We have heard the “old guard’s” of 3rd ave say “we need our traditions back, we need festivals and a parade!” Whos’s traditions are these? certainly not ours. The Ragamuffin parade became a former shell of its original self BEST LEFT TO MEMORY – like many things of the past we look upon now with nostalgia but in realty we know they had a place and time and are not relevant or taste as good today.

If you have not been hiding this past year and a half, you will have noticed that a lot of restaurants have extended their businesses to outdoor dining. They created these street parking hoggin outhouses – in effect they have a festival everyday! YES WE KNOW THE BULLSHIT OF US BEING CLOSED – that’s another story and one that we all need to be pissed about – about how no one fought for their businesses and lives! – but lets not digress.

What about “us” – yes “us” the other businesses that are suffering. Rarely do we hear about “us” – restaurants this, restaurants that – yada yada yada… but rarely a word about the car services, nail salons, hair salons, optical stores and hardware stores not to mention the myriad of other businesses that make a neighborhood. NOPE – we are cast to the side by the restaurants (it seems) – customers have a hard time parking with SOOOOO many parking spots taking up by these restaurant outhouses. Not the mention the 3rd world “look and feel” they bring to our neighborhood.

So yes – these outdoor dining areas are necessary for businesses survival, yes we frequent them and NO we do not need any more useless festivals and parades that seen their day are are BEST LEFT TO MEMORY!

Did you know that the 3rd ave festival had less than 30% participation from local businesses! Lets not forget the gem of the failed merchant association that only collected 40% of their dues in a good year – so NO these are not OUR traditions, these are the OLD GUARD trying to bring back their youth and so caught up in the nostalgia that they cannot see the bigger picture – they and their festivals and parade are BEST LEFT TO MEMORY!

A while back we asked and answered the question: what would happen if we did not have the festival and parade? The answer – yes we would miss it, it was fun – and than forget about it and move on – this virus was the social experiment THAT CONFIRMED OUR ANSWER! – BEST LEFT TO MEMORY!

We need to open our businesses, We need tax breaks! We need our parking for our customers back!

Thoughts?