Another one bites the dust

I must admit I’m a tad conflicted right now.

A couple of weeks ago I took Kyle’s 2018 Community Survey and, as I recall, question No. 7 asked "What specific stores and restaurants would you like to see in Kyle?" I don’t remember my exact answer to this question. Last year I replied to a similar question that I would love to have a Container Store here in Kyle. The Container Store located closest to us is across US 183 from the Arboretum in North Austin. That’s 32 miles away — 37-minute drive time if there’s no traffic. Not insurmountable, by any stretch of the imagination, but not exactly convenient either.

But when I think about it, I realize that just about anything I want from the Container Store I can purchase on-line without ever having to leave my home, without having to deal with the traffic. Then I recall what I wrote about Kyle’s Christmas period sales tax receipts taking a severe hit and attributing it to the likelihood that more and more Kyle shoppers are purchasing goods on-line. I mean, you can even get home delivery of your groceries.

Then, in today’s Austin American-Statesman I read where Toys "R" Us is making preparations to close all their stores, at least all their U.S. stores.

And this got me to wondering whether Kyle is seeking 20^th Century solutions to 21^st Century problems. Are brick and mortal retail outlets what Kyle should be working toward or what local shoppers really want?

The same is true when it comes to transportation. There are those in Kyle who are demanding mass transportation options when our neighbors to the north, who, in Cap Metro, have a well-evolved mass transportation infrastructure in place, but one that is steadily losing ridership. Here we are, entering an era when most transportation experts are predicting driverless cars will dominate our roadways, and there are those still wondering why we don’t have bus or rail service.

Council members were briefed, during the executive session at the most recent City Council meeting, on the progress of negotiations involving four economic development opportunities, dubbed "Project Maria," "Project Electric Light," Project Last Mile," and "Project Purple Mountain." Three different sources, all of whom obviously wish to remain anonymous, have told me one of those has the potential to be "a real game changer" for the city. The first three of those projects have appeared on a number of recent agendas ("Project Purple Mountain" recently replaced one with the codename "Project Caribbean Dream.")

With Toys "R" Us being the latest in a long line of retail/restaurant outlets to bite the dust, here’s hoping this "real game changer" is not a brick-and-mortar store or restaurant like one the city asked about in its survey, but a significant employment center, something that could go a long way toward solving those transportation concerns as well as generating a major new source of municipal revenue.

Yep. The more I think about, the more I realize that the last thing we need here is a Container Store — that question No. 7 is not the one the City should be asking.