City Aims to Please Downtowners

Mrs. Wood owns the Lebanese Deli, a quaint lunchtime stop specializing in kafta kabob, kibbeh and other Lebanese dishes. For 14 years the Lebanese Deli has enjoyed a popular presence on the Market Street Plaza between Third and Fourth streets. Most of those years Mrs. Wood and her aunt, Jo Farris, who previously Only in the last few years did the 75-foot-long brick wall, which stood 9 feet tall and was located 70 feet away from the deli’s front window, become a nasty obstacle.

Originally the wall, whose demolition was completed in three days Wednesday, was built to provide a screen for visitors to the small park from an adjacent alley. In recent years, though, it had become a popular gathering and hiding place for winos, drug dealers and unruly loiterers.

“This wall has hurt our business and it has to go,” Mrs. Wood told city planner Steve Nutt when he visited the shop two weeks ago, “and if it doesn’t go, I go.” Nutt is a planner with the Downtown Retail Opportunities Program who aims to please. In his ambassador-to-the-retailers role, he visits downtown business and building owners and listens to their complaints before deciding what the city can do to resolve them.

He has met with almost 100 downtown retailers and 39, including Mrs. Wood, have expressed an interest in the city’s partnership program that provides matching funds for revitalizing shop and store fronts – for example, adding sidewalk cafes, canopies, new signs, awnings and lighting.

Nutt’s objective is to get the downtown, which he feels has become “very sterilized,” moving again.

Nutt, 34, who grew up in Vandalia, holds a bachelor’s degree in marketing and a master’s in economic development planning from the University of Cincinnati. “This is a dream job for me,” he says, although he hears a lot of complaints. Most of them focus on inadequate parking and loitering. “To put it in a nutshell,” he says, “some downtown locations are not conducive to good business, and we want to change things.” The downtown has a distinct look from the regional malls, he says, “and we want to attract unique shops and target markets not served by the suburbs.” Of immediate importance to Nutt, however, is to appease owners in many of the old, familiar places – like the Deli.

“When I mentioned to Steve about that wall two weeks ago, I thought it would take years before anything was done about it,” Mrs. Wood says, “but, true to the city’s word, a crew was here Monday to begin taking it down.” That elated Mrs. Wood, who had considered moving her restaurant to a mall south of town. “I love downtown and the people here,” Mrs. Wood says, “but I was ready to leave. With the wall down, I think we can put in a nice sidewalk cafe and people visiting this park in summer will be able to eat and enjoy their lunch again.” Nutt, who has restored a frame house in the Grafton Hill section where he lives, says the city will do whatever it can to keep small retailers and shop owners here.