In today's dead-tree Tribune, I opined in the Culture Vulture column about the state of Salt Lake City's Main Street - and how every attempt to "save" the neighborhood through some massive building project has sapped the street's viability to near-zero.

The recent announcement that Sam Weller's Books will be leaving its Main Street location, where it has been a fixture for 48 years, is just another example of a business finally driven off by city planning decisions that emphasized big shiny projects - Main Street Beautification in the '70s and '80s, TRAX lines in the '90s, the LDS Church's Main Street Plaza in the early '00s, and the under-construction City Creek Plaza - over the needs of neighborhood merchants.

I received one e-mail in response from Bruce Corrigan, owner of O'Shucks and Ahh Sushi, the bar and restaurant across the street from the City Creek development. Corrigan took me to task for some of the points in my column:

Your "Can Main St. survive" column gave your readers a false view of the availability of libations in the City Creek development area. No need to take Trax West or to walk to 300 South - simply walk across the street to 22 East 100 South, and visit O'Shucks Bar & Grill, in the basement of the Brownstone Building!

O'Shucks Bar & Grill has survived the construction dramas of the past 12 years by serving the downtown business crowd ice-cold libations and plenty of free peanuts. In 2002, O'Shucks added its' sister restaurant Ahh Sushi and has been rocking all along. O'Shucks has been bullish on downtown for years, and that's why were still here packing them in daily.

Please, give me a call, and I can give you the 20 step tour from the new City Creek development across the street to O'Shucks Bar & Grill. Thanks for all you do to make our city a better place.

I also submit for your consideration this article from Utah Stories, which makes the historical observation that giant malls sucking the wind out of Main Street are not a new phenomenon: The same thing happened in the early '80s, when the ZCMI Center and the Crossroads Plaza (which were largely torn down to make room for City Creek) opened.

P.S.: I referred to The Gateway shopping center - from which I write this blog - as the Beigeway, a term reflective of both the paint on the outer walls and its generic atmosphere. But I neglected to credit my friend Bill Frost, over at the Salt Lake City Weekly, for coining the term Beigeway back in 2002. Good on ya, Bill!

Labels: downtown

Hearing the news that Sam Weller's Books will be leaving its spacious Main Street location opens up a whole discussion on what's to blame for the store's sagging fortunes.

Of course, the economy is crappy. And there are the changes technology has brought to the bookselling business - where people would rather search online for a rare title than rummage through a basement full of books.

But there's also the fact that about once every decade, Weller and other Main Street businesses have had to weather an attempt to "improve" downtown Salt Lake City:

• In the '70s, dilapidated historic buildings were torn up to build the Crossroads Plaza and the ZCMI Center.
• In the '80s, Main Street's sidewalks were widened, which reduced driving and parking to increase space for non-existent pedestrian traffic.
• In the '90s, Main Street was torn up to install the rail lines for TRAX.
• In this decade, the LDS Church closed off part of Main Street for its grand plaza by Temple Square, and tore down the Crossroads Plaza and ZCMI Center to create the massive City Creek Plaza project - which won't be done until 2012.

Here's hoping Sam Weller's can, in its new location and configuration, figure out how to survive the next effort to "save" downtown.

Labels: downtown, Sam Weller's