Uneasy Rhetoric

The city is considering a ban on shopping carts in parts of Downtown Mall, K Street, and city parking garages. The speculation is that this is a back-door way of banning WalMart downtown. Clever.

I’m sure the proposal is aimed squarely at WalMart, but it will affect a few residents directly. The ban will give authorities another excuse to harass the small number of people on and around K Street who are pushing along shopping carts filled with aluminum cans and their worldly belongings.

Shopping cart people are a way of life in downtown and midtown and have been since I can remember. They come with the alleys. For the most part, though, these folks are harmless. Spend enough time downtown and you may become so familiar with them that, when you don’t see them making their appointed rounds, you may find yourself worrying that they’re okay.

I’m overreacting, of course, because the proposed ordinance would cover such a small area, most of which is already shopping cart person unfriendly. But I still had to vent. That’s what blogs are for.

More to the point, from the article:

The company that owns the Downtown Plaza opposes the shopping cart ban, saying it would impact the mall’s ability to attract a range of quality retail establishments. Mall managers call the proposal counter-intuitive, coming at a time when the downtown population is booming.

The Downtown Business Association says that the new residents will soon need a grocery market, and that the ban would make attracting several kinds of stores next to impossible.

It will be essential that downtown residents have a local grocery store.