By Barbara Soderlin

My mom sent me what’s turning out to be a fascinating read, a book called “Wrestling with Moses” about the 1958 fight to save Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village from a four-lane highway conceived by Robert Moses, bureaucrat and urban renewal power broker in NY in the middle of the century. The book tells how mother-journalist-activist Jane Jacobs rallied the Village to fight the plan.

I’m finding it relevant in light of some issues in Rapid right now. We have the fight between neighbors and Black Hills Power over whether a home should be razed and a substation expanded in a residential neighborhood. On North Haines, we have neighbors and some existing businesses challenging a plan to put a video lottery casino in a new strip mall. On interstate exits 60 and 61, we have a handful of huge retail developments in various stages of progress on raw prairie, when other retail areas of town sit vacant.

The book’s message is that citizens have the power to shape our urban environment — if they are willing to pay attention and get involved. I hope more people will realize that behind the way our neighborhoods and retail areas grow and change is a set of zoning codes written locally, managed by city employees who work for the people we elect to office. If you don’t like the way something is going, whether it’s the type of retail, the number of trees planted, the type of parking allowed, the future of downtown, speak up.

I don’t know which way the two local issues will go, and I have a hard time making up my mind on how I would vote were it up to me. But I’m glad to see the discussion, so at least the concerns are aired and decisions are made in public with lots of input.

By Barbara Soderlin

75 years ago there were probably a handful of grocery stores — “dry goods stores” — downtown as well as a butcher, grocer, etc. where a person could shop to feed their family. Today the closest ones are the Family Thrift Center, Prairie Market and the Mount Rushmore Road Safeway, all designed for auto traffic more than pedestrians.

But coming tomorrow people who work and live downtown will have a new option when Matt Batchelder opens the Windsor Block Grocery on Seventh Street just north of St. Joe.

I visited him there on Thursday and it was fun to see the store coming to life. It looks like a small-town grocery with narrow aisles full of the basics — canned soup, cereal, candy, laundry detergent, beer, etc. In the back there’s an cafe with free wireless internet where you can get the types of things sold in a typical gas station convenience store — cappucino from a machine, microwavable hamburgers, etc. plus a salad bar for the lunch crowd.

Looks like it will be a great addition to the changing downtown mix and especially welcome for people living upstairs in the new Windsor Block lofts.

freefoto.com

By Barbara Soderlin

I stopped in at Walgreen’s today to pick up some pictures of the baby to send to my mom, and I was walking from the shampoo aisle to the photo counter when I nearly stopped dead (pun intended) in my tracks. Halloween! It is Aug. 28 and the seasonal aisle was full of Halloween candy, plastic pumpkin pails, scary masks, etc. Can we please at least have Labor Day and go back to school before we have to think about Halloween?
I love Halloween, and most holidays, but sheesh. It reminds me of the time on Oct. 31 when I stopped in at Walgreens to pick up a last-minute witch’s hat and was faced with Christmas stockings, candy canes and Santa hats. No one wants to go as Santa to a Halloween party.

OK, this is the thing I thought it would be interesting to discuss:

I covered mostly education, government and health care for several years, and most people who work in those fields do so because they are passionate about them. In education, they really love their subject and their students. In health care, they love medicine and their patients. The people I knew in government got started, anyway, to do something positive for the community. In all these fields, people have least the abstract concept of helping people, even if they work in administration. In journalism, most of my colleagues are interested in the process of writing, in the subject they’re writing about and in the welfare of the people they’re writing about and of the democracy as a whole.

But so far covering business, I’ve met a few people who run a business who seem to care primarily about the business itself, the financial bottom line, and not necessarily the product they’re selling or the happiness of the people they’re selling to. They could be selling cars, widgets, office supplies, etc. and what they love about it is the thrill of the sale, not what they’re selling. They’re sales people. I don’t have any friends in sales so this is new to me.

I met a piano salesman who didn’t play the piano and didn’t seem to be that interested in music. I talked to a casino operator with no compunction about putting a lottery establishment in a low-income neighborhood. What mattered was the business — if the business was successful, it was a good business. If it failed, it was a bad business. I’m not saying I think these and people like them are bad people — on the contrary, I enjoyed our conversations very much and think they do contribute in a positive way to our community. It’s just new to me.

So I was wondering, if you work in sales, what do you love about it? What do you find rewarding? Is it necessary to care about the product, whether it’s zucchini bread or home loans?

