Keeping Drugs Off Main Street

By Don Rittner

Let's get right to the point. According to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, 16 communities in New York State have lost important historic structures to chain drugstores over the last two years. You can add the Capital District to the list if the recent trend continues here.

Eckerd wants to tear down a block of 19th century buildings across the Congress Street Bridge in Watervliet. Rite Aid tore down several in Schenectady at the corner of McClellan and Eastern Parkway a year ago. Eckerd also wants to tear down a historic school building in Albany. Of course you expect that in Albany. As one of the oldest cities in the country, it seems hell bent in destroying all evidence of that fact.

The bottom line here is people are moving back to the urban centers and the chain stores are following - which is good and bad.

There is no argument that Watervliet needs a good economic shot in the arm. I remember when the city had a downtown (for anyone under 30, it's now I-787). However, the choice of locations by these chain stores show an insensitivity to the historic integrity of the communities they want to locate in. CVS, Rite-Aid, Walgreen's and Eckerd are all part of this drugstore invasion into historic Main Street, USA. And these chains for the most part dictate the design and layout of their developments. What happened to forcing developers to fit into the character of the community? Who's calling the shots here?

If you need a reminder of unleashed, unregulated development, drive around Latham Circle for a few minutes.

The Watervliet proposal says that Eckerd will bring in as much tax revenue as it currently receives from the existing landowners. Really? Those 19th century business and residential buildings have been a revenue base for over 100 years. I wonder if that drugstore will still be in existence a century from now. Don’t bet on it. What happens when the profit margin doesn't meet expectations? The city will be left with an empty prefab ugly boxed eyesore as a grim reminder of fast buck commercialism obliterating the historic integrity of the city (what's left of it). I guess getting their historic downtown wiped out by DOT wasn't enough punishment? And don’t forget that there already is a Eckerd drug store about 500 feet south of this proposed one. What happens to that store when the new one is built? We know the answer don’t we?

Why are these drug store chains attempting to sell everything under the sun? I go to a drug store for, well, for drugs when I need them. I don't shop there for a camera or clothing. Part of the Eckerd plan is for a drive thru? This isn’t Clifton Park. "Let's see, I'll have roll of Kodachrome, one Goldenberg's Peanut Chews, gallon of milk, and a 10 day supply of penicillin, thank you."

Sprawl Busters, an organization that tracks these issues has documented at least half a dozen or more locations in Toledo, Ohio where Rite Aid proposed the "demolition of older, sometimes historic buildings, in order to build their prototype 11,000 square feet box, complete with drive thru."

Sprawl Busters goes on to say that a Rite Aid official told people in Toledo, "You have the advent of managed care which overlays the whole picture here, which forces down profit margins at pharmacies, requiring a larger front end to make the thing profitable."

Translated in English Sprawl Busters says that means, "the profit margin on drugs is not great enough for Rite Aid, so they have to build bigger stores with more non-drug "front end' products. This is being done for the convenience of the company, not for the customer. It's all profit-driven, not need driven."

The National Trust for Historic Preservation listed the drug store invasion on ‘Main Street’ in their Annual Top 11 Most Endangered Historic Places in the U.S. for 1999.

Sprawl Busters notes that not all these drug stores get in without a fight.

Last month the residents of historic Olde Towne Marion, Ohio expressed their opposition to Rite Aid. They want to abandon two older stores in downtown and build a brand new store by tearing down five historic buildings. Rite Aid admits that the city would see no net job gain, since the employees at the new store would be transferred from the old ones.

Rite Aid was stopped in the Elmwood neighborhood of Buffalo recently when they wanted to put a 12,000 square foot store and a 42-car parking lot. They sued the city for turning them down but lost.

In May, the "Rite Is Wrong" citizens' boycott a Rite Aid if built. Since the town only has 8,300 people, it convinced the company it wasn't a good business risk and pulled out.

In the Five Points area of Athens, Georgia, businesses and residents are battling Eckerd's attempt to build a superstore there.

Nearby Madison forced Rite Aid to build their store in accordance with city regulations dictating that buildings must be "architecturally compatible with the city's older structures." This was a result of a 150-page Madison Historical Preservation Construction Plan prepared by the city after a Hardees was built in their historic district and abandoned two years later. As a planner said in a newspaper article (Athens Daily News), "You have to tell these businesses how they can look if you want to keep the look of your town." "We are known for looking like Madison, not looking like every other city. If you let these larger chain businesses come in and not check them, they will have you looking like every other town."

And that brings me to my main point. Every community has their own individual identity based on their history. By preserving this history it sets the community off from the rest of the world showcasing the people and events that made that community what it is. This homogenization of our downtown destroys the unique quality and character and separates us from our past. Homogenization is good for milk but not for historic tourism. Find me someone who visits a city because it has an Eckerd's or McDonald's and I'll show you someone who needs therapy.

How about a little imagination folks? Eckerd or the others could rehab the Quackenbush Building on Third and Broadway, have their drive thru in the alley, and rent out the top floors of the building for offices, high tech start ups, or even fancy apartments - and SAVE a historic building. Gee, wouldn't that be different?

1999 Don Rittner