there is a seed crowd on which entrepreneurs can build, thereby attracting more people downtown. I'd be in favor of tax credits to landlords who transform the upper stories of their downtown business buildings into living spaces. I think, though, the city made it illegal to live in a building zoned for business. (Although, they may have rescinded that code.)
I also wish the city would pay more attention to the Rolla Public Library as a destination point and drawing card. I recall at the meetings hosted by the consulting firm, folks indicated a need for a central information point, something like a kiosk, and I thought "Morons, you've got the library there, and it's full of information; it's far better than a kiosk."
The Library Board has an expansion plan going on right now, with plans to renovate a building next door into the children's library, giving more room in the main library to expand the collection and internet access. Any achievement, though, is done by the Library Board and the Friends of the Library; there's no help coming from the city leaders.
Well, I'm starting to rant and lose focus.
I guess what we really need in Rolla are more Califoreigners and Florimmigrants and other newcomers who really want to be Missourians.
Truly, if you want to live in Missouri and be in a place where you will be accepted immediately, Rolla is the place.
Moreover, if you want to be able to offer ideas from wherever you came, without fretting about being shunned as an outsider, this is the place, because most Rolla residents come from somewhere else. Complaining about Rolla is a pastime here. In fact, newcomers may complain a lot less than the long-time residents.
I'm an exception. I never complain.
The skeery NEW Ozarks Boy
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