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Gauging city’s commercial appeal Opinions vary on ways to bring businesses to downtown DeKalb By JILLIAN DUCHNOWSKI jduchnowski@shawmedia.com
and DAVID THOMAS dthomas@shawmedia.com DeKALB – Commercial real estate agent Ralph Crafton figures the former Al’s Furniture shop would make a great attorney’s office or retail store – something that doesn’t require a lot of parking. The 2,400-square-foot space at 255 E. Lincoln Highway has been vacant for almost a year and a half, Crafton said. A bridal shop had considered leasing the space, which is next to
the Golden Thai Jasmine restaurant, but the deal fell through. “It’s pretty much a vanilla shell,” Crafton said. “It’s just a clear space. It’s ready for someone to do a build out, put partitions in it.” By real estate broker Mike Carpenter’s estimation, the space is one of 20 available in downtown DeKalb, including second-floor office spaces. Although city officials and Re:New DeKalb leaders are updating the downtown development plan, some local real estate brokers say there is little city officials can do to fill those spaces quicker.
Voice your opinion Where should DeKalb officials focus most on economic development? Let us know at Daily-Chronicle.com
“It’s not DeKalb as a whole that’s really suffering. Central business districts have, as a whole, high vacancy rates,” said Carpenter, of RVG Commercial. “We’ve moved away from central business centers from grocery anchors and retail centers. ... It’s tough to get good anchors in
the central business district.” Carpenter said businesses that work well in downtown DeKalb are variations of the ones that are already there – professional service businesses, boutique retail stores, ethnic restaurants and nightlife venues. “That seems to be working pretty well,” Carpenter said. “But we have vacancies on Route 23. The economy is still soft. It’s tougher for smaller businesses to make ends meet.” He encouraged city leaders to find economic incentives, besides the existing tax increment financing district, to bring businesses downtown
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without relying on state support. “The bottom line is, you have to have jobs,” Carpenter said. “You need businesses that can make a profit. If they can employ people downtown, that will give people a reason to go downtown. You create traffic in the downtown area, people will spend money.” Paul Miller, owner of Adolph Miller Real Estate, figures small-business owners and would-be entrepreneurs need better access to loans that would support ventures downtown.
See APPEAL, page A8
Global warming goes to extremes Studies show less snow, more blizzards By SETH BORENSTEIN The Associated Press
Kyle Bursaw – kbursaw@shawmedia.com
Victor Obijuru (front row from left), Brenda Lara and Lee Vaughn calculate interest on a problem given to them by instructor Julie Axelsen (back) during a GED class focused on math Monday at Westminster Presbyterian Church in DeKalb. By JEFF ENGELHARDT
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jengelhardt@shawmedia.com MALTA – At 50 years old, Paula Goral is only one test away from realizing her dream of obtaining a General Educational Development certificate. But that dream could hit a setback if Goral does not pass the math component of the GED program by the end of this year. The GED will get a makeover in 2014, and students partially through the program will have to start from the beginning in the new format if they fail to finish the five required tests. For students such as Goral, starting over would mean higher costs, as the price for testing will increase from $50 to $120 plus a $10 charge to
For information on GED testing and classes, visit kishwaukeecollege.edu/adult_ education or call 815-825-2086, ext. 3180. receive the certificate. It would also mean a new curriculum to fall in line with Common Core standards being implemented at high schools and testing performed exclusively through computers – an uncomfortable change for Goral. “There is some anxiety for the older generation when it comes to taking tests on a computer,” she said. “I’m not very good with them.”
See GED, page A8
Kyle Bursaw – kbursaw@shawmedia.com
Julie Axelsen, instructor for a GED class focused on math, goes over answers to review problems during class Monday at Westminster Presbyterian Church in DeKalb.
WASHINGTON – With scant snowfall and barren ski slopes in parts of the Midwest and Northeast the past couple of years, some scientists have pointed to global warming as the culprit. Then when a whopper of a blizzard smacked the Northeast with more than 2 feet of snow in some places earlier this month, some of the same people again blamed global warming. How can that be? It’s been a joke among skeptics, pointing to what seems to be a brazen contradiction. But the answer lies in atmospheric physics. A warmer atmosphere can hold, and dump, more moisture, snow experts say. And two soon-to-be-published studies demonstrate how there can be more giant blizzards, yet less snow overall each year. Projections show that’s likely to continue with man-made global warming. Consider: • The United States has been walloped by twice as many of the most extreme snowstorms in the past 50 years than in the previous 60 years, according to an upcoming study on extreme weather by leading federal and university climate scientists. This also fits with a dramatic upward trend in extreme winter precipitation – both rain and snow – in the Northeastern U.S. charted by the National Climatic Data Center.
See GLOBAL WARMING, page A8
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