[Army_of_One]

The bottom line is even if we closed the packing plant there are a lot of people of Mexican decent (AKA Mexicans) imbedded in our community. They run business's, own homes, pay taxes and work hard just like everyone else. If our city is to move forward you have to include these people. The shops downtown obviously do ok or they would be going out of business. Can't say the same for several other business's in Dodge. (IE: Peppercorns, Dodge House, Marchal Ranch, etc) We should be glad that we have those business's in Dodge because they pay taxes and the things they sell has sales tax on it like anything else. IMHO ANY business Dodge has right now (that is legit) is GOOD business because it generates income. I drove downtown yesterday and tried to have an objective eye. To me none of the business's really look shabby. The stores look no different than the rest. None of them really stand out as crappy looking. You wanna talk eyesore? Look at some of the business's on Wyatt Earp like the liquor store and some of the shops on the east side. There is actually quite a bit of shopping downtown if you look. It's just not shopping that fits everyone's needs but does fit the needs of the MAJORITY of people in this town. There is nothing keeping Penny's or Maurice's or Sears from moving downtown but they can barely make it in the mall.