Welcome

First, welcome to Newburyport Blog readers who haven't visited before. I hope you stop by frequently.

Second, thanks to The Newburyport Blogger Mary Eaton giving the Posts a shout out in her latest blog.

I hope you do check out the Karp interview mentioned in the blog item below. I really do wish he'd sit down and have a similar chat with someone here in Newburyport. (He talked with a Globe reporter two years ago. Here's the link for those who haven't seen it.)

But you folks should know that I might have a bit of a different take on Karp and the waterfront than some . If this causes you never to visit again, I'm sorry. I hope you'd stick around to tell me what a knucklehead I am. I've got an open mind that can be changed.

Mary's lament about the loss of affordable shops downtown is dead on. But I just feel that horse left the barn a very long time ago. And I don't think I'm alone in thinking this way.

There are some excellent clothing stores run by terrific business owners downtown selling very nice merchandise. I have, on one or two occassions, broke the bank for a particulary nice sports coat or other specialty item. But I just can't afford to pay those prices, particularly when I know The Boy will smear ketchup and/or peanut butter on them the second I put them on.

I do shop downtown when I can--books, cheese, beer, bread and I'm sure there are some other things I'm forgetting (coffee from PI Roasters, of course.) I also buy all meats, vegetables from our local farmstands like Tendercrop. So I am definitely a buy local guy when I can be.

But can a small business owner can run a shop that sells me clothes at the prices I'm willing to pay. (I'm pretty cheap when it comes to jeans and shirts. I'll pay a little more for shoes because I commute to work on my extra wide feet everyday.) I don't see many of those around in any community.

If such a business came to town, I'd shop there exclusively. But I wonder if the only way we're going to get an affordable clothing store downtown is by welcoming a few larger chains. And by welcoming those chains do we honor the Master Plan, which Mary says calls for socio-economic diversity? As I said in an earlier post, I like Portsmouth's downtown.

I'm sure we'll hit upon this in the future, but if someone wants to take the time to offer a counter comment please do.

p.s. I also visited JL Coombs and found a pair of shoes that I own and therefore like. The price was a little higher than what I'd paid at the Kittery Trading Post, but not high enough to keep me from buying my next pair there to save on gas, tolls and time. In fact, I'd say the price--for this particular shoe--was comparable to similar shoes sold at Hymans. I'm told there are shoes completely out of my stratosphere, so maybe I was unwittingly slumming.