don't have the balls to tell the big boxes they can't do business the way they like. The downtown folks should band together and call these clown's bluff. What will they do? Run people off? Good call,Tex! Hope you can take what you dish out.

When I drive through other cities in the winter time I notice something else. The snow has been removed from the downtown sidewalks, and not just pushed into the street by the curb. This winter has seen many areas of the downtown sidewalks covered with snow and ice. Granted, many stores are empty so there is no one on site to clear the sidewalks, but before sponsoring gimmicky promotions, the HQBD should focus on making it possible to walk downtown with risking life and limb. The last snowfall meant that one had to be an Olympic hurdler to get over the piles of snow at the corners when crossing downtown streets. The city should enforce no parking on the streets downtown at night after a snowfall so plows can remove the snow in the parking lane before freezing into four inches of an icy glaze that makes parking at the curb and getting out of your car difficult if not impossible. This winter I have asked myself "Do I want to risk the conditions downtown, or drive to a big box store where I know getting out of my car and walking into the store will be risk-free?" Perhaps I'll return to the downtown when conditions improve.

didn't really make the comparisons eluded to so I will.

The two "gentlemen" mentioned will harrass small business people to no end while at the same time bending over and grabbing the ankles for a big box store. Put something on the sidewalk as a small business and you get a nasty call and yet the big box stores sell of the sidewalks all the time...(I will grant you they are private sidewalks but I'm not sure the ordinance says public anyway.)

There is a code that requires a minimum # of parking spaces and every one of these big boxes comes in and BARELY meets that minimum and then they turn around and take up 1/4 of those spots for a lawn and garden shop that is up for 6,7 months of the year. #1 they are below the minimums when they do this and #2 they are effectively increasing the sq ft of their stores when they do this so they should be required to have an even higher minimum number of spaces.