Many readers have asked about the new construction on Greenwood Road near the River City Bank location. The Valley Report has just confirmed the spot will be the site of another Family Dollar store.
A proposed Family Dollar store near Pendleton Road and a franchised salvage place opening next to Target on Dixie caused many residents to question the direction of economic development policy has taken in this part of town, and has strengthened my suspicion that we are doomed to a downward spiral of cash-based businesses that only sell "yard sale" quality goods or off-brand merchandise.
Several residents are now grumbling about the size of the new Cracker Barrel restaurant slated to appear on the corner of Dixie and Bethany Lane. The location is supposed to be considerably smaller than comparable locations throughout Louisville.
You know how I feel about these things.
It is now your turn to sound off about these new announcements. Yes or no? Will you visit these businesses? Or are you so disgusted with the new and existing options that you would consider moving away from the area?
Fire away with your opinions by leaving a comment, and thanks for reading the Valley Report.
All these new places are a joke. I wish i could move and i hope some elected people or other important folks are reading this. WE NEED TO CHANGE THINGS HERE!!!!! These stores SUCK!!
ReplyDeleteWell I quess let me start off with saying I have worked in valley station for 18 yrs now and have been a resident for 3 I LOVE VALLEY!! We as a community are close knit I have traveled and lived in both the southend,eastend..Yeas it would be nice to have the same store such a kholes and trader joes.But I guess the way I see it is when I walk into places in valley station the business owers know me I know them they are friendly,and warm and they are people just like me trying to make a dollar and keep their families feed..yes we need jobs and yes we need revenue,but as a person that works in valley and lives in valley I'm more then glad to support small business owners such as valley liquior,christies,jessies,valley dariy freeze,the tons of small little shops and trinket stores that make up our community.IF ANYONE ASKS....I'M FROM LIVE IN AND WORK IN VALLEY STATION. I VERY PROUD OF WHAT IT IS ANDTHE GROWTH ABD POTENTIAL GROWTH IT HAS AND AS BECOME..this is my point of view :)
ReplyDeleteBrian- Not sure if you've seen the "Forgotten people, forgotten land" video from 2003? These frustrations from that day seem to have only gotten worse. We need to really, really, really fix our city.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ket.org/cgi-bin/cheetah/watch_video.pl?nola=ktime+000117&altdir=&template=
We are screwed out here, dude. No wonder everyone calls us rednecks. Just look at the comment above about "Valley Pride". Ignorance on display with the grammar and spelling mistakes. There is nothing to be proud of when your neighborhood is full of dollar stores, pawn shops, car parts, check cashing and jack off booths with the occasional flea market. The stores are getting trashier, just like the moronic clientele. Yes, I said it.
ReplyDeleteWhen you live the stereotype, you only prove it to be true. Glad I don't have any kids growing up here.
In the interest of fairness, they've closed nearly all of what you have termed "jack off booths", and I would hardly consider people here to be morons.
ReplyDeleteDespite what you may think, I believe taking pride in your neighborhood is a good thing. The problem is, there aren't as many people doing that as there used to be. Maybe because it IS hard to be a cheerleader for the type of development we are attracting. I'll agree on two points: The retail selection sucks and isn't getting any better. And you can't live the stereotype, then get mad when someone calls you by the name.
Thanks for writing, but end the name calling.
I am more than proud to be a resident of Valley Station. We are not all ignorant or rednecks in this area. I do not understand why people have to judge anyone by where they live. My money spends just as well as any ones does. We have been left out of the economic growth of quality restaurants and stores for way too long. Many people from this end of town travel to the east end to eat & shop. I refuse to go to the other side of town to do either. If those businesses want my money, they can open a place of business in this part of town. The small local businesses are alright but I would like to see more restaurants & quality retail stores in out area. Enough of the "dollar" stores, pawn shops, flea markets, & auto part stores. Give us some nicer places & see how they can thrive in this area! I think the Cracker Barrel coming to our area is great but I don't understand why they want to make it a smaller version of their other restaurants. I think a store & restaurant of the same size of other stores would do just fine in this area. At least when you go to Cracker Barrel, you know you are getting the same quality food at a reasonable price every time. I can't wait to eat my first meal there! Wish I could say the same thing for Olive Garden, Cheddar's, & countless other restaurants I'd love to visit but I refuse to because they are located on the other side of town!
