Two things of note for this particular entry, of which the second is the real meat of the matter.
John Michlig wrote a follow-up to all the press coverage on Sendik's Fine Foods closing their doors. He pointed out (and is 100% correct in saying so) that NO media (except BizTimes Milwaukee) made any remarks on Sendik's being located next to a Target store. Furthermore, NO media (this time including BizTimes Milwaukee) made any note in saying that the neighboring Target store sold grocery items...even going to the lengths of selling items like beer and wine, which produce big revenue for grocers on the bottom line. This is very significant, since it doesn't provide readers with much assistance in trying to figure just why the store closed. If we all depended on just the Journal Sentinel, Business Journal, or other media at this time for coverage on this closure, we'd all just simply think, "Yeah, it's that darn economy!" and moved on with our lives. As much as that's the easy way out, there certainly was a lot more reasons than just, in my opinion, the simple cop-out explanation for every retailer shutting their doors at this time.
On FranklinNOW.com, they have the Journal Sentinel write-up by Tom Daykin for their coverage (Sendik's "succumbs to the economy"). Since Janet Evans has changed her blog to only cover School Board-related issues, the only blogger left on that site to cover anything Franklin is none other than our state senator's aide, Kevin Fischer. Fischer penned a piece and basically left his arms up in the air. He hemmed and hawed over it, and from what I read the only thing I could pick up on was something along the lines of, "Maybe the economy did it...but maybe not...what we do know is "the market decided". "The market decided"? There are so many different factors to insert into what "the market" decides it isn't even funny. However since Fischer, in my opinion, simply despises people like me or fellow resident John Michlig, he won't dare come close to actually saying that perhaps some of the reasons Michlig and I have pointed out for years are actually coming to fruition. Instead, he mocks us and the people who agreed with us, saying, "It had nothing to do with the cuts of beef, pedestrian access (Gimme a break), ripples in the parking lot, or number of bike paths."
Fortunately, a Franklin resident by the name of J. Strupp took the risk and stepped up to the plate and called Fischer out on that logic. In some comments posted below Fischer's blog, Strupp points out that if the broad-based "market" decided Sendik's closure, then obviously all the factors, including the pedestrian access, a parking lot that apparently has a growing fan base in believing it's getting pretty cruddy pretty fast, and more are reasons no matter how trivial they could be. The fact of the matter is, if hometown developer Mark Carstensen, who developed the Wyndham Village site, would have truly made the center part of what Franklin wanted in a civic center district, Sendik's might still be around today. Cities nationwide have inserted much energy, pride, and at times even hard-earned dollars into districts to create or revitalize commercial districts to make them destinations for people to go to and enjoy themselves. If I'm not mistaken, Franklin and Oak Creek are attempting to do just that for the 27th Street Corridor, TIFing massive amounts of land and trying to create a unique business and residential corridor that could very well become a hub of activity for the southern metro area.
The lack of destination is what killed the Sendik's, which was present from the get-go as Mark Carstensen went around touting Wyndham Village as something similar to Greenway Station or the Brookfield Towne Center, both of which are destinations in their respective communities (Middleton and Brookfield). As I noted publicly way in the beginning of the process at Plan Commission meetings, inserting a Target as the primary anchor was doing absolutely nothing in terms of making Wyndham Village anything spectacular for people miles away to come to Franklin to shop at.
Unfortunately, Fischer seems to be too proud of his boss's campaign contributor to dare question anything about it, much less perhaps say, "Hey - maybe Kowalski and Michlig were right about some things...". "The market" could have been there, but the council at that time (2007) was too quick in giving off approvals and too much in love with their own campaign contributions from Mr. Carstensen to even bat an eye at the situation in general. If the council would have done its homework, much like I did back in January (which ended up in several posts), they would have seen something could have been wrong with the data given. They would have seen that things might not have all been 100% there, and thus could have shaken some confidence in general. Last but not least, they should have made the very simple observation that, hey, why on earth are we putting in a big box discount retailer in what the city wanted to be its future civic center district.
All of that and so much more can explain a lot of what we're seeing today. Will you ever see this kind-of coverage out there from the main media outlets? In my opinion, probably not.
