Update: The shopping complex in Tyler TX that houses such places as Da Hippie and DragonBytes has gone through a massive renovation since this article. Bravo! (said in a snobby accent) The new commercial facility renovation looks great!
Over the past few years, I have been excited to watch the economic growth and expansion occurring in West Tyler. The west loop has seen numerous decayed and crime ridden businesses closed and the real estate sold to make room for legitimate, contributing entrepreneurs. We’ve seen the likes of Wingstop, Subway, Walgreens, Starbucks, Papa Murphy’s, and numerous others, set up shop along the west loop and sixty four. Even the west loop Wal-Mart, as messy and sometimes run-down as it is, has brought with it quite a bit of development since its arrival around five years ago. It all goes to validate the maxim that a rising tide lifts all boats, something most of our current political leaders have either forgotten, or chosen to ignore. The expansion also proves that a great way to foster healthy communities is to allow healthy individuals and businesses to succeed. Give people the opportunity to buy up infected areas and they will purge the corrupted property and bring in new dollars.
With this principle in mind, I must express a certain amount of disappointment that up until this point, the West Loop and thirty one has been largely left out of the recent renaissance. I’ve long been embarrassed by the look and content of thirty one west. It has been Tyler’s ugly back door for quite sometime. It has been, and remains my hope that the development of the Cascades and the new Airport will help buoy property values and bring improvements to this ugly highway.
When the developers do decide to take the plunge and move towards Chandler, I would like to suggest a few eyesores I eagerly await seeing bulldozed completely. I do not even care whether or not they are replaced with more reputable establishments… Well that’s not true, I do hope for improvements. However a pile of rubble is preferable to these businesses (and I use the term loosely). The originally named “Sports Club,”(once named the Unicorn Club), as well as close neighbors “Da Hippy” (I can barely contain my contempt as I type this), the “Dragon’s Byte,” (their spelling not mine) and the nondescript corner gas station, have long been a breeding ground for drug use, crime, third rate tattoo artists, and general filth. The real estate is located at the corner of thirty one and Greenbriar, where a healthier more upstanding business could potentially make a successful go of it. As developments like the Cascades expand toward highway thirty one, properties like the ones I mentioned could be a source of prosperity for some entrepreneurial risk taker. The day “Da Hippy” is bulldozed I’ll be there with popcorn to watch.