ReplyDeleteWell Ill keep this in mind the next time someone like you walks in my store , I will not service ..because the ignorance of valley pride you speak of happens to be a very successful owner of a business in valley..and yes I may have misspelled or typoed some words..but believe you me its not people like me that gives Valley station a bad name,its people like you that would rather trash talk their community then try hard to build it up. Like e stated before this is my opinion I work hard for what I have and what I have is in valley station so yes I'm proud very proud of that
ReplyDeleteThe store selection does not "suck". There are many places to be proud of. Bonnie and Clydes, Electric Cowboy (which does as much business as 4th street live monetarily), Sam Swope (which is big in the east end), and many others. Oh, and I guess the rednecks that live 300k+ homes in places like Stoneridge Landing are trash just for living in Valley? Check my spelling and move out of Valley if its trash.
ReplyDeletebonnie and clydes is a filthy dump, smells like sewer gas all the time, electric cowboy is a buncha drunks, sam swope? dont we have enough car lots? nobody wants good things here and yea alot of the places are trashy. store selections DO suck unless you are looking to cash a cold check!
ReplyDeleteAfter complaining for years about being ignored, we now have a first class place to eat. It will also draw additional traffic to help support our local businesses.
ReplyDeleteIts time for those who complain to get their heads out of the sand and wake up and smell the roses.
While nice, I don't think anyone would classify Cracker Barrel as a "first class place to eat". *sigh* only in Valley Station........
ReplyDeleteWe will continue to lag economically here in the Valley until a SW-end bridge is built. Get all those folks heading to the boat to pass through the Valley, then we will have all of the fast food choices du jour! Wait, is THAT what we really want??
ReplyDeleteFor myself, I avoid the chains and drive to the quality eateries on Bardstown Road, in NuLu,Frankfort Ave., etc. Since the Valley Wick's shut down, it is hard to even get a good quality beer here in the Valley.
No easy answer...
I'm interested in the idea of a local-access bridge in the southwest.
ReplyDeleteIt looks like we have a polarizing issue when it comes to these businesses. It seems people either love them or hate them, and that's probably why we get these places. We can't agree on what direction we want to go in. That hurts.
I wish we had a consensus.
Keep arguing.
I live in Valley Station. My grandparents built this house in 1959; my mother grew up here, then bought a house in Fairdale where I was raised. When Mamau and Papau passed on, I inherited this house and live here now. I have no intention of living anywhere else.
ReplyDeleteThe problem, however, is that it is getting harder and harder to obtain needed goods and services in my neighborhood. I loathe the east end and downtown, but here in Valley we lack places to shop for appliances, special occasion clothes, and, of all things- books. Mind you, I love a good used bookstore, and we finally have one nearby. But I'd kill to have a proper "new book" bookstore in the area as well. And since the demise of Bacons( and to some extent, their subpar replacement, Dillards),we don't have much choice in clothing retailers- Target and Burlington? We need a Macy's and a Kohl's. I don't want to spend every single day of my life in jeans and a t-shirt.
Mind you, Dollar stores and flea markets have their place- I enjoy shopping at the Peddler's Mall and such, and Dollar General is great for things like dish liquid and cat food. But if these are ALL the shopping options made available to us, then we are going to be doing without good clothes, new books, etc. Or else the money for those items will be relocating itself to other neighborhoods in other parts of town.
