Anthony Martinez: Seeing is believing, Merced’s retail health is failing

As I watch another prominent business vacate a premier location in Merced, I cannot help but feel a little disdain for the message administrators and elected officials have presented to the people of Merced. According to the Sun-Star, the director of economic development for the city informed the media the new Starbucks on 16th and MLK did not indicate the Starbucks on Main Street would close. Now that it has, he is quoted as saying, “that’s pretty consistent with what Starbucks is doing, at least in our type of market.”

Last spring, during a city council meeting, the public was enthusiastically informed about the developments of Les Schwabb Tires and America’s Tire Store, but wasn’t told that within two weeks of those announcements Hometown Buffet and Sweet River would close for good. A cynical man would question the integrity of any economic message coming from city officials. But rather than accuse, I will ask: How much longer should we be expected to trust our leaders when we are given one message, yet our eyes perceive another?

Maybe for some, things have improved. But don’t the people of Merced deserve progress that we can all see?

This story was originally published September 19, 2016 at 5:39 PM with the headline "Anthony Martinez: Seeing is believing, Merced’s retail health is failing."