OMIGOD, VIENNA HAS A NEW BANK!!!!

I checked on Vienna's website and they don't list the banks in Vienna as part of their dining and retail list or anywhere else on their website. Walkscore.com also doesn't think it's too important to list banks since they don't even have it as a category people want to walk to. I then did a web search on banks in Vienna which listed 81 banks within 1 mile of Vienna town center. http://www.yellowbook.com/search/?what=Banks&who=&where=Vienna%2C+Virginia. How exciting that we will now have 82 banks within a 1 mile radius of our town.

HV, what you want-a-bet the boarded-up Shell station becomes another bank in Vienna? The only other merchant that the town is of a dire need for is another "mattress" reseller.

What major retailer would want to move into one of these boarded up spaces in Vienna's sh%tty stripmalls?

I would guess most larger retailers (whether be Trader Joe's or Panera) have an image to uphold and moving into a space like That's Amore would require a huge build out and you are stuck with a hideous looking building facade and a pothole infested parking lot.

Are we really just down to banks? Is that it? Seriously?

we also have a new mattress store! Just the thing to revitalize pedestrian retail district. Let's all go out for an ice cream and a couple mattresses.

How much of this can be laid at the feet of cheap strip mall owners and how much at the feet of the Vienna Town Council?

The Vienna politicians have created a situation for land owners that their hands are tied. Owners cannot tear down and rebuild (even exactly the same) since almost all of Maple Avenue are non-conforming buildings.

Unless Vienna changes to form based code, we are stuck forever in the 1950s.

Were you in attendance at this meeting? Marco Polo owners are held at the mercy of Maud and her cohorts as are all other owners in Town. Many will continue to be slum lords until they can sell or develop on a larger scale.

http://www.historicvienna.com/2008/07/10k_down_the_drain.html

Seriously, how many mattresses can one town buy? I guess there\'s your proof of the flophouses, Shawn.

VTC asleep at the wheel:

The boarded up gas station can\'t become a mattress store. It\'s outside the Mattress District (which appears to be the 100W block of Maple).

Ya'lmiss the point of having all the traffic go through Vienna. Don't you see all the cars that stop, on their way home, to buy a mattress.

I'm sure we can use another nail and hair place, should a mattress store be voted down. Maybe the surfeit of hair and nails to be groomed in this town are more proof of flophouses.

Maybe the 'core' of Maple (Lawyers to Glyndon) can become form-based, allowing the 100% car-based places to migrate further out, or maybe go into the industrial zones like the baby Jesus intended.

"The Mattress District!" The Chamber of Commerce should promote this unique Vienna attraction. Entire families will come from miles around. They'll buy a mattress or two, dine in the nearby restaurants, stroll the brick sidewalks, definitely visit the town green, and buy souveniers: little foam mattresses on keyrings that say "Town of Vienna" Downtown revitalization at its finest!

HV,
I noticed you had a video of Maud at a council meeting awhile back talking about the Maple Avenue Vision Corridor where she was saying that the Clarendon Market Commons did not appear to be successful as it was hard for her to find anyone there when she visited, but then the video abruptly stopped. Do you have footage of this entire meeting? It's ridiculous that the town has no recorded documents or video of any kind to explain what was discussed at the meetings concerning Maple Avenue.

Wondering why the Town is not suspicious of the mattress shops as they were of having massage therapists in Vienna.

I noticed you had a video of Maud at a council meeting awhile back talking about the Maple Avenue Vision Corridor where she was saying that the Clarendon Market Commons did not appear to be successful as it was hard for her to find anyone there when she visited, but then the video abruptly stopped. Do you have footage of this entire meeting? It's ridiculous that the town has no recorded documents or video of any kind to explain what was discussed at the meetings concerning Maple Avenue.

There wasn't much more to the tape really. All the other council members seemed to be in favor, than at the end Maud killed it with nutbag logic. The tape was recorded not by the Town, correct. Maud actually wanted to ban the video taping of town meetings a few years back. Vienna is the land of the lost.

We needed a matress and looked into our local matress shops. They were all overpriced and empty. Seems they don't want to do business, but I guess they are paying their rent.