On the evening of a blazing East Lansing summer, follow the Red Cedar east, winding through the bramble, and weaving past the low ash branches until you reach a small clearing just past city limits. You're in small business Valhalla, where East Lansing independent businesses go to die.
The death knell sounds for Sidestreets Deli, Blue Note Cafe, Bilbo's, Small Planet, Kilwin's, Bagel Fragel, the Dog Pound, and the entire cursed corner of Grand River Avenue and Abbott Road. There lie the small East Lansing businesses that couldn't turn a profit and were forced to bow to locking up forever, or letting a national chain set up shop. There are plenty more we're missing, too.
Our university and its history aside, examine what makes this city unique. The students are a mainstay, but the names and faces turn over with the seasons. What makes East Lansing more than just a franchise-laden suburb with a younger populace and beaten down housing? The small businesses that have watched it all happen, school year in and school year out.
Beer's been swilled at the Peanut Barrel Restaurant since before you were born. Georgio's was pulling potato and bacon slices from the oven when we were still on Big Wheels, and the terminally bored were perusing the Curious Book Shop before most of the books therein were considered curious. These are the businesses that students remember, and these are the shops, restaurants and bars that the alumni hit when they traipse back into town to relive their glory days as Spartan undergrads.
Mention to anyone who graduated before 2000 that Bilbo's is no longer around, and jaws slack. Explain that it transformed into a trendy, overpriced bar and then explain how it transformed again into a trendy, overpriced chain bar and that alumnus might scoff in disbelief at what his former college town has become.
Small, independently owned businesses are what keep cities unique. They offer what a Starbucks can't - although the convenience of two across the street from each other is certainly unparalleled. East Lansing is losing its favorite haunts at an alarming pace. The city isn't keeping up appearances like it used to.
So this summer, while the restaurant chains and the neatly packaged shop fronts buckle down for the college town summer slump, remember the small business owner who is certainly worse off. Remember that with each independent business we lose, we take another step toward becoming a suburb that just happens to host a Big Ten university. Take your dollars away from the franchise, and invest it in the businesses that can actually call East Lansing home as easily as you can.
Business as usual is always going to be cutthroat. The little guy is always going to get pushed around by the corporations, and the bottom line certainly isn't going anywhere anytime soon. But by moving your patronage to a locally owned shop this summer, you'll be doing your part to keep East Lansing the city you remember it being way back when.
