My city tells the future. It isn't looking good.

[GordonJ]

Ah. The downtown boom in Cuyahoga Falls, OH has gone bust. Or almost. You will find posts from 5-7 years ago here of me detailing all the new shops and new downtown resurgence of my little city. Millions were spent renovating and getting it ready. And it BOOMED.

The last few years have seen several new shops, restaurants, and businesses opening downtown. My thoughts were then; they are going a bit too upscale for my taste. Alas.

In the last few months, we have seen major CLOSINGS of businesses downtown. A popular local brewery/restaurant has shuttered. Two restaurants have gone, and I suspect a couple of more are about to go too.

Now this might have happened no matter what, I said a few years ago, few of these people knew how to keep a business going...so blame the Entrepreneur for biting off more than she could chew.

Some, however, are due to the uncertain economy and the even more uncertain future economy...as we see signs of people withdrawing from some activities, like going out to eat, or amusements/entertainments.

We are a microcosm of America, split about 50/50 left and right, had a republican for years and democrat for years as mayors. City has done OK under almost all admins.

Anyhow, just walking around this past weekend, the city is whispering to me to buckle up, we may have had the best of times in recent years, but the party may be over. The good news is we have a new donut shop opening up downtown, so it will be easy to find a cop when you need one.

Gordon