Tomato Time in '12?

I didn't have a whole lot of time online during camp this past week, but I did catch a few big news stories that I consider to be blogworthy, and this one (especially since it's fairly short, and I'm fairly tired) will be the first story out of the pipe, rather than the one I teased the other day.

Back in December, I noted that there had been a new development in the long-running saga of what was to be built in the Fry Street area of Denton that formerly housed student-friendly businesses. After United Equities plan (with a generic pharmacy as a gateway) failed (and thankfully so), another developer announced plans to build a 200-unit student apartment complex. My request at the end of that post was that perhaps the developers should consider a compromise: Make the project a little New Urbanist by putting street-level businesses below the apartments.

Well, back in March, the developer decided to do just that. There were still some hurdles that the project needed to jump--among other things, they'd need a variance to build anything above the maximum three-story limit set for the area, and the proposed project is to be one story taller--but all in all, it seemed like a good compromise.

Emboldened by the fact that the developers seemed to embrace my idea (though I'm sure that they're not reading this blog, and that others also had the same thoughts), I decided to make one more request at the end of the March post: Invite the Tomato back to the retail portion of your project.

And now, wouldn't you know, they "listened to me" again: It was reported on Sunday that The Tomato's owners are in negotiations with the developer:

Mike “Ski” Slusarski and his wife, Becky, the former owners of the Tomato, recently signed a letter of intent with Houston-based developer The Dinerstein Cos. to lease about 900 square feet of restaurant space in the mixed-use development proposed for the lot.

While the couple has been disappointed by broken promises from developers before, Becky Slusarski said things seem to be looking up for the restaurant.

“It looks like this new company has high hopes for the area and they want to stay local,” she said. “Now it’s a matter of if the mom and pop places can afford it [the retail space].”

[...]Josh Vasbinder, a partner with The Dinerstein Cos., said the firm is committed to bringing local business owners back to the Fry Street area. But those commitments are contingent on the outcome of Tuesday’s City Council meeting, he said.

“If the plans are approved Tuesday, it gives us the ability to fulfill the obligation and move forward with a local business, like the Tomato,” Vasbinder said. “The Tomato was the most iconic local business on Fry Street, and we’re excited to hopefully bring it back to the Fry Street area.”

That's great to hear. And in a follow-up story, we learned later this week that the City Council did approve the request for a zoning overlay district to accommodate the project.

Now, we can't exactly do the "happy dance" quite yet; the project isn't scheduled to open for nearly two more years, in the summer of 2012. And there could be one possible wrench thrown into the proceedings:

The project still faces a potential threat from a petition seeking to turn the land into a park.

Former mayoral candidate Bob Clifton, who helped organize the petition drive, said during the meeting that he’d gathered enough signatures to force a council vote on his proposal.

If the council won’t approve the park, an election would be held on the issue, Clifton said.

Seriously? Is this really the best place for a park, surrounded by busy streets on all sides? And shouldn't that piece of property go back to making money for the city and providing services to residents and students (like it did from the 1920's until three years ago)? Hopefully, this doesn't stall the beginning of construction or anything.

So there may finally be a light at the end of the tunnel with regard to the Fry Street situation (and it doesn't appear that it's attached to an oncoming train). Nothing new can ever undo the damage that United Equities did to the area, but this will at least give it the chance for a bright future again.

If you're a UNT and Tomato fan, just fast-forward to an autumn Saturday in 2012, where a Mean Green football game in the new stadium might be followed by a trip to the new Tomato. Ahh, I can almost taste it...

Fry Street Update: Non-Rant Version

Yesterday, a commenter tipped me off that there had been an update in the seemingly ongoing Fry Street saga. When the story had last been discussed here back in late December, it appeared that a massive apartment complex for students would be taking over the block:

The Dinerstein Companies of Houston and Winkelmann & Associates Inc. of Dallas filed a pre-application with Denton city officials on Monday to build 210 student apartments with 586 beds in a four-story complex split by a multistory parking garage.

As bad as the proposed Fry Street Village had been, this seemed even worse, because the former commercial block would have nothing commercial on it at all. And of course, the usual concerns about traffic were raised by those who live in the area.

In my post back in December, I had a suggestion of my own for a possible compromise:

So why not split the difference here: Since New Urbanism is all the rage, how about a mixed-use development with businesses on the ground floor and apartments above it? [Former council member and area resident Mike] Cochran is right--apartments would be a waste of prime commercial land, so that might as well be included in the plan. How about it, folks?

I hadn't read anything else about the proposal since then, but, prompted by the commenter's tip, I found out that a lot has been going on this spring. First, a recap of the original proposal:

City planners and some residents criticized the developer’s initial plans, filed with the city in December, which showed a four-story apartment complex and multistory parking garage but no retail shops, despite the area’s history as a hub for independent shops and restaurants.

Believe it or not, the developers listened:

The latest plans are largely the same as those presented at the last public meeting Feb. 17. They show more than 10,000 square feet of ground-level retail space, an outdoor patio and some wider sidewalks along with the 194-unit apartment complex and 700-space parking garage.

Recent changes include the addition of a new facade on the parking garage facing Oak Street and bay windows and pitched roofs on the apartments facing Welch Street, [Dinerstein Cos. partner Josh] Vasbinder said.

There are still some things to be worked out; the four-story plan is one higher than is allowed in the area by current zoning. But the Council was enthusiastic about the project, even praising the developers for incorporating suggestions from a couple of community meetings held last month. It's also nice to see that other landowners in the area are on board as well:

The meeting also brought news that the developer has the entire block under contract except for the Cool Beans lot, which isn’t part of the project.

“At our last community meeting, we only had the United Equities property under contract,” Vasbinder said, referring to the Houston-area company that bought most of the block several years ago in a failed attempt to redevelop it. “We were in dialogue with both the [Gene] Hartman property as well as the [Joe] Normile. I can tell you today we have all three properties under contract.”

