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CITY PA GES
BAXTER STREET BLUES
From Milledge to Alps, one of
Athens’ major commercial
strips is sick. Business
owners, residents and
experts talk about the illness
and the possible cures.
THE STREET
Professor John C. Waters, UGA School of
Environmental Design: “Baxter Street, as 1
understand it, was extended in (the early
1960s] from Rocksprings to Hawthorne.
There was a big push for development; they
extended Baxter through a pasture where it
provided an entrance to Beechwood
Shopping Center and a reason for Alps
Shopping Center to develop. In the 1960s, it
really was Athens’ ‘restaurant row.’ Now
there are so many other choices when it
comes to restaurants."
Mayor Gwen O’Looney: “Baxter is one of
the best examples of a street I can give you
that has grown in a way that is not attractive
to development. The area is not aesthetically
pleasing, it’s filled with high transience in
business. There are large entities that don’t
have commercial appeal.”
The Atlanta Journal and Constitution
Magazine, October /, 1972: “Strip zoning has
bequeathed to the city (of Athens] a maze of
goth-iek wishbone arches and Steamboat
Gondola pizza parlor architecture, to nestle
in the shadows of lovely old Greek Revival
houses.”
THE VACANCIES
Vacant: 1054 Baxter St. Vacant: former El
Azteca building. Vacant. 1080 Baxter St., for
merly The Sicilian restaurant. Vacant former
Gibson’s One-Hour Cleaners. Vacant: 1086
Baxter Street. Vacant: former King Buffet
j China Restaurant. Vacant 1035 Baxter St.,
| formerly Phoenix Electronics Vacant 1044
I Baxter St., formerly Compton and Shivar
Office Supplies. Vacant former Springhouse
Barbecue building. Plans for a new restau
rant at the old Springhouse site are rumored.
THE TIME WARP
Art Jackson, director, Downtown
Development Authority: “The aging [commer
cial] strips are facing the very same thing
the downtowns were going through in the
‘60s and ‘70s. They need some attention.”
Sander Heilig, for two decades owner of
DaVinci's Pizza-ln-A-Pan on Baxter (he recent
ly sold the business, but is still landlord of the
building, which was originally a Bonanza
Steakhouse): “Baxter Street is caught in a
time warp between the more historical
downtown being preserved and the brand-
new, corporate-minded sprawl that’s taking
place outside of the county.
“Developers make money by developing,
not by renovating. We don’t need more
apartments, but they need big projects.
They need the next big thing, thereby turn
ing the older (parts of the city] over to
decay.”
THE CRIME
In December, an armed robbery of
DaVinci’s Pizza was narrowly foiled. In
March, Sander Heilig and other businesspeo
ple along Baxter met with police and spoke
about crime and other issues affecting the
area. Increased lighting was cited as possibly
helping the problem. New, more powerful
lights have since been installed. In April, the
daily papers reported that 41 incident
reports were filed on the Baxter strip in the
first three months of 1998.
Sander HeUig, on crime coverage of Baxter
Street: “It can’t just be the focus. They’re just
missing a lot of the point. If they keep writing
about [crime] only, people will feel it’s not
safe to go out.”
Victoria Pate, Republican candidate for
mayor “I go to the Eckerd’s on Baxter all of
the time, so 1 travel down there. I just have
to lock my car, unfortunately.”
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22, 1998