Mr Smith et al should pool their $ and buy the bank owned Tilted Kilt on Warner west of Kyrene and give their vision a go!

You are spot on my friend, this is yet another example of people with no business acumen dictating to business people and playing to the city council who merely pandering for votes to get reelected.They are breaking their own laws when they don’t follow the zoning established by the city.If they get sued enough times they will be forced to respect the commercial zoning.

I don’t know what is exactly Mr. Smith saying, but it sounds terribly Elitist
What the hell is “Character”
They are replacing a dirty and poorly managed Gas Station with terrible service and full of Junk with a newer car service that will create new jobs. Do you also want to get rid of Discount Tire?
Please get a job, too much free time for nothing

There was a Triple A full service auto body shop with propane tanks, free air and a gas station there for the whole 17 years I’ve lived here. No one has mentioned that as a comparison or complained but I sure wish they were still there. I could go to Bashas, a local chain, Walgreens, a mammoth chain, and the gas station in two stops. An oil change place isn’t as good but it will shut down at 7 or 8 every day and be closed on Sundays. Talk about noise, there’s a Discount Tire which doesn’t really fit the neighborhood either, but I can walk or bike home while waiting for my car. I appreciate their business. Verizon has a store where I don’t think they belong but it’s better than the blighted 7-11 that operated in that building for years. There’s a successful Garcias chain restaurant in a spot where multiple restaurants failed. I like their happy hour and see many families enjoying parties and events in their spacious patio. This spring H&R block had an office where I had my taxes prepared. High turn business that spewed traffic onto Warner and McClintock. I found it to be very convenient and hope they come back next year.

I’m glad that two reputable businesses, maybe not ones I would personally hand pick, are moving in. It would have been almost financially impossible to retrofit an aged bank building into a new business. Better a business than a vacant, decaying building. There was no way to recycle the auto shop and gas station. They were too small in light of the gigantic QT-size stations necessary to turn a profit. There is not enough room or long term parking spots available to accommodate a second sit down restaurant where Raising Canes is going. People linger too long and everyone would have parked in the convenient Bashas coveted spaces which could potentially drive them out of business. They made a huge investment a few years back when they did an extensive remodel. I would hate to lose them to a wine bar. I am thinking that Raising Canes will drive more business to the hair salon, Bashas and Starbucks. Chicken fingers for the kids and a latte for mom.

My preference would be a gas station and ice cream shop but I don’t run the City who make appropriate zoning decisions or have the cash funds to run a business of my own. That takes millions in investment money. If you are a complainer and have that type of money why have you not submitted a bid for a one of a kind, stand-alone brick and mortar, low profit margin business? These two companies have the dollars and followed the requirements, fair and square and have been approved to operate from what I understand. The traffic levels, noise and chain”fit” won’t be any different than it is right now. I won’t be joining the complaining masses. Reason being is that three months into their grand openings no one will notice these businesses weren’t there the whole time. And if they close and something new comes in, someone will complain about the loss to the neighborhood.