Progress

Mid-City Lanes owner John Blancher in the T-P this morning on the replacement of Thrift City and Union Supermarket with a Nike store:

Blancher, for his part, is a little wary of gentrification. He regrets the demise of the building's former tenants, a Thai restaurant, a Latin grocery store and a thrift clothing outlet that all succumbed to Katrina, but he conceded that the new owners had made vast improvements to a building in need of them even before the storm pushed seven feet of water inside.

"To the bohemians, it was perfect," Blancher said of the old shopping center. "To the average person going out shopping, it didn't fill the needs that a Clearview or a Lakeside Shopping Center does."

Ain't recovery inspiring?