Hey Americans! This is just the crack in the egg....

Originally Posted by igor

Somewhat related - In the town where I work, except for Sears, Kresge's, and Montgomery Wards, when I was growing up, all the stores were small family owned ones. Most people took a bus to get to town. Now, most all of these stores are closed. Part of the problem is we now all want to drive our own cars everywhere and there are not enough parking places. On top of that, the city has those damned parking meters, so if you are going store to store, you may not have enough time before the meter runs out and you get fined. Plus the malls with everything under one roof are a lot nicer environment in bad weather.

The city is always wringing their hands trying to figure out how to "revitalize" the downtown area. Well, you idiots, two things would help a great deal - dump the damn parking meters and tear down some of those derelict buildings to make parking areas.