I don't think there's any chance of pleasing everybody here, but this latest idea seems like the best possible compromise (and not just because it's exactly what I suggested back in December, LOL). There's no ugly chain drugstore at the Hickory/Fry corner; the retail mixed in with the residential is a nod to the history of the area; and the patio and wider sidewalks seem like a nice touch. It's better than the United Equities plan, and it's better than the big empty field of mud that's there now.

The developer hopes to get final approval by December, break ground next year and open by the summer of 2012, which would finally bring to a close the sad saga that began when United Equities bought the block in May of 2006.

And I close with a simple, five-word request to Vasbinder and his colleagues: Please invite the Tomato back. (Thank you.)

The Fry Street Saga: Here We Go Again?

It's been a while since I blogged anything about Fry Street, because there hasn't been much to say; the out-of-town owners, United Equities, have been sitting on the project ever since their request for a drive-thru for the CVS drugstore that was to be bulit on the footprint of the Tomato at Hickory and Fry had been denied, and a lot of us were hoping that they would eventually sell to someone who would create a development that was more appropriate to its location across from campus (i.e. things very similar to the stuff that was torn down in the first place).

Well, we may have been half right, as it appears the property may be sold, or at least a development may be going up on the site. This time, somebody wants to build...wait for it...more student apartments:

The Dinerstein Companies of Houston and Winkelmann & Associates Inc. of Dallas filed a pre-application with Denton city officials on Monday to build 210 student apartments with 586 beds in a four-story complex split by a multistory parking garage. Attempts to contact spokesmen from both companies were unsuccessful.

Mike Cochran, a former City Council member who lives in the nearby Oak-Hickory Historic District, criticized the proposal. Cochran, a vocal opponent of the Fry Street Village project in 2007, said the new project would have the same disturbing result: increased traffic on roads already stressed beyond their capacity.

“The only way to get to it is through residential neighborhoods,” Cochran said.

Cochran also called the proposal a waste of prime commercial land.

“It just seems a shame to almost squander the commercial potential for that property with apartments when there’s so much other land around that would be excellent for students,” he said. “It is, of course, completely incompatible with the neighborhood as well.

Well said, Mr. Cochran. So maybe this isn't quite as bad as a generic chain drugstore, but it's still not the best use for the site. For one thing, there are already plenty of new, upscale student apartments near UNT (go a few blocks up Fry Street itself and you'll dead-end into some). Student apartments aren't special, and this corner is special, because of its heritage--a heritage that may have been sullied at times, but it's there nonetheless. Go to nearly any university and there'll be a little mini-downtown across the street, in buildings that are about 80 years old and filled with student-friendly businesses. That's the part that United Equities took away, and it's time to bring it back.

So why not split the difference here: Since New Urbanism is all the rage, how about a mixed-use development with businesses on the ground floor and apartments above it? Cochran is right--apartments would be a waste of prime commercial land, so that might as well be included in the plan. How about it, folks?

I'm sure there will be more on this in the weeks ahead; in the meantime, I'm going to go leave the previous paragraph in the comments to the DRC story.

Down on the Farm: Check out music from James Farm, Joshua Redman's new band. Very cool stuff. (And yes, there's a Denton angle to this, as Redman has played the Denton Arts and Jazz Festival in the past.)

I Love the Java JIve, and It Loves Denton Again

It had been a couple years since I'd been to the Kharma Cafe in Denton--so long, in fact, that I wasn't even aware that it had been shuttered for some time now. The loss of the Tomato a few years ago meant that, for me, there wasn't much of a reason to visit Fry Street anymore (and, as I noted in a very old post, the Kharma was always so dark that it was possible to walk right up to it and not be sure that it was in business until you opened the door).

But an active college town like Denton needs a 24-hour coffeehouse, because not everyone wants to go bar-hopping all the time, and even the hard-core partiers occasionally want a much quieter place to study or chill with their friends. And now, I'm happy to report that this can happen in Denton once again with the opening of Big Mike's Coffee(in the former Voyager's Dream space on Hickory just west of Fry St.:

According to the Facebook page for Big Mike's Coffee, the new venture by former Voyager's Dream owner Mike Sutton is now open and running. The North Texas Daily jumped on news in August that the first coffee shop near the UNT campus to stay open all night since the days of smoky Kharma Cafe would take over the prime spot on Hickory Street.

I also have read that BIg Mike's will offer live music--not just for its grand opening, slated for this weekend, but also on a regular basis after that. It sounds like a win all around for the area. Now, if we could just get the Tomato to reopen somewhere... (Read more about Big Mike's from this August article in the North Texas Daily.)

And speaking of Fry Street: while searching for articles about Big Mike's, I also came across this, from the Daily via Pegasus News: Fry Street development remains untouched by developer. Basically, nothing has changed since the last time I discussed Fry Street here; the economic climate isn't friendly to development, and the developer, United Equities, doesn't appear to be willing or able to charge rents low enough to attract the type of student-friendly businesses that the area really needs to thrive (you know, the kind of businesses that were already there before UE came in and knocked all the buildings down). I'd love to see UE bought out and the area returned to local ownership, and I've summarized my own plan for the area--which differs from UE's plan by only a single, crucial tweak--on many occasions. Now, if only the folks in Austin would draw my six lottery numbers, I'd be all over this. Until then, I fear that it's more of the same.

The Latest From Fry Street: No News Is Good News

I missed this story a few weeks ago (mostly because it came from the North Texas Daily, which I rarely see in dead-tree form anymore, and my visits to their website are spotty at best), but I heard about it yesterday from one of my friends who lives in Denton: United Equities, locked in a stalemate with the city of Denton after being denied a drive-through permit for the proposed CVS drugstore, is not planning on moving ahead with the development for the foreseeable future, and they are even considering selling the property.

My response? Good! Sell it quickly, to someone who has ties to the community and cares about its history, and don't let the door hit you in your carpetbagging behind on the way back to Houston.

