THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, January 30, 1996 TAG: 9601300007
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 35 lines
On Saturday, Jan. 13, my wife and I fell victim to the mayor's aggressive ticketing campaign in downtown Norfolk.
The express purpose of our visit to the financial district was to investigate retail spaces for lease. For the relatively short period we were downtown, aside from us we saw no other pedestrians on Plume Street (where we were ticketed) and only a handful of visitors in the Waterside festival marketplace. As there was a paucity of customers downtown on Saturday afternoon, is it worth alienating those few with this egregious campaign, whose only stated purpose is to help finance MacArthur Center? Should I choose to rent a space downtown, will my customers receive the same treatment?
As your newspaper has published articles on the ``pedestrian-unfriendly'' design of the proposed mall, I am beginning to feel that Norfolk does not wish for the independent merchant to succeed outside of the 17-acre parameter. In retail parlance, the mayor is ``nickel and diming'' the customer to death.
By virtue of his policy, the mayor has just scratched an area off my retail-relocation list. Is this strict enforcement worth more to the city than what can be garnered via retail sales taxes from independent merchants?
BEN F. SALOMONSKY
President
Ben Salomonsky Jeweler Inc.
Virginia Beach, Jan. 13, 1996 by CNB