RoadsideOnline

Here's a nice little ray of California sunshine for our readers that comes by way of the Los Angeles Times.

California's main squeeze

Orange-shaped juice stands recall state's simpler days.

By Martha Groves

As they motored through the scorching Central Valley in the family station wagon, Mel Haynes' nine children watched for the juice-and-fruit stands shaped like immense oranges that dotted California 99, symbolically proclaiming the Golden State's eminence as the king of citrus.

"Those guys could spot those orange stands from five miles off," said Haynes, 78, "and we had to stop at most of them."

Inspired by those family memories, Haynes satisfied his own thirst 11 years ago by buying one of the giant orange stands at the southern edge of the Northern California farming town of Williams from an owner who sold it as part of a package with the motel next door.

Haynes thus finds himself the proprietor of one of California's six known remaining "oranges," 20th century relics that a national preservation group has named to its list of the nation's 10 most endangered roadside places.

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In answer to the question posed by the author, I would remind him of what the retail dreadnaught has already done to countless other small American manufacturers who opted to sell to them. Walmart's modus operandi is to get the product in the pipeline and then drive its own purchase price down to where it become completely unprofitable. Manufacturer goes bust, and Walmart seeks new source from China. It remains to be seen if this pattern will repeat itself with local agriculture.

Will Walmart, not Whole Foods, save the small farm and make America healthy?

By Corby Kummer

BUY MY FOOD at Walmart? No thanks. Until recently, I had been to exactly one Walmart in my life, at the insistence of a friend I was visiting in Natchez, Mississippi, about 10 years ago. It was one of the sights, she said. Up and down the aisles we went, properly impressed by the endless rows and endless abundance. Not the produce section. I saw rows of prepackaged, plastic-trapped fruits and vegetables. I would never think of shopping there.

Not even if I could get environmentally correct food. Walmart’s move into organics was then getting under way, but it just seemed cynical—a way to grab market share while driving small stores and farmers out of business. Then, last year, the market for organic milk started to go down along with the economy, and dairy farmers in Vermont and other states, who had made big investments in organic certification, began losing contracts and selling their farms. A guaranteed large buyer of organic milk began to look more attractive. And friends started telling me I needed to look seriously at Walmart’s efforts to sell sustainably raised food.

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This article comes from Fast Company Magazine, and it partly explains why we haven't seen a whole lot of shopping mall construction in the past five years or so. Yes, we've seen plenty of plazas and no shortage of retail space, but the mall as a shopping form seems to be on the way out. You agree?

How Much Longer Can Shopping Malls Survive?

BY GREG LINDSAY

There are dead malls, and then there is Dixie Square. The suburban Chicago mall made famous by The Blues Brothers--who destroyed it on-screen in a spectacular car chase--had already closed by the time the film was shot in 1979. It's just sat there ever since, not worth the cost of tearing it down. By now, trees sprout from the parking lot and the ceilings have turned to mush. Every attempt to redevelop the site--into a showroom for kitchen implements or senior housing--has fallen through due to asbestos, fire, and one suitor accused of threatening his creditors with a gun.

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Success breeds success, as they say. We think this would make a welcome addition to Newton Centre, while at the same time confession to our concern over any diner's expansion plans to multiple locations. The challenges of maintaining quality at a single location are epic, never mind doing it at two. Don Levy has entertained expansion plans in the past, opening a second restaurant called the Loading Zone after successfully operating the iconic Blue Diner in Boston's leather district. That venture not only failed, it put him completely out of the diner business for another seven years. Hopefully, we won't see that come to pass again.

Watertown diner may be coming to Newton Centre

By Dan Atkinson/Staff Writer

Newton — The Newton Centre MBTA station could see a 90-seat diner in the location formerly occupied by a Starbucks, if a Watertown business’s plan is approved.

The Deluxe Town Diner on Mount Auburn Street is proposing to open a second location at 70 Union St. The 90-seat diner would be open from 7 a.m.-10 p.m. and needs the Board of Aldermen’s approval to waive a requirement for 18 parking spaces. The aldermen will hold a public hearing on the plan on March 9.

Darryl Levy, who co-owns the Deluxe Town Diner with her husband, Don, said she was excited about coming to Newton Centre. She said the restaurant has reached out to residents and businesses in the area, and that they supported the diner’s expansion.

The full story can be found here...

With any luck, this one will stick. At least Jae Chung is no longer part of this.

Miss Adams Diner reopens

By Ryan Hutton, North Adams Transcript

ADAMS -- Four months after Park Street's Miss Adams Diner was sold at auction to Steepleview Realty, the doors are open again and the kitchen is busy at the iconic eatery.

Business partners Ric Belair and Philomene Rivard have rented the space from Steepleview and opened for business on Monday. While there was little fanfare for the re-opening of the eatery, Belair said they were busy with customers almost all day.

"It started out slow, but as soon as people got out of bed -- it being a holiday -- and realized we were open, it started to pick up, and it was busy from then to closing." he said.

The pair originally tried to rent space for a restaurant on Ashland Street in North Adams, but the deal fell through not long before they were set to start operation. They found out the Miss Adams Diner was available the same day their original deal fell through.

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This comes to us by way of the Buffalo News thanks to a tip by Doug Smith. Apparently, even when Walmart destroys, it doesn't always follow through on its plans to fill the void it leaves. Perhaps this is a mixed blessing, but now the folks in the Niagara region have neither a great roadside attraction nor a soul-crushing place to buy fodder for the landfill.

Bruce Andriatch: Overbuilding is leaving us with eyesores

Pat Bannister fought so hard to prevent Walgreens from building a store in Kenmore that even after the store was built, he vowed to never go in there.

Then one day, he needed to make a purchase, and the store was so close, and . . .

“I broke down,” he said.

But he never became a fixture at the store on Delaware Avenue. Really, no one did. The store wasn’t there long enough.

In most ways, that now-vacant drugstore is no different from the hundreds of empty buildings that dot the landscape across Western New York. But it is a stark reminder that for all their certainty about how great a project will be, developers are no better at predicting the future than anyone else.

That point was reinforced most recently in Evans, where officials were prepared to welcome Walmart to the community. The nation’s largest retailer wanted to build on the site of the former Grandview Drive-In Theater.

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We found this story thanks to the wonderful blog "Free Range Kids" by Lenore Skenazy, which advocates letting kids be kids, where it's okay to make mistakes and pick up a few bumps and bruises along the way. Read more of her blog here.

Dropping kids off here? Better lace your shoes up

Kristin Rushowy

Yes, it was built with a kiss 'n ride lane. No, the school doesn't want parents to use it.

In fact, P.L. Robertson elementary in Milton, which opened this week, has been designated a "walking-only school," where students will be strongly encouraged to use their feet – or bikes or any other active way – to get there.

It is part of a broader initiative at the Halton District School Board to stop traffic jams around schools and get students moving.

Gridlock in the parking lot and surrounding streets is an all-too common problem for schools in the Greater Toronto Area, thanks to parents who insist on driving their children, even if they don't live all that far away.

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