This thing has been a fiasco from Day One. A UNT student quoted in the story put it best: "This seems like a big waste of money and time," business and marketing senior Devon McAfee said. "This project has ruined businesses like the Tomato who have been a family business and now have no restaurant to call their own." (And The Tomato is still working on things, folks; I just got a MySpace bulletin from them over the weekend. It's just that, after a few false leads, they're not going to announce anything official until a deal is close to being sealed.)

If I had some lottery money, I would certainly join a few of my fellow UNT alums in buying this property and developing it the right way. (Keep in mind that not all of UE's plan was bad, but the replacement of The Tomato and its neighbors with a drugstore turned out to be the fatal flaw for myself and many others.) At the risk of sounding like a broken record, here's my idea once again:

[A] generic chain drugstore is not a suitable use for the Hickory and Fry corner. The CVS could go just fine on the other end of the property, in the old FEMA call center building at Welch and Oak (which used to be an Eckerd Drugs back in the day). There's more parking and less foot traffic on that end, and the drive-through wouldn't be nearly so much of an issue over there.

Meanwhile, the Hickory/Fry corner should be the place that houses some of the student-friendly restaurants that they're trying to attract; that would be a much better use of the "gateway" portion of the development. Build replicas of the 1925 buildings that were razed (and invite the Tomato back), and they'd probably win over the city council in a heartbeat.

Let's hope that a suitable developer can be found quickly; as depressing as it is to see that empty lot, it's still better than having United Equities' vision of the area rammed down everyone's throats.

As always, more updates as they occur...

(If you're a first-time visitor who has no idea what I'm talking about here, click the "Fry Street" link below for a display of all the posts leading up to this one.)

The BIg Apple Meets Little D

I was quite surprised over the weekend when a friend emailed me a New York Times profile of Denton, of all things. Sure, it has a ridiculously cheesy headline ("An Indie Scene That Comes With a Texas Twang in Denton"), but it's not a bad little snapshot of the town that houses my alma mater:

WITH its Piggly Wiggly markets and dusty pawnshops, the Texas college town of Denton does not look the part of a Woodstock in waiting. A Romanesque courthouse juts out of the central square, as in that fictional town in “Back to the Future.” And whenever the local college football team plays at Fouts Field, the entire town seems to put on Mean Green T-shirts.

[...]At last count, more than 100 bands were polishing their sound in the city’s dive bars, rooftop spaces and fraternity basements. Even the local record store, a converted opera house called Recycled, has a section devoted to Denton bands. The bin dividers read like a Lollapalooza T-shirt: Lift to Experience, Centro-matic, Jetscreamer, Vortexas, Robert Gomez, Stanton Meadowdale, Mom, Mandarin, and Matthew and the Arrogant Sea, to name just a few.

Not bad for a college town of 110,000, prompting more than a few music industry insiders to call Denton the next Austin.

“There’s this combination of artistic fervor and small town naïveté,” said David Sims, a music columnist for The Dallas Observer. “Artists here don’t know they’re not supposed to be Bob Dylan so when they start a band, they shoot for the moon.”

Even the Fry Street situation merits a mention here:

STILL, unlike Austin, downtown Denton has no liquor stores or a Starbucks, and it sometimes feels more like a suburb of Dallas than a subcultural oasis. It didn’t help things when a developer last year bulldozed much of historic Fry Street, the former epicenter of Denton’s live music scene, to make way for a CVS (a plan since stalled by a permit issue). All that remains today of the Haight-Ashburyesque strip is a mosquito-infested mud pit and a graveyard of frat bars and head shops.

But in a testament to the town’s musical resilience, the night life simply migrated over to the main square. Pick any side street and you’ll find partygoers noshing on tacos, outside a smattering of derelict warehouses that have been transformed into clubs and live music stages.

Read the whole thing. Even Jay Saunders (UNT jazz trumpet instructor, director of the Three O'Clock and one of my jazz camp colleagues) gets a quote in here: “These kids are definitely more educated than your average garage band.” Indeed; if only all garage bands were educated in this manner. (Hat tip: Occasional commenter Super Anonymous JP.)

Maybe they misread the name as eBaby: A German couple is in trouble for listing their 7-month-old son on eBay for the price of one euro. (The couple insists the ad was a joke, but the kid has been taken away by the German equivalent of CPS.)

This guy's old team might as well have listed him on eBay as well: A Canadian minor league baseball player is now on his way to a team here in Texas after his old team traded him for 10 baseball bats.

Yet Another Fry Street Update

In the "catching up with the news that I couldn't post while my computer was in the shop" department, there was another story about Fry Street this week. The difference with this report is that it really doesn't update anything. Does no news mean good news? You decide:

United Equities Inc. and the city of Denton are in a stalemate.

United Equities, a commercial real estate firm, owns the Fry Street property and can't proceed with development until it receives a use permit, which it was denied by the Denton City Council last December, said Tim Sandifer, spokesperson for United Equities.

The firm is looking to build a strip mall that would include a CVS pharmacy along with various restaurants, he said. Sandifer said the shopping options for students for items such as snacks and general office supplies are very limited.

"We wanted to bring a national retailer to the university," Sandifer said.

Sandifer said the difficulty lies in the drive through that CVS requires in its stores.

Jack Thomson, city council member for District 3, said the company could proceed with building if they give up the drive through.

Thomson said the permit was denied because the council was concerned about traffic becoming more congested in the area.

In order to achieve a permit for a drive through, the city would have to modify the zoning, which would require permission from the zoning commission and the city council, Thomson said.

The zoning commission approved the permit, Sandifer said. But the city council denied the permit with a 3-4 vote, Thomson said.

Sandifer said they are unable to take the drive through out of the plans because CVS is the anchor tenant and it refuses to build until it is allowed to have one.

Right now United Equities has no intention of redoing the plans for the development, Sandifer said.

And the saga continues, even if we thought this was resolved several months ago. Can't United Equities take no for an answer? Or, even better, can't they just take all their marbles and go home?