By Barbara Soderlin

Hooray for Friday! I’m off today but thought I’d check in from home. Last night I thought of a really interesting topic to post today on the open forum but then I forgot it! So I will rely on you to think of something interesting to discuss.

By Barbara Soderlin

The dozens of people in town for this weekend’s Ms. Wheelchair America Pageant remind me of a conversation I had with Natalie Molitor, a Rapid City woman who was Ms. Wheelchair South Dakota one year. Natalie uses a wheelchair and was telling me about the places she could and couldn’t go. She loves going to the movies because she can ride the Dial a Ride bus there, and once she’s there, can easily maneuver into the theater and find a place.

Going out to dinner downtown is another story. Natalie lives near downtown but would avoid most restaurants in the historic district, given their tight doorways, lack of ramps and lack of accessible restrooms.

When I was interviewing her for a story about her life, we talked about how she couldn’t come to the Journal office to meet me if she wanted to. Our downtown building has no elevator (that I know of) and the stairs to the second floor newsroom are steep. Even the first floor, given how old it is, has many levels, all of which seem to be a step up, or a few steps down, from the others. When Sen. Johnson came to our offices for an interview several months ago, I remember people saying he had to come in through the back alley because it was closest to the downstairs conference room and didn’t require any steps up or down. Fortunately the general public doesn’t really come to our office and you can buy a paper or an ad over the phone or online. But for businesses that do rely on foot traffic, it’s worth remembering that the women who are here for the pageant this weekend, and the local residents who use wheelchairs, have money to spend and like to get out and shop and eat, too.

A colleague was driving down Omaha and called me to say there was a going out of business sign at Sysco, the bulk foods distributor’s retail shop.

If you missed it like he did (and like I did), here’s what the Journal wrote earlier this summer:

The Sysco Foods retail store in Rapid City is going out of business Aug. 31.

Owner Sysco Montana will close the store at 610 E. Omaha St. as part of efforts to refocus on its wholesale distribution, said Steve Bodden, vice president of finance.

The Rapid City location is the last retail store owned by Sysco Montana. It has four employees.

Bodden said the decision will not affect wholesale distribution in the area.

“We’ll still serve every customer we serve today, excluding the general public walk-up business,” Bodden said.

By Barbara Soderlin

Ryan and I had lunch (finally) at the new, downtown Curry Masala location. It was even better than I remember the food from the time I went to their west side location. It was busy and seemed like a good spot for people who work downtown to get a filing, tasty lunch for not too much money.

Here’s my lunch, before and after.

The Outlaw Skate Park in Black Hawk has new owners. Bryan and Kristin VanOverschelde will keep much about the indoor skate park the same but will offer some new options for those who want to learn to skate.

Skateboard, that is – it’s not a roller rink or an ice rink. Rollerbladers, BMX bikes and scooters are allowed, though.

The park at 9539 Sturgis Road has a number of ramps for everyone from beginners to would-be pros.

The VanOverscheldes also have “regular jobs,” Kristin said – she’s a massage therapist and Bryan’s an auto body tech. But Bryan skated for 20 years and when the opportunity to own the skate park came up, they couldn’t pass it by.

“We just wanted to keep this open for the skateboard community, because there’s nothing like this around,” Kristin said.

The business also has a concessions stand where skaters can load up on pizza, candy, chips and pop, and a skate shop where they can buy boards, trucks and wheels. (I had to ask what a truck is – it’s the piece on the bottom of the skateboard that holds the wheels.) They also rent helmets, boards and pads.

Pricing is by the hour and there is open skating every night but Monday, reserved for beginner lessons from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. and BMX bikes from 8 to 11.

Parents must sign a waiver for their children to use the park, which is available for rental for private parties.

For information call 593-7261.

By Barbara Soderlin

Heard this morning from Mickie Pszanka, who says she and her husband, Mike, have purchased the Sunset Grille from the Flannery family, and plan to do a little remodeling and reopen it Sept. 18 as Hamilton’s Patio and Grill.

They plan to expand the patio, add a kitchen outdoors, and add some walls and heaters to make it more useful in all-season weather — think fall football games.

The chef will be Mike’s brother, David “Chef Dave” Pszanka, who’s moving his family from Colorado where he’s been an executive chef for Rock Bottom Corporation.

They also plan theme nights — such as jazz, or brick oven pizza — and will deliver on the west side. There will be an extensive wine list, and the menu will be similar but with more “specialty items,” Mickie said, thinking of Dave’s crab cakes and bacon-wrapped dates.

Mmmmm…. bacon-wrapped. Can’t wait!