Blast Furnace Pizza

Yesterday, my son and I went to Blast Furnace Pizza. Had passed it several times but never stopped to check it out. We were hungry and in the mood for a pizza so we thought we'd give it a try. Got the deluxe and wasn't bad. Sat up by the front windows to get a view of the Central Ave. traffic going by. Surprised, quite frankly, at the volume of traffic on Central during our visit. Don't know if most cars were actually shopping down there or just "passing through" on their way to other parts of town. Little foot traffic though. Went to the "50's" store across the street from the pizza shop as well. Non vintage guitars and amps coupled with some over priced record albums found there. Perhaps ten people walking the sidewalks in our hour visit. Some on this forum had suggested that I come on down as they know I am a major critic of the downtown effort (or lack of effort) so I finally took them up on the offer. Despite the decent experience at the pizza shop, I still see a major lack of interest as evidenced by the amount of foot traffic during a Saturday afternoon on the main drag through downtown. There is still a huge void in the climate as to attraction despite the long term, ultra focused attempts at revitalization. I see good effort from some upstart business owners in their attempts to occupy space but, quite frankly, given the time it took and the millions spent on injecting life in the downtown, I have to give the downtown effort rating a D with a C- being the best I could envision at this point. When I read some stories, particularly from the ever-embellishing Journal writers, that the downtown is "on the verge of greatness", or other colorful conjecture, I have to wonder what it is they are looking at. Yesterday, I saw only a fraction of the success that has been talked about down there. Give it time you say? It's been how long now to get to what I saw yesterday?......a decade plus perhaps?

By the way, I couldn't help but notice on the way down Central to the pizza shop, the huge empty lot void created by the Studio elimination. Did notice the Liberty Spirits building behind and to the right of the location though. Also noticed the non activity there as well. Yet another hole along Central Ave to add to the feeling of the bombed out, desolation look of abandonment. It is not a good look if this is the entryway to the core area around Central and Broad St.