At the risk of sounding like a broken record (isn't it cool how that phrase has survived the technology that spawned it?), I posted the following comment to the NT Daily story:

If United Equities had 1) actually cared about the community or 2) taken the time to study the history of the area, they would have realized what some of us have known all along--that a generic chain drugstore is not a suitable use for the Hickory and Fry corner. The CVS could go just fine on the other end of the property, in the old FEMA call center building at Welch and Oak (which used to be an Eckerd Drugs back in the day). There's more parking and less foot traffic on that end, and the drive-through wouldn't be nearly so much of an issue over there.

Meanwhile, the Hickory/Fry corner should be the place that houses some of the student-friendly restaurants that they're trying to attract; that would be a much better use of the "gateway" portion of the development. Build replicas of the 1925 buildings that were razed (and invite the Tomato back), and they'd probably win over the city council in a heartbeat. Otherwise, I hope that UE just goes away and sells the property to someone who will actually work with the community instead of trying to run roughshod over everyone in their relentless search for money and nothing else.

Stand firm, Denton City Council. Fight the good fight. If these guys think they can eventually bully you into submission, please show them in no uncertain terms that they're sadly mistaken. If they give up and sell the property to someone else, then we're all winners (except the carpetbaggers themselves..but then, I care about them about as much as they care about Denton, which is not at all).

Let's see if we're still having this same conversation next month...

One Last Chance To Do Fry Street Properly

Here's the latest news from the Save Fry Street MySpace:

THIS THURSDAY, February 7th @ 7pm
@ The Village Church, 1106 W. Oak

After a month or so of silent defeat, the United Equities crew has reorganized themselves in an attempt to salvage favor in the eyes of the city they divided and demolished. They have organized this meeting because, as they insist, they "are interested in your input regarding our project and would like to give you an opportunity to ask questions that you may have with regard to the development of this property."

It's interesting to note that a couple of council members denied the request from United Equities for the drive thru because the developers did not call a neighborhood meeting of affected residents.

They can check that one off their to-do list, once they meet at The Village (ironic) Church this Thursday. A film crew will be there, so feel free to bring costumes, signs, paper airplanes, etc. Anything positive and creative. Show the top dogs at United Equities what Fry Street is really about - liberty, diversity, culture and community.

For background on the drive-thru story, go here, and you can click the "Fry Street" tag at the bottom of this post for everything else that I've written on the subject.

I can't attend the meeting due to teaching commitments, but this was my reply to the Save Fry Street MySpace bulletin--what I'd say if I were there:

The biggest problem with this development (besides taking this long to consult with the neighbors in the first place) is that a generic chain drugstore is not an appropriate "gateway" to the university. If you had any sense of history, you would realize that the large vacant building at the southwest corner of Oak and Welch (most recently a FEMA call center, I think), used to be the home of an Eckerd Drugs...which has since been taken over by CVS in this area. That is where the CVS belongs; refurbish that building to your heart's content, and I bet nobody would object too loudly to a drive-thru on that corner, much farther away from campus foot traffic.

At the Hickory/Fry intersection, if you truly want to integrate this development into the community, your first "1920's-style building" would be a virtual replica of the buildings you demolished, and some of the restaurants would be there--including The Tomato. Places to meet and eat would serve as the proper entry point, not a drugstore. You can't undo the past year, but I would bet that this would be what most of the community would want you to do to start getting back in our good graces. If you still want your gateway to campus to be something that serves only your needs and not ours, I would ask that you please sell this property to someone who cares more about the community. Thank you.

I invited the Save Fry Street folks to pass that on if there's an opportunity to do so.

One More Chance to Save Fry Street?

I thought this issue had already been decided, but I discovered by talking to some friends from Denton over the weekend that the Denton City Council is once again considering a crucial component of the proposed Fry Street Village development: Whether or not the CVS drugstore, planned to be built on the footprint of The Tomato at Hickory and Fry, will be allowed to have a drive-through window. Supposedly, no drive-through would be a deal-breaker for CVS, and no CVS would be a deal-breaker for the entire development.

The project needs a special-use permit from the council to allow a drive-through lane for a proposed CVS Pharmacy at the corner of Fry and Hickory.

Opponents say a drive-through would increase vehicle traffic, endanger pedestrians and pollute air in the heavily walked area. University officials and others have said the area’s redevelopment would be beneficial in the long run.

United Equities project manager Tim Sandifer has said the entire project hinges on attracting CVS, and the pharmacy would not come without a drive-through. On Friday, Sandifer said the special-use permit “is important for a lot of reasons for this project to proceed.”

[...]Critics say that all-or-nothing mentality has shifted attention from the merits of the drive-through request and onto the hyper-political debate over Fry Street Village.

“This environment stems from the idea that whatever is the outcome of the vote is tied to whether the project goes forward or not,” said council member Chris Watts. “And I think that’s unfortunate.”

As I've said many times before (click the "Fry Street" tag at the bottom of this post for all my thoughts on this subject), this thing has been handled incorrectly from day one. The proper way to do this--"proper" both in terms of historical preservation and getting off on the right foot with the community from which United Equities is hoping to develop customers--would have been to 1) use the former FEMA call center building at Oak and Welch--which once was an Eckerd drugstore (CVS' predecessor in this area)--for the CVS; 2) keep the historic 1925 buildings that housed The Tomato, renovate it to current standards, and attract other student-friendly restaurants while keeping the iconic Tomato intact. The rest of the development as it is currently planned would have been fine with me, but the vintage architecture and eclectic eateries would prove to be a far superior "gateway" to the university than a big, ugly drugstore. (And that's no slam on CVS--I'm a customer myself--but you see those everywhere. The old buildings were special, and they're a much more appropriate thing to have across the street from a college campus than a generic chain drugstore.) But, as we know, United Equities doesn't appear to care about anything besides the almighty dollar, so I hope its proposal goes down in flames tonight.

