A reader wrote . . .
This was a comment left on one of the posts. This is how visitors see the Grove:
"Not on topic but I am a former Grovite who visited recently after being away for four years. I just found this blog and I think it's great. But I am very troubled by something. Everything was closed and shut down. There are so few businesses, even going across US 1 on 27th. This can't all be because the real estate crash can it? It is so sad. "
"Not on topic but I am a former Grovite who visited recently after being away for four years. I just found this blog and I think it's great. But I am very troubled by something. Everything was closed and shut down. There are so few businesses, even going across US 1 on 27th. This can't all be because the real estate crash can it? It is so sad. "
posted by Tom Falco at 8:02 AM
YOU MAY NOT LIFT THE PHOTOS & TEXT. IT'S COPYRIGHTED INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY. YOU CAN HOWEVER SHARE A STORY ON SOCIAL MEDIA BY USING THE LINKS HERE.
For linking to this one story, just click on the time it was posted & just this story will open for sharing - only through social media. Not copying and pasting.
10 Comments:
Certainly not due to the real estate crash - more due to the real-estate boom.
If and when commercial rents start re-aligning with the rest of the economy, maybe we'll see some improvement.
What the heck? Didn't the dude see The Home Depot or Gardner's Market????
I guess unless it is some smelly hippie store that sell useless trash & trinkets, it does not count.
This is not how "visitors" see the Grove. This is how one visitor saw the Grove. I live in Coral Gables and am amazed at, quite the contrary, how vital and dynamic the Grove has remained. There are a few closed businesses here and there but, nothing compared to the situation in, say, Merrick Village.
Actually, the Grove is a mess. Guess you haven't been to Mayfair where there are maybe 3 tenants.
It is so bad that a local newspaper is doing a story on the problem. It should be published in a week or two.
I am also conerned so many more store are closing now - Red Lantern, the Leathery (s.p.?), Hagen Daz, etc.
I have lived here for over 7 years, and so many places have closed (and opened..). I wonder if the problem is that the people who live in the grove do not shop in the grove?
I worry that the smaller shops will not make it and we will lose what little is left of the indpendent shops.
Kinda sad,
W. Anderson
Cocowalk and Mayfair do look terrible. Reminds me of photos of vacancies in Rust Bowl towns in Middle America.
Real Estate Taxes and Insurance are too high. No tenant can survive.
Why would anyone want to risk capital and open a new retailer in this community?
Perhaps the following may provide those who can't understand a clue:
1) An activist organization called Grove First mobilized to prevent a new business (The Home Depot)from coming to the community.
2) A number of residence placed signs in their front yard announcing their opposition to Home Depot's presence.
3) A documentary called Don't Box Me In about opposition of THD coming to Coconut Grove was produced and won award from some unknown arts alliance.
Who would want risk their investment money on a business that a few activists in the community may not agree upon? The Home Depot spent a fortune to finally get their doors open because of these people!
PS For the record, I am not in the back or front pocket of the "powerful interests" that are supposedly wrecking our community.
Home Depot is here illegally. The City did not require them to follow their own laws. Remember they are an industrial warehouse (C2)and the zoning allows for light commercial (C1). Citing Home Depot in your example is totally unrelated. Haagen Dazs will be replaced with a new Italian restaurant, Red Lantern is closed for renovation and Mambos/Coco's will soon be Starbucks. Not to worry, just remain loyal and keep eating and shopping in the Grove and support our local events.
Another Starbucks - how boring!
We need a real coffee house with live music and poetry evenings and art and personality and style. The cookie cutter way is stifling our sensibilities. It's getting so peverse we don't even notice...
I feel like a poser however infrequently I walk into a Starbucks.
You've got Cefalo's and Christabelle's quarter as a couple of businesses trying to turn the Grove into something upscale like something out of Worth Ave. in Palm Beach. Cefalo's may be ok for wine but the food is horrible. A couple of friends of mine got really sick. Christabelle's had Alex Patout leave since the food was basically cajun-laden grease. They should turn that place into a seafood restaurant on the 1st floor, a good steak house on the second floor, and leave the 3rd floor a club. Also the charm of the Grove is gone. It was gone a long time ago when Richard Peacock got rid of Callaways, when Frog's moved to where it is now, when Biscayne Baby's closed, when the Bed Races were taken away. King Mango strut is the only time I can truly feel the old Grove experience. Whatever happened to the old Goombay festivals too? Anyhow, trying to turn the Grove into something for the wealthy upper-class is sure to fail in the long run.
Post a Comment
<< Home