Juan More Vacancy

Is downtown dying?

This cartoon was drawn for the FXBG Advance, which wrote the text accompanying my cartoon on its site, saying, “The cost of doing business in downtown Fredericksburg is rising — sharply. The question for many business owners may well be, how much higher can commercial rental space go before downtown’s commercial hub becomes not a street to stroll and admire all the interesting shops, but a street stroll and ask, “Just how many vacancies are there?” Three years ago, the cost for renting restaurant space rarely topped $40 - $45 per square foot. Today, it goes as high as $70. And retail space that is leasing now for $15–$22 per square foot was typically leasing in the $12–$18 per square foot range three years ago. All this is happening at a time of economic uncertainty not seen since the Great Recession. The impact? “We are seeing people being more conservative with their money,” Chris Allen, executive director of Fredericksburg Main Street, told the Advance. “And we’re seeing less foot traffic, especially during the week.” Our political cartoonist, Clay Jones, has been watching, and as ever, capturing the problem in his distinctive style.”

I don’t get downtown as much as I used to, and Juan More Taco was one of those places that wasn’t around when I lived downtown. But I got to finally try it fairly recently (on a run to the post office to mail one of you a signed print), and OMG, it was amazing. It didn’t even have downtown prices.

The best way to describe the tacos is that they tasted like they were from a food truck (and I heard that’s how Juan More Taco got its start). If you know anything about living in a city is that some of the food is street food. I love food trucks, and I wish we had real food trucks here in the burg.

Sometimes, I think I want to move to a city just for the food trucks.

Anyway, Juan More Taco couldn’t come to terms with its landlord, and now they’re leaving. This makes me sad.

This is becoming a problem for downtown, with less foot traffic, too.

One thing that might help with the foot traffic would be if the restaurants had sensible hours.

For example, Curibita is a place where I will often draw my cartoons or write the blog after I go to the post office. But the place that calls itself an “arts” cafe has horrible hours. It’s a coffee shop that doesn’t open until 10 a.m., and then they close at 5 p.m. on weekdays. A lot of the shops shut down at 5 p.m. Most of the restaurants have human hours and stay open from 9 to 11 p.m., but you can’t go shopping downtown after 5 p.m.

There used to be more restaurants that shut down at 5, which I always thought was stupid. We used to have a sandwich shop called Wine and Cheese that was great, but they closed at 5, right when people want to eat dinner. They’re not around anymore, and I wonder why.

This economy, which is getting worse because of Donald Trump, is killing the Juan More Tacos of the nation. But then again, this regime is the one that was threatened by the idea of a taco truck on every corner.

This country needs more tacos, real tacos. Not just “American” tacos. However, the place that sold me fish and chips recently with a promise that it was as good as what I found in London, and served a skinny piece of fried fish without tartar sauce in the building, is still here.

Psst: I’m a day ahead with my cartoons, so I’m taking the day off from drawing. This is the only blog you’ll get today. I’m going to a barbecue. I’m also taking the day off from replying to messages on politics.

Creative note: The whole “Juan more” angle hit me as I was reading the article on Friday. I drew the cartoon on Saturday at Starbucks while enjoying a venti mocha frappe.

As I was leaving Starbucks, I ran into my friend, Ed, who was there to dive into a book on George Washington. Ed is a history buff who often attends the Great Lives lectures at Mary Washington University. It was good to see him. He’s liberal, like us, and one of the smartest dudes I know.

Music note: I couldn’t wait to get the text done on this cartoon so I could listen to music through my AirPods and drown out Starbucks’ music. As you probably already know from this blog, I have a hard time listening to anything while lettering. I usually want complete silence during that process.

Drawn in 30 seconds:

Timelapse:

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