There has been a great deal of talk about this issue. Here's one of the arguments. 

GettyImages-Stephen Yang
GettyImages-Stephen Yang
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So there is a potential situation brewing that has the Mandan City Commission getting ready to begin the process of developing the Central Market Property and the Thrifty White Drug property into a possible event space designed to bring foot traffic to downtown Mandan.

Obviously, the word on the street is that local businesses oppose the project for fear the opposite might happen, and they will lose customers to the new and sleek event space.

Normally I would agree with that if it were apples to apples,  a city-run Bar competing with a private run one. For this situation though, whereas the venue in question is developing something to create foot traffic in a place where there is none, I find it hard to be against something like that.

I think it might come down to the organization of the businesses though. If there is a way to develop almost like a merchant organization that everyone has a stake in whereas the sole purpose is to keep everyone informed and prevent cannibalization. I think if that exists and the owners have more of an updated view of whats going on it might prevent some miscommunication and overall opposition.

There probably is an organization that currently exists for those businesses, if there isn't one though, that might be a thought.

I truly don't think the city wants to hurt businesses that already exist, they just want the area to be bigger and better and that communication is getting lost in translation. 

 

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