We should be happy that anything thrives around here. It all peaked around the time Walmart came around. Its called the Walmart effect. Why shop in small stores when you can get it cheaper in one. Sounds good unless you work in the small stores or own them. We are all to blame, me included. If we don't show up for the meetings, or hound our district reps they will never get it right. The economy is down so we go to the cheapest place, makes since but the store next to walmart may have it for a little more. Sounds weird but buying it for more helps out our end of town. I started trying it today, needed a wire for car radio so i went to walmart $9.00, the new auto parts store where h&s once was had it for $11.00 by buying the 11.00 one you take away from the machine walmart and paid someone an hour of pay and a building from being abandoned. Im not stupid I know this will not solve everything, but supporting these places will show that we can handle new stores and restaurants. Walmart is not bad but having more then on option helps us all!
ReplyDeleteHere's a good start to what needs to be done on the strip from Valley all the way up to Shively. Clean the place up and get people active in doing things to make things look a lot better. Start by getting ordinances to clean up these rotten looking buildings on the strip. Get the trash picked up and discourage the "bubba" types from throwing things on the ground and leaving them. SW Louisville would be a nice place but the idiots are the ones ruining it for everyone else. Talk to your kids about basic respect. Then also start getting more businesses in the area. You can't survive on minimum wage jobs that don't pay the bills especially when they don't even offer decent wages. Then you'll get people with extra money that can support the type of stores that people want so they don't have to go to the East End.
ReplyDeleteIf all we are ever going to get is dollar or junk stores or get excited for a new fast food restaurant then maybe we need to expand all the low income housing and just become what everyone stereotypes the area to be. You can blame out local leaders for the lack of development and the types of business they bring. Business south of Gene Snyder is about as bad as it gets. Thinks are better in a few areas, but until someone moves in with a company without the value or dollar businesses we will be doomed to failure and the area worth will just continue to spire downward and basically we will just become portland south. Problem is there is plenty of money in PRP and Valley, but we have to travel to other areas of town to spend it. All we are doing is developing good commercial areas while our leaders bring in discount stores, fast food, car lots and everything else that the areas that are successful don't even want. You can't tell me that we need a family dollar at Terry when the one next Krogers closed due to lack of business and not we need another one down the street from the one that already in valley station. There have been about 5 dollar general stores opened up in the area in the last couple of years. We already have 100 car lots and don't need more of them. South End is exactly what everyone says it is. I don't think it will ever change and when people on this forum consider Cracker Barrel first class dining then i guess there is a reason the dollar stores do so well here. Want to go to a nice dept store? drive 20 miles. Want a nice meal. Drive 20 miles. Go to a nice theater, 20 miles. Dollar store or Fat Fast Food? spin and point.. 5 or more in every direction. The city of Louisville does not care about this area. It is a dumping ground for what every other area doesn't want, but needs.
ReplyDeleteThe fact of getting good businesses to come to our area has always been an uphill battle. When you hear elected individuals make comments. If I don't want it in my neighborhood it won't come. Then to hear an elected individual PROUDLY state. Paperwork for a Family dollar came to MY office and I approved it. This is the mentality that some people have. YES we need a nice theater out here in the southwest. YES we need a nice motel chain to open up south of the Great wall of Snyder. Yes we need life brought to our area. But to have people having the attitude that we are redneck uneducated hillbillies doesn't help. True alot of us use cash. the government made cash before the bank made plastic. We have money here. We have diversity here. We don't need someone putting a sign on a building that reads Welcome to southwest louisville, and still be 8 miles too far north. Just Pepper tackle has on the marquis STAND UP VALLEY STATION. When we are included as part of the city, and not just a tax break for someone "Downtown" We will always have this fight.We are a county that was turned into a city without the benefits and finances the city has.For politeness.We here in the southwest were MERGED. use your imagination for the other verb.
ReplyDeleteI have lived on the East end of town if you don't put new stores and restaurants it's going to be run down. We should have just the same as any other part of town. I would much rather live in the southend the people don't act as if they are better than everyone. People in the southend will speak. Bring on the restaurants and clean up the area
ReplyDelete