The Emerson Valley of now and the one ten years ago look very different from each other in one key area: Main Street. Our town saw a whirlwind of redevelopment as small businesses were pushed out to make way for big corporate superstores. Most of the original buildings that lined Main Street are gone, as they needed to be knocked down for the superstores and their parking lots. Residents are split on the matter—some appreciate the convenience while others miss the more friendly, small-town atmosphere of yesteryear.

City Council member Deborah Johnson has just proposed a new bill that would seek to redesignate a portion of Main Steet for the use of small businesses only. The northern stretch of the downtown area around Van Sutton Park would preserve the few remaining buildings and build new ones in a similar size and style of the ones that previously occupied those lots. Her new bill has seen significant support from her fellow City Councilors, but there has been strong resistance from the mayor’s office.

“It’s absurd!” Mayor Anthony Faulk was overheard shouting during a closed-door meeting with his advisors. “We just spent all that money building that damn Costco, and now they want to take away valuable real estate so they can spend more money to build shops nobody’s going to use?!”

Mayor Faulk was instrumental in luring the major superstores to Emerson Valley after decades of their overtures being rebuffed. He convinced residents that allowing big businesses to push out small businesses meant they could do all their shopping in one place and pay a fraction of the price as at the mom and pop shops. It was meant to stimulate the economy and stabilize it at a healthy level. Unfortunately, reality has not quite met those expectations.

“What good is paying lower prices if the average income of our citizens has dropped exponentially,” Ms. Johnson said during a debate over the bill. “These superstores put so many of our people out of business that half the jobs in town disappeared overnight. The limited number of jobs offered by these big businesses don’t pay more than minimum wage, while those mom and pop shops that were forced out paid almost twice that.”

For years, the mayor’s office and local investment groups had gained serious momentum in their efforts to hand the town over to the highest bidder. Residents appeared to be of the same mind. But Councilor Johnson has worked hard to offer another route to prosperity. Her efforts in coordinating small businesses, community services, and local interest groups has given her a deep insight into the needs of our people. She’s managed to convert many to her side, which has sent the mayor’s office into a tailspin.

When Mayor Faulk couldn’t stop Councilor Johnson by having more appealing policies, he resorted to a concerted smear campaign against her. Their preferred tactic is to push out so many outrageous lies at one time that it becomes a full-time job to refute them all. These underhanded political tricks were a staple of the early Faulk regime, but they went largely unnoticed due to the collusion of the local media. This includes former staff members of the Emerson Valley Gazette.

“I’m not trying to get rid of these superstores,” Ms. Johnson said during her bill proposal. “I just want to carve out a bit of space to regain a bit of that small-town charm we lost. Costco, Walmart, Food Lynx—they’ll all still be there. But do we really need more of them? Wasn’t the whole idea that you could do all your shopping in one place? Why not offer an alternative, so those who don’t mind paying a bit more for locally-sourced food or handcrafting items can have somewhere to shop too?”

-Quinn Paxton, Acting Editor-in-Chief, Emerson Valley Gazette