Oct. 26, 2019
That sidewalk needed replacing anyway.
Until April 1949 that particular stretch of sidewalk was a wood construction walkway designed to rise above the sometimes swampy high water table and where this Dollar General store will be sitting. The 1949 date can be pinpointed to exactly the moment of the worst earthquake in living memory around here. One eyewitness told me the planks on the boardwalk popped out in a wave as the seismic shocks hit.
In the 1990s McCleary's Land Planning Commission (which no longer exists) denied a rezone for this parcel from multifamily to business. The thinking that having a central business core with concentric circles of zoning rather than strip enterprises was preferable. It would be interesting to see when and why the rezone eventually happened, indicating a changing of the municipal guard. Also, when and why we no longer have a Land Planning Commission.
