My New Blog

The Downtown Improvement Project is underway folks!

 Statesville downtown area is getting a much needed facelift from the City Hall building to our streetscape. However it did come with much debate on the wisdom of spending millions of  dollars on a project such as this at this particular time. I can see both sides of the argument, (that's my "S" personality trait) but, and this is a BIG but, the question I have is can we afford NOT to spend the money at a time like this? We have water pipes and underground infrastructure that is more than seventy years old. We have a downtown that hasn't changed much since my Mom and I would catch the public bus from the southside of town on Saturdays to shop for church dresses at Spainhours, have lunch at the Woolworth's Dept. store grill and I can't forget Mom buying her "step-ins" (panties) at Smithey's Dept. store. Oh, those were the days, I think. :)

The answer to the question is this, we cannot afford to let Statesville downtown go the way of so many other small towns that have had the very life drained out over the years because of no vision and no voices who would say "Let's spend the money and make it a downtown we all can be proud of, one that businesses will thrive in, and Statesville residents and those who travel I-77 and I-40 will make it a regular stopping point to shop, eat, relax." That will be money well spent.

Click on the link below for  more information about this project:

http://www.ci.statesville.nc.us/Departments/PublicWorks/DowntownImprovementProject/tabid/347/Default.aspx