Granted, if the whole development does go belly-up, the old buildings have still been lost to a combination of arson and the wrecking ball, but that would open the door for another developer to come in and do the right thing (which,in my mind, would be to build replicas of the old buildings and develop things as described above). One would hope that, if this were to come to pass, that someone would be ready to step up to the plate.

One more thing: A former Dentonite visited this blog through the original "Save Fry Street!" post from May, 2006. He/she has been out of town for a while and had just now heard about the Fry Street debacle, which is making a return to Denton much less pleasant for this person.

I'll come back on with an update when the City Council vote is reported, assuming that actually happens tonight.

Even for politicians, this doesn't make sense: About an hour after the initial post, one of my friends, upon reading the DRC article, pointed out this interesting quote from Mayor Perry McNeil:

“I’ve had a lot of feedback on that and surprisingly … it’s probably roughly 4-1 to saying, ‘What is the problem? Get that thing approved and get it built.’” he said. “But the silent majority is who I’m hearing from.”

Umm, Mr. Mayor, how exactly do you "hear" from the silent majority?

And one more:

[Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Joe] Mulroy said he wasn’t prepared to say whether the drive-through would fit in with the pedestrian area.

“I have yet to see a final site plan, so I really don’t know what they’re actually proposing,” he said. “It’s a legitimate point. There will be plenty of discussion.”

OK, so you're voting on this without having seen the final plan? What's wrong with this picture??

Now you see why the actions of politicians keep bloggers busy. More later...

UPDATE: Yesssssssssss!!!! There'll be more in the morning, I'm sure.

NEXT MORNING UPDATE: Full story here.

Out of the Ashes Comes Good News

In the wake of this week's events on Fry Street, it was high time for some good news, and we just got some: The Tomato will return soon! They just received word that the location on the downtown square (on the east side, next to a coffeehouse called Jupiter House) that they had been looking at will indeed be their new home. According to the MySpace bulletin announcing the news, they're not sure exactly when construction will start, but they're hoping it's as soon as possible. I will of course post updates along the way, and I will do everything in my power to be there on opening day.

For news junkies: Here's one more updated article and a new editorial about the fire and slideshow of the demolition of the block. And the videographer who shot the documentary-length footage makes an appearance in the comments of Thursday night's post that links to his work. And United Equities continues to draw the wrath of the commenters in this Save Fry Street post.

"The Burning of Fry Street"

Obviously, last night's events have been all over the news and the Web today. Among the most interesting was this video by Dentonite Christopher Largen; he started filming a few days ago when the buildings were being gutted and prepared for demolition, but it took on a whole new meaning when the Tomato was set ablaze:

The Burning of Fry Street

(This is a MySpace video, and it uses their player, so I can't embed it here like I did the YouTube one from last night. I don't think you have to be a MySpace member to view it.)

Christopher noted in a repost at the Save Fry Street MySpace that he was hoping to make his many hours of footage into a professional documentary. It's long, but worth your time if you're a Tomato fan. (And yes, the rough language alert applies here too--no surprise, considering the emotions involved.)

Also, check out the updated story from the Denton Record-Chronicle, with links to more amateur video. The North Texas Daily (a paper for which I wrote a few articles as a college student) also has quite a few good posts on the subject. And of course, the two most recent posts at the Save Fry Street site have some good pictures, as well as a press release stating the group's dismay at last night's events. (Check out the fourth picture from the top, where the fire melted paint on the bricks and caused the lettering of a long-ago tenant of the spot to reappear.)

Emotions are also running high in the comments to the Save Fry Street post, where a couple of people place the blame for everything on the new owners, United Equities--one going so far as to suspect that the fire was an inside job, done to save demolition money and avoid the long protests that would have ensued had the building been taken down brick-by-brick. As much as I dislike what UE has done to this historical district, I don't know if I can buy into that story or not, but the company definitely deserves some of the blame for failing to secure the area more than it did.

UPDATE: Here's one more DRC story about the demolition that took place in the aftermath of the fire.

It's been quite a week up there. No matter what, my next trip to Denton will take me by the intersection of Hickory and Fry, and the metaphorical hole in my heart will likely be as big as the actual hole that has now been placed at that corner with today's leveling of the rest of the buildings.

Two cool things I found out while surfing the Denton sites today:
1) UNT's tuition is still going up, but not as much as was previously expected. (Yes, I've been out of school for a while now, but there are plenty of alumni of my teaching studio headed to Denton in the fall, so they'll benefit from this.)
2) There's been a new albino squirrel spotted on campus recently. (The previous one was mentioned here.)

Some Not-So-Civil Disobedience

I said on Monday that I doubted I'd be posting much about Fry Street again anytime soon. The buildings were coming down, and there was nothing more that could be done. But nothing prepared me for the events of last night.

There had been protests and candlelight vigils all week. The Save Fry Street site had an admonition to those who would be attending:

We also ask that you refrain from vandalism. These buildings belong to the community more than they do United Equities. Defacing them is wrong and is stealing from the community.

Well, so much for that idea...
(Rough language advisory for those who care.)

Yes, some of the protesters evidently decided to take matters into their own hands:

Before the wrecking crew could push down the walls of The Tomato, the Fry Street icon died by fire Wednesday night at the hands of men seen running from the building just before flames burst out from the windows.

While hundreds of young people milled behind yellow crime scene tape in the rain watching and recording the scene with everything from professional cameras to cellphones, University of North Texas and Denton police detained three young men at the scene but later released them after intensive questioning.

[...]Police saw flames shooting from the roof amid a heavy smoke cloud about 11 p.m. and called for the fire department. Battalion Chief Cort Higgins said the building was fully in flames when firefighters arrived.

“The building was going down anyway,” Higgins said. “But we were worried about extension to some of the adjoining buildings that are going to remain, and we had power lines down and burning.”

I got an IM from a friend in Denton saying that someone had evidently tossed a Molotov cocktail into the building, and people stood around and watched firefighters battle the blaze for several hours--a festive atmosphere, almost, except for those involved in containing the fire.

