sigh. i dont know what to think about the galleria thing. its sort of inevitable, seeing how horrible the galleria has become. after growing up with is for the past erm .. 17 years, its done nothing except go downhill. after january, the dillards is going to close, which is essentially the biggest non-food grossing part of the galleria, and since the galleria cares nothing about its food court, that basically means a very near end to the galleria as we know it.
wow that was insanely depressing. but hey, thats how i feel. i love that little restaurant. and the one next to it, lajadis (good italian food ^_^ go go go). oh well. i mean, my dad says i've always been this way - when i see a business open (say, the glassed seating area that used to be an ice cream place) and then see it close, i get really sad. i just hate seeing businesses go under. anywhere. because i can imagine how i would feel if i invested a lot of time and effort and money into starting up a genuinely good business, but because of lack of customers, publicity, profit, or whatever, it has to close. that seems to be like a big smack in the face, straight out telling you that you've failed at something. but its always nice to see the people try again.
:wipes eyes: ok so end of that story. what would i like to see louisville have. i agree with most of the stuff said; it almost seems like louisville cant cram any more crap into its horridly neglected downtown. yea, it seems like they're doing stuff - waterfront, skatepark, convention center, but man, most of that stuff is on the outskirts of downtown. there are still some gems in it, but most of it is too old, or cluttered, or dirty, or ignored, or just messily refurbished. i dont know. louisville doesnt know what to do with its downtown.
my dad said that when he opened up in 1984, downtown was the place TO BE. there were shopping areas everywhere, a lot of restaurants, lots of entertainment. people went to the galleria to shop(!). but most of it had to do with the fact that people lived there. with the rising of the malls (st. matthews and oxmoor especially) and then suburbia, the rest of boonieland, and then stuff like tinseltown and the summit (feel free to think of more.), everyone just moved away. now, i think i'm not the only one who thinks this, but generally, downtown is really far away. (ok, its sort of close to john, i suppose.) i mean, it takes 25 minutes every morning to drive to school, and on weekends, theres not enough incentive for me to just cruise around downtown and have fun. i mean, what is there for me to do downtown? first of all i dont like walking around downtown because its dirty and every place i would go is not together, and second, everything closes at 6. how is louisville going to expect to have a night life if everything closes so early.
ha goodness, ive really missed the question. sorry for making you read so much. maybe louisville should reopen whatever that street was that they closed in front of the galleria; it may not save the galleria for now, but it would definetly help for the future galleria. plus, traffic flow would be much nicer. they should also figure out what kind of people they want to attract. i figure that they want to attract tourists and stuff, which we really dont have unless its conventions ..
ok wait. sorry to deviate, but another thing that makes me mad about the galleria. the new "international" convention, right? its close to the galleria, so when people have conventions, they come to the galleria to eat. EAT, my friends. when we have conventions, my dad works like mad from 10 - whenever they leave (we normally dont serve dinner, but for conventions we sometimes do). they might walk around and buy some stuff from fashion shop and dillards and whatnot, but they mainly come to EAT. without the food court, do you know what they wont have? STUFF TO EAT. also, the food court serves business men and women monday to friday, and there are a lot of loyal customers. mainly because the food court is the closest and quickest place they can get stuff to eat. without the food court, do you know what they wont have? (fill in blanks.) hard rock cafe and ESPN are great ideas and stuff, but you cant base everything solely off of sit-down restaurants. especially in downtown, especially in a business area. you need a lot of fast food.
anyway. so yea, they seem to want to attract tourists and stuff too, but they keep saying that they want to attract the younger crowd. i dunno. they're gonna have to do a hell of a lot better than hard rock or ESPN to get me to go down there. i dont even like hard rock cafe. their food is overpriced, and its just burgers with guitars hanging on the wall. goodness.
i think im done for the day. all in all, i think that .. i dont know. its all good, yet .. theres a lot of work to be done.
- jo [likes chinese food]
Well done, however, I'm not sure what you mean saying everything closes at six. Perhaps it's just because we're not old enough to venture inside the places that stay open after six? I think you're just used to the galleria closing at six (or maybe your dad's restaurant). My parents go out to eat once a weekend, sometimes twice, and they eat well after six many times and frequently downtown.
I agree, business people NEED fast food, not sit down. You take a client out to sit-down lunch. You get a burger (or an egg roll!) on your lunch break. You don't go dressed in a business suit with a briefcase full of reports to a freakin' hard rock cafe. I'm definitely foreseeing slow business during the day at the hard rock. There just aren't enough people in that area of town especially in such a poor location to be filling up the hard rock mid afternoon. Evening will be a different story however.
S
I have eaten at the food court at the Galleria many times while downtown. I frequently go down there to meet a friend that works at B & W right next door, and we have even eaten at Jo's dad's place- best non-sit down Chinese in town- bar none. I hate to see it go...as well as all the food court restaurants. I remember back in the mid-late 80s when the Galleria was the place to shop. I used to sit at the railing in the food court and look down at all the people shopping.
Many people that work downtown already get gouged with parking and gas getting there and can't afford to eat everyday in a sit down place. Some people don't get more than 30 minutes to eat, either. The faster type restaurants have their place in any new development downtown. I think the guys designing this new place are a little tunnel-visioned in their plans. Hopefully someone will see the need and make some space for this niche.
-BE