While reading Wolf’s Brick & Mortar Rent Meltdown, Manhattan Style , I noticed in the comments:
Sporkfed Nov 27, 2019 at 9:10 pm
Storefront Churches tend to signal the end.
I was ready to get all huffy and offended… but you know, the man has a point.
The bottom of a retail block tends to be signaled by storefront churches and liquor stores. (“Halloween shops” are also mentioned in the comments.)
If the churches do their jobs — *glare* — then the liquor stores get squeezed out with new and better tenants, catering to better clientele (see “the churches doing their job.”)
Of course, the storefront churches get pushed out next: but that’s a price to be cheerfully paid. Especially as the now cleaned-up, sober, and family oriented locals can afford a proper church building (however small).
Admittedly, I would prefer to have just a massive home church network without expensive mortgages: “when the building goes up, church growth goes away”.