I can't begin to describe my sense of shock when I heard the news and saw the above video. My friend who was there said that the general mood of the bystanders was that the place "went out in a blaze of glory" instead of falling victim to the developers' wrecking ball, but when civil disobedience crosses the line into criminal activity, there's something wrong. Did the perpetrators think that this act would somehow scare United Equities into not building the development anymore? That's not likely, but even if that were to happen, it's pointless; the historic buildings are gone now.

The only thought that keeps running through my head is, "what a waste." That, and the nagging feeling that something like this only bolsters some people's claims that Fry Street was a rundown area that was badly in need of "sanitizing." So while I appreciate the "poetry" (to quote one bystander in the DRC article) of what happened, it still strikes me as just wrong. In the words of one of the owners in a MySpace bulletin about the fire, "What a waste of taxpayers' money on something that was being torn down anyway. All I can say for now is use your voice and the passion in your heart and you can make a difference."

See a slideshow of the fire (and the gutted buildings a few days beforehand) here. And now we can truly say R.I.P. to the original Tomato; may your soul reemerge in a new body very soon.

Light amongst the darkness: I did get a smile out of the poster being held by one of the peaceful protesters earlier in the week: "Do you want a Culturally Void Society?"--a clever dig at the drugstore company that's likely to be locating on the Tomato's footprint. And visitors to the Tomato's MySpace this morning are greeted by the Bloodhound Gang's song whose chorus goes "The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire..." Just a bit of gallows humor after an unfortunate incident.

I'm Glad I'm Not in Denton Today...

..because this is the day that the historic Fry Street buildings are slated to be demolished. There was an article about it in yesterday's paper. Evidently, it's pretty difficult for local patrons and other area merchants to see the vacant hulks of buildings just sitting there. Here's the key quote, in my opinion:

"When people go to the Campus Barbershop, they're not just getting a haircut, they're visiting with their friends," [Delta Lodge founder Todd] Kaastad said. "When people went to The Tomato, it wasn't because it had the best pizza in town, it was to see their friends. You think people will ever go to a CVS [Pharmacy] for that?"

Some of the people quoted in there are saying things like "it'll be nice if we give United Equities a chance" and all that, but I'm personally not there yet. They've bungled this thing so badly from Day One that it woudn't bother me at all if the project tanked financially and eventually reverted to local ownership.

(The article has an interesting typo in it, by the way; they refer to the venerable college bookstore Voertman's as "Vermin's," which surprises me, since a Denton Record-Chronicle reporter collaborated on the story. And I also hate seeing Mike "Ski" Slusarski referred to as the "former" owner of the Tomato. It's not dead yet; it's just resting.)

For those who might still be in activist mode, there's an interesting post on the Save Fry Street website that suggests writing letters to the Denton City Council urging them to deny CVS a special-use permit for its drive-thru window, since that would detract from the "walkability" of the proposed development. And here's a quote that sums up my feelings pretty well:

We are in no way opposed to positive development that is sensitive to the culture and history of the area but cannot abide the destruction of architecturally sound buildings that are perfect candidates for adaptive reuse. United Equities was given the opportunity to have a professional preservation assessment done by the National Trust for Historic Preservation but they refused. The responsibility for the tragic and wasteful destruction of these buildings rests solely on the shoulders of United Equities.

I couldn't have said it better myself.

This will probably be one of the last Fry Street posts on this blog. I'll of course update when the Tomato finds a new place and opens there, and may have a little something when the new development opens, though I hope to avoid that for as long as possible. Even if it's cool (and remember, I'm a fan of New Urbanism), there was no reason to not incorporate the existing buildings into the new development; the out-of-towners are simply spitting on eighty years worth of history.

There's a ZZ Top song in here somewhere: A driver in Nottingham, England was stopped on suspicion of drunk driving; imagine the officers' surprise when they found out that the man was not only drunk, but blind.

The Latest From Fry Street

And now, the update I planned to do yesterday, before car stuff got in the way...

Stories about the venerable Fry Street area of Denton, a large portion of which is soon to fall to an out-of-town developer's wrecking ball, have been few and far between since The Tomato closed last month (with the idea of relocating to the Denton Crossing shopping center fairly soon). But this week has brought on a new round of stories:

• The Tomato isn't moving to Loop 288 after all. In a story earlier this week in the Denton Record-Chronicle, we find out that the landlord chose another tenant to fill the space next to Popeye's. The search continues, with a local realtor helping them out gratis. The latest rumblings point to a spot on the downtown square, but nothing's set in stone yet.


• Meanwhile, in a Friday story, the DRC revealed some of the developer's plans for the area, and I for one am not impressed. It looks exactly like Firewheel or The Shops at Legacy or Southlake Town Square. And while those places have been a great addition to their respective areas (longtime readers of this blog could label me as a Firewheel fanboy since before it even opened), they were also built from scratch out of empty fields, not built in place of existing buildings with an 80-year history. Click on the artist's renderings in the article and see if you don't agree. (From where I sit, the most dreadful part of the whole thing is the brick wall and glass-covered awning that scream out "FRY STREET" in big letters. In the soon-to-be-demolished area, nobody would have needed a reminder of where they were.) Sure, the developer is making an attempt to "reach out" to the area by having a walkway with commemorative murals of Fry Street in its heyday, but there would be no reason to commemorate anything if they weren't destroying it in the first place.


• An editorial in yesterday's DRC (it's big link day for them over here) sums things up pretty well when it calls the plans "A triumph of flash over funk." (See a .pdf of the current plans here; at least the parking garage and drive-through restaurants aren't in the mix anymore.)


• Finally, in an effort to make lemonade out of the lemon that United Equities has unceremoniously dropped on Denton, volunteers spent part of yesterday helping salvage items from the Fry Street buildings for an auction next Friday that will benefit Habitat for Humanity.

I'll keep posting Tomato updates as soon as they become available; I certainly hope to be there on the first day in the new location.

