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Thursday, October 20, 2011

Salisbury University Killing Local Restaurants In Salisbury Area

"At Salisbury University's The Commons this semester, dinner is served with themes as delicious and varied as the cuisine of Oaxaca, Mexico; the Chesapeake; France and even the Renaissance.

You can come out and enjoy a themed dinner at The Bistro in a university setting, with additional dining choices available in The Marketplace, which is adjacent."
The Daily Times put out an article yesterday that has created quit the stir.

While pretty much every single restaurant owner would LOVE to get this kind of FREE PRESS, ALL of them are subjected to extremely expensive advertising.

You see Folks, there was an initial agreement between the City and SU referencing the Commons Restaurant. The deal was, only people associated with SU, Alumni, employees, students, etc. were to be allowed to dine in this TAX FREE environment.

The key problem here is that SU made a promise it refuses to keep. The big question is, will the Mayor have the stones to not only make them accountable, will he make them stop such marketing tactics and shut them down to the public. A deal is a deal and this is why my hat is tipped to Tim, Terry & Debbie for stoping the old Fire Station 16 deal.

The Comons agreed they would NOT compete against local restaurants and they should be held to such. As all of you are aware, this is an extremely difficult economy and MANY restaurants have been forced to close their doors in the past two years and it could get even worse.

The loss of ANY business is not only critical to the restaurant owners, it's critical to the local economy. If you keep closing down locally owned restaurants it means NO tax revenue. If SU continues to compete and put other businesses out of business, THEY, (SU) PAY NO TAXES! Their overhead for employees is NOTHING like what other tax paying restaurants are paying and the trickle down effect is more costly than most would understand.

Contact Mayor Ireton and your City Council Members at ALLCityCouncilMembers@ci.salisbury.md.us and Mayor Ireton at jireton@ci.salisbury.md.us and STOP Salisbury University from devistating the local economy.

New Posts to fall below.

28 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very interesting post. I just had a young man come into my office passing out menus for a South Salisbury restaurant. He asked if I had any suggestions for said restaurant. I made a suggestion and he proceeded to tell me I could get what I was searching for at the SU commons for a very reasonable price.

Anonymous said...

You are such a narc

Anonymous said...

Free Market at work.

Anonymous said...

Who's surprised here?
The government (State & Federal)do not want small business owners to exist. This is a very effective way to accomplish that.

Anonymous said...

I hadn't thought about it like that Joe. I will send them an e mail right now.

Anonymous said...

Joe you make some great points. Just wondering what local dinning establishments have close that were not in trouble before the economy went south.

Anonymous said...

When are we going to stop the immigrants from running all kinds of businesses tax free? Then once their “tax free” time is up, they sign it over to a relative. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind them coming here. We are all immigrants from somewhere. But speak English and live by the same laws we do.

Anonymous said...

The times gave an interview to SU for their dinner programs. What the local restaurants who do pay for advertizing should pull their advertizing..it really dont seem fail to advertize for one and not the other. As usual the Times dont see the forest for the trees.

We eat local and purchase local as much as possisble.

Anonymous said...

We sit back and thought this morning about SU and their advertizing. We the tax payers have bought and paid for the building that well equipped kitchen, the people who work there. NOW we have to contend with SU working against local taxpayers. We paid for all this once.
The local restaurants may not have closed their doors BUT we have cut back the amount of food served, less of a menu and hired less people.
Being SU is non porfit do they charge sales tax and do they fall under the extra 10 cent a drink to raise money for the state???Just wondering

Anonymous said...

SSU, has been having themed dinner menu's every fall for awhile now, it is usually one night and approxiematley 5 to 10 dinner themes. So my question is, why this year everyone seems so upset. The dinners have always been advertised in the paper or the "Go" magazine. Why is it a problem now and not all the years past. Just asking

Joseph Albero said...

anonymous 1:02, are you really that stupid?

The ARTICLE talks about the impact SU is having on local restaurants, (unfairly) and how this impacts the local economy.

To answer your stupid question however is, there has never been a Salisbury News out there willing to CHALLENGE places like SU.

You seem to be very deep in the know on this matter, since you express how long they've been doing this, like any one person in Salisbury would have known, NOT.

