I saw a group of a similar name that was created on Facebook yesterday. If you've never been to Eldersburg in Carroll County, it is more or less the cross-roads of Route 26 (Liberty Road) and Route 32. Neighborhoods have sprung up around those roads, but there isn't much to a transportation infrastructure in the town. The commercial district basically runs straight down these 2 roads.
South of Eldersburg is Sykesville, the older little brother of Eldersburg. With it's quaint downtown district, Sykesville lacks the commercial interests of Eldersburg. You can't go grocery shopping in Sykesville.
Eldersburg basically consists of several grocery stores (Martin's, Safeway, Food Lion, and Shopper's Food Warehouse), a few chain restaurants (Chili's, Bob Evans, and the various fast-food chains), and a few stores (Wal-Mart, and some claim K-Mart and Big Lots, but I think those are actually in the Randallstown section of Eldersburg).
"Fans" of this new group threw out suggestions - more restaurants, Costco, Target, Barnes & Noble, Staples, Best Buy, Dick's Sporting Goods, and a movie theater to name a few.
Now, I don't know if you've ever been to places that have these stores. You can look at Columbia, Westminster, Owings Mills, and Bel Air. These ex-burbs are loaded with them. And what to all of those places have in common? HORRIBLE traffic problems. Lack of identity. Transient crime. And lower property values.
Why do people move to Eldersburg? It's certainly not because of the great selection of stores and restaurants. People move to Eldersburg because of its small-town feel. It's bucolic. We don't need all that other crap. If we need anything that cannot be sold in Eldersburg, we are a quick 20 minute drive to Owings Mills, Westminster, or Columbia\Clarksville to get it.
Do we need to add more to Eldersburg to make it a better place to live? No. On the contrary. It's the best place to live because we don't have everything here. Let's keep it that way.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
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3 comments:
Yes, I'm up late (what's new) and while I agree with most of what you say, I still would love to have a Target and a Movie Theater. Both of those would be immediate successes here. The Movie Theater that was here was a disgrace, and I would rather drive 30 minutes to Columbia than walk to the theater that is minutes from my house. That's how bad it was. Disgusting...glad it's gone. As for Target, I know a TON of people who would much rather shop at Target than WalMart. We only go to Wal Mart out of necessity - we'd go to Target and never step foot in WalMart again if a Target opened up here. Ok, that's all...now I'm going to sleep so I can wake up in 5 hours.
Having a discount retailer every two miles isn't exactly my idea of economic progress. You want target? there is one just a few miles up 97. And how about the latest news ( I have not verified it... but was told there is a sign in front of the building)... you know that brand new nice building next to Wal Mart? Apparently this is to be the new home of a wonderful new good will store. Welcome to Randallsburg folks.
I do agree with you... A decent movie theater might be well received... and I have no doubt a Target store would do ok. But I guess my point is this slash and burn retailing mentality is probably on the way out. I think people tend to forget that while our area has grown somewhat, it is still fairly small and probably can't support the kind of retailing we see in areas like Columbia and Westminister. But don't get me wrong... if we could somehow doze the Mall to the ground and build a nice new Target... I'd probably be standing in line there with you.
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