When it opened, the block had a laundromat, a tire shop, and four empty storefronts. Six years later there are eleven businesses on the same block and none of the original vacancies remain.
The restaurant did not set out to do this and its owners are uneasy about the credit. What they did was stay open, hire locally, and pay their suppliers on time — which turns out to be a more reliable engine of neighborhood change than most development plans.
The complication is the one that always follows. Rents on the block have roughly doubled, and two of the businesses that arrived early have already been priced out.