Perhaps you are also the same person dropping the last 10 rejected comments by me. I let this one through because I want others to know SU is in a CYA mode.

Anonymous said...

1:02 sounds like someone from the Daily Times. Maybe even the author of the article.

Anonymous said...

I guess I never thought about it because the UMES restaurant equivalent to The Commons is also open to the public.

Anonymous said...

Had no idea about this!! Thanks for the news----they should be ashamed of themselves!!!! Politics!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

@ 3:07

Guess there is no politics behind this article either? Check the advertising on the side you are bound to find a LORA association.

Anonymous said...

FYI - You know where Rolly Poly is located. Well the next time you sit down to eat at that establishment - try and remember that SU paid more than $300,000 over the appraised price for the former shopping center that was located at that location.

Great Coverage Joe. It's about time people were informed about what is going on around here.

Anonymous said...

Much to do about nothing. You people need to get a life.

Anonymous said...

Not sure if what SU is doing here is right or wrong but can you imagine how terrible this city would be without the college and all it brings? People love to give it a hard time but it is probably the best thing we've got.

Anonymous said...

LOL, no I am not that stupid, but thanks, I am alwyas looking for things to do, and by reading various papers, magazines etc, every fall, SSU has advertised themed dinners on a friday night usually from say 5 to 8 pm, SSU has always been a state entity, and tax exempt, being That ssu has been doing these types of dinners every fall for a while, I just wanted to know why is every one upset this year and not lets say 5 years ago, I am just asking, wow, do we have a tude today, take a deep breath and relax is was just a question little dude.

Thanks for thinking I am stupid

Anonymous said...

Tax dollars used to squeeze private sector business's, more liberal Socialism.

Balanced Libra said...

I've attended a couple of these themed dinners over the past couple of years. They usually come with a cultural show at the same time.

I go out a couple of times a week, all year. I've attended 2 of these dinners in a year. Are the local restaurants really losing out on that much when these dinners are only 1 time per month or so, usually only during the fall semester?

Anonymous said...

They serve dinners every day for a low price...Prime rib dinner $12.50 How many restaurants can serve this and make profit? none..SU dont have to make a profit because we the taxpayers have already paid for evrything and still paying.

The government is like walmart...put the little businesses out of business.
When there is no tax base maybe everyone will wake up.

Anonymous said...

What would we do without the college here. We would have less underage drinking, less loud parties. We would need less policemen in a consolidated area.
Would have less thefts. Less childdren roaming the neighborhoods at 2 AM.
Why dont we close it and find out if we are better off or now.??

SU does what they want and dont pay attention to who it hurts. Its always been that way. You cant fight city hall OR can we.

We eat local and it is not at the college.

Anonymous said...

Joe Thank you for keeping up with happenings which we will not hear about anyhere else. Keep up the great work.

Anonymous said...

Well you know Joe, the rich still need somewhere to go where the common folk don't eat with there lower taxed income.

Anonymous said...

The mayor has no stones. Haven't you heard?

Anonymous said...

831 please tell me that you are being sarcastic....otherwise are you crazy?! Shut down the college to have "less underage drinking, less loud parties"? Yeah and don't forget less people to do just about every job except fast food restaurants and department store cashiers. Think before you speak! That college is the best thing that is in Salisbury. And we are supposed to shut it down to lessen underage drinking and loud parties? Give me a damn break. Where would they go to school then? Face it, a college is a necessity in this day in time. Would they go to Wor-Wic? I've been to Wor-Wic, graduated in fact, and that place isn't even close to being in the same league with SU. If you shut that school down people are going to leave. Talk about brain drain. In short, anyone who even suggests closing that school should do us all a favor and sit down and shut up.

Anonymous said...

Joe:

Why didn't you go after Pollitt instead of Ireton -- both the Commons and many of the LORA restautants are outside the City limits, but all (or almost all, I'm not sure) of them are in the County. And Pollitt was O'Malley's campaign manager last year.

Any why not hit Comway and Mathais for letting it continue year after year, when they could do a state law to stop it?

Maybe Mike McDermott is the one to blow the whistle on this situation.