Exporting the Buzz: I managed to work in a Tomato reference in the comments to this buzz.mn post about what makes the best pizza. (Buzz, if you missed my earlier post, is the new place where James Lileks is blogging, in addition to his usual Bleatage. It's run by the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, but it draws Lileks fans from all over, including a fairly large number of Texans.)

And here's the competition: Speaking of buzz, there's a lot of it surrounding the "lifestyle center" concept, and one of them is coming to Denton in a few years. It's called Rayzor Ranch, and it should--through its sheer size and location adjacent to I-35--provide healthy competition for both Fry Street Village and Golden Triangle Mall.

The End of an Era on Fry Street

In just a little more than thirty minutes after I've started this post, the Tomato will close the doors of its original Hickory and Fry location for good.

I went up there yesterday with some friends, and of course I took pictures:

View from across Fry St.

The traditional view from across Hickory
(And for a really old picture of that block, go here.)

It was pretty crowded inside the whole time we were there.

Headed out the door one last time.
Thinking back, I should've taken some pictures of the Graffiti Wall. There used to be murals along the wall in the non-smoking section where I often sat, and the most recent one was painted over a few months ago to allow patrons to sign their names and offer their memories, but as Becky, the co-owner, told me a few weeks ago, it sort of turned into something else entirely. Seeing as how I lack Mad Photoshop Skillz, I doubt I could've cleaned up a picture of the wall enough to use in this blog; some of what was written really was quite, umm, "interesting."

My favorite (clean) graffito carved into a table? "TOBIAS LOVES BROCOLI [sic]." That would also be a cool name for a rock band. My favorite (also clean) graffito from the wall itself? "ALL MY BASE ARE BELONG TO THE TOMATO." (Raise your hand if you knew that "graffiti" was plural and "graffito" was its singular. "Broccoli"--at least when spelled correctly--is also plural, with the singular being "broccolo," though my radio audience in college never could tell me if the singular form would apply to an entire stalk or each individual branch of said stalk. These are the kind of thing one thinks about in idle college moments...and a lot of those idle moments for me were spent at the Tomato.)

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
I couldn't disagree more with what the developers are doing to this historical block--an area which really has been a major part of the heart and soul of Denton. Perhaps nothing sums up my frustration with the whole thing better than the following sentence from this story in Friday's paper:

The company plans to tear down the existing strip center, built in the mid-1920s, and replace it with a retail center featuring 1920s-style architecture.

Got that? They're tearing down buildings from the '20s and replacing them with...umm, buildings that look like they were built in the '20s. Am I missing something here, or does that make no sense at all?

It sure seems like they could've gotten off on the right foot with the locals (and loyal alums like myself) by incorporating the original buildings into the new development and making room for some of the stalwart local businesses to join the new ones. But despite all the preservation efforts and petition drives, the developers decided to bow to the almighty dollar and nothing else.

They may yet regret that decision. I for one harbor not the slightest bit of enthusiasm for anything that gets built in this new project, and most of my friends who are current students feel the same way. I think I even convinced a future student to drive across town for his Starbucks--or patronize the local Kharma Cafe across the street (in the part of Fry Street that hasn't been targeted by "renewal"--yet) to satisfy his coffee jones, rather than visit the Starbucks that's supposed to be built in the new area. (Yes, I normally think that it's bad to indoctrinate college students with propaganda before they even start classes, but I'll happily make an exception in this case.)

As I finish this post (lengthened by the process of remembering how to get pictures off my phone), it nears midnight; the aforementioned doors are closing. So I will close this post as well, with three simple sentences:

Good night, Tomato. Thanks for the pizza and memories. I eagerly await your rebirth.

Beware the Ides of March

There's been an unfortunate development in the Save Fry Street saga:

The Tomato, the pizza restaurant long considered an iconic part of the eclectic Fry Street area, will be closing its doors soon.

Last week, owner Mike "Ski" Slusarski received word that he would need to be out of the building at the corner of Hickory and Fry streets by March 15.

The deadline followed the end of ongoing discussions between Slusarski and United Equities Inc. about the restaurant's move into the proposed Fry Street Village.

The Tomato was one of a number of businesses on the property to receive official eviction notices from the Houston-area developer in early January. The notices cited Jan. 31 as the final day, but an official with the development company indicated the firm would work with the businesses individually.

And when we had last checked in on the subject, the Tomato owners' son had posted a bulletin on the store's MySpace page saying that the store would likely be there until the end of the semester. Previous articles had also noted that the owners were negotiating with the developer of the future Fry Street Village to relocate within that development. So what happened?

Well...this happened:

Slusarski said initial conversations with the developer about relocating to the new development did not include downtime — time that his business would be closed. However, recent talks included the possibility of seven months between the time his current location would not be available and the proposed location at the proposed Fry Street Village would be ready.

“That doesn’t make any sense,” he said. “I can’t be out of business for seven months.”

No kidding. That's a bit too much to ask.

Another local Fry Street activist says that this behavior is par for the course with this developer:

“It is typical of UE’s [United Equities] strong-arm business tactics and not the first time they’ve used them in Denton,” wrote in e-mail Mike Cochran, former City Council member and Denton historian who has been working with Save Fry Street, an organization formed after the property sale to save historic portions of the retail area.

“They offer small business rent at exorbitant prices and when they balk, throw them out on the street with almost no notice. This is just pure punitive action to force a small businessman out of business because he wouldn’t ‘play ball’ with them,” Cochran wrote.

Read the whole thing. In the meantime, Slusarski is looking for another location (which he has to find in a little more than three weeks), and at this point, it's not likely to be within walking distance of campus, because there's simply nothing available. But count me in as one UNT alum who 1) will support the Tomato no matter where they go, and 2) has little desire to support any business in Fry Street Village, no matter how cool it might end up being. It's not always just about the almighty dollar; sometimes it has to do with keeping the character of a neighborhood intact, especially in a college town. United Equities doesn't seem to have learned that lesson yet.

UPDATE: More thoughts on the subject at the Save Fry Street site.

