Project D
January 9, 2014 3 Comments
I and others wonder what the heath of Downtown Racine is realty like. The DRC and their backers will tell us there is nothing wrong.
Others say from what they see and hear its not doing well. As I tend to think the latter is true I do not know for sure, but is there a way to know for sure?
Well maybe maybe not, but this is an idea that might give us an idea of is Downtown a boom place or not.
The idea
Starting say State and Main and going to Main and 6th st, look at every business, looking for
1) Building status on Property Taxes
2) The Business current or behind on Sales taxes and the like.
3) Leans if any by venders.
After all if the Downtown is booming would a business be behind on taxes? Would not the Landlord not be able to pay property taxes? Why would venders not be paid?
We would keep track of the number with issues and the number with no issues. Have a running total of the amount owed in back taxes/with how long taxes are behind for.
Now this would not be a 100% for sure going to give an answer but sure would give an idea.
We could then say ask questions of the county and city council about actions both are taking with our tax $$.
Good idea? Bad Idea?
The tax history may give you some information, but property taxes are a very small part of the pie. One simple way of seeing whether the business climate is doing well or not is by looking at the job growth.
How many job openings are being posted by downtown businesses and at what salary or wage?
Good point.
We also can do traffic counts both foot and cars to see how busy this area is.
Maybe rename it The Study the DRC does not want done?
I love to see the County West of the I wake up to the possible misuse of tax $$
Vehicle traffic counts in downtown wouldn’t mean much in terms of retail health. Main Street is the main north-south artery on the east side of Racine. It’s also part state highway. Lots of people drive through downtown on their way to somewhere else. When I lived on the near south side and my mother was alive, I drove through downtown and back every day, but I never patronized any of the establishments except for Kewpee’s and Top Dog.