A Rumor I Don't Want to Be True

I was all set to do today's post until I read this in the blog of the Save Fry Street MySpace: Rumor has it that The Tomato has been given its eviction notice.

I know that the Tomato ownership has vowed to keep going, somewhere...and I know that, as was discussed here earlier, the Tomato remains in the developers' plans, probably on that new street they're going to build. But the point is, that stuff isn't built yet, and eviction notices usually mean that someone has a month to vacate. I really, really hope there isn't going to be any significant downtime for The Tomato.

I'll have more updates as soon as they're available.

UPDATE: The Save Fry Street website confirms the rumor, and I was right about the one-month deadline. I think a few trips to Denton are in my near future.

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: The Tomato management is negotiating with the property owners to extend the period before they have to move (via the Tomato's MySpace--yes, it has one, and you'd better believe it's my friend--and actual, live Tomato employees on Saturday).

Fry Street Plans Revealed

The developers have released the plans for the "new" Fry Street, and you can see them in this blog post from the Save Fry Street MySpace page. As you can imagine, the thing I don't care for is that the main corner of Hickory and Fry is populated by a drugstore (probably CVS, according to previous stories) instead of the Tomato (not to mention the fact that the drugstore and two proposed restaurants will have drive-thru windows, which doesn't seem to make the project very pedestrian-friendly).

There are more details in this Denton Record-Chronicle article, including a statement expressing the wish of the developers to move the Tomato to one of the buildings along the new street planned for the middle of the development, possibly with outside seating. The developers are also hoping to use reproductions of the '20s-style architecture to create a "village feel," which makes me wonder why they don't just do that by incorporating the actual old buildings into the development.

Please view the plans yourself and feel free to make comments (both here and at the MySpace, if you're a member).

Don't mess with granny: This isn't the first time we've seen a story like this. Over in Tyler, someone tried to carjack a 75-year-old woman at knifepoint while she was pumping gas. But as the assailant was leaving in her car, she opened the door and doused him with gasoline, which made it easy to identify him when the police caught up with him.

Bringing home the bacon, in a way: A Mississippi man was arrested for throwing a 60-pound pig over the counter at a Holiday Inn. Key quote: "[Police Lt.] McCaskill said there have been four late-night incidents involving animal-tossing at West Point businesses. Twice a pig was tossed and two of the incidents involved possums."

He'll never get to work the Rose Parade now: A driver in a South Carolina Christmas parade has been charged with driving a float while intoxicated.

Fry St. Update: It's Starting...

The first encounter between the Fry Street area and a bulldozer will take place in a few hours, when the buildings that formerly housed Mr. Chopsticks and Uncommon Grounds will be reduced to rubble. There's plenty more info in this post at SaveFryStreet.com. I for one am thankful that the Tomato is still in its original location (I'll be eating there tonight after the One O'Clock concert), but I really feel bad that the first of the old buildings will be going down.

UPDATE: There was a lot of coverage of this event the next day, which has been collected here. There's also a video of the demolition.

Buckeye bonanza, part 1: Students and alumni in Columbus, Ohio, were celebrating Ohio State's victory over Michigan this past weekend, and local authorities were celebrating the fact that only around 40 fires were set during those celebrations.

Buckeye bonanza, part 2: The final score of that Ohio State game had the Buckeyes on top, 42-39. Shortly after the game ended, the winning numbers in Ohio's Pick 4 lottery drawing were 4-2-3-9. Several lucky fans cashed in during the 45-minute window between the two events.

The Calendar Says Saturday, But Today Was Fry-day For Me

Ahh, the last few days of summer. Today was actually pretty productive, considering I slept in till almost eleven. The mission for today was to find a particular Aebersold recording (or its generic equivalent; more about genericization of brands in a post I'll probably do tomorrow). The hope was to find said recording at Pender's in Denton, thus having an excuse to make a Tomato run. So even after we found that Pender's didn't have the Aebersold, and we in fact got the generic equivalent locally...well, it was still a good day for a Tomato run.

As always, the pizza was great, and I managed not to do my traditional gaffe of spilling the garlic butter from the breadsticks on my shirt this time. The area wasn't very crowded, but give it just a little time; the dorms at UNT open tomorrow, so this time next week, the area will be absolutely packed with students. But with all the recent developments around this area, it really makes me wonder what the place will look like a year from now. And you'd better believe that I signed the Save Fry Street petition while I was there.

While on the subject--I doubt that anyone gets their Fry Street news exclusively through this site, but this seems like a good time for updates: Despite the fact that the new owner/developer, Buster Freedman of United Equities, had told the affected tenants that they wouldn't have to move until at least after August and September (a boon time for them, thanks to the returning college students) and maybe as long as the end of the year, we have now found out that several businesses (including Mr. Chopsticks and Cool Beans) have already been given eviction notices. According to this article in the Denton Record-Chronicle, the Save Fry Street activist group has issued a formal statement of regret regarding the developer's action.

“We are concerned that this will have a chilling effect on this successful local business and we believe this action does not serve Denton’s business or cultural interests and shows questionable commitment to the community in which they have chosen to set up shop,” said Jon Black in a press release from Save Fry Street. Black, of Austin, is a committee member of Save Fry Street and a University of North Texas alumnus.

So we'll see what happens with the rest of the block. In the meantime, I'll take as many Tomato runs as possible and hope that, whether the Tomato ends up as part of the new development or somewhere nearby, that the downtime won't be too long, if at all. (Read my first Fry Street post here; you may also like this recent article by a current UNT undergrad from the FW Weekly. Oh, and I found out today that the Tomato has a MySpace page. You'd better believe that I asked it to be my friend.)

We've had our pizza; now for dessert: Workers in a California chocolate factory discovered a collection of chocolate drippings that bears a resemblance to the Virgin Mary.

I wonder if he emerged in the shape of a relgious icon as well: A man in a Wisconsin factory had to be rescued after he became trapped in a vat of chocolate for over two hours.