In a special State Street supplement, contributing writer Tim Kelley notes the ambivalence among retailers regarding the seven-year-old State Street Mall's success. Pic-A-Book proprietor and State Street Merchants Association president Dan Waisman - who allows that the mall has helped his own business - assails the city's failure to provide adequate parking. He also blames mall construction for hastening an exodus of longtime merchants and an influx of national chains that make the thoroughfare less eclectic. "Some people believe this street is paved in gold, and it's not," says Waisman. He sells Pic-A-Book in 1996 to employee Alvin Hishinuma, who closes it four years later. Other State Street casualties since 1989 include Kosta's, Puzzlebox and Fur, Fin & Feather. Survivors include Nick's, the Orpheum, Sassafras, Soap Opera, Shakti, Tellus Mater, Sacred Feather, Yellow Jersey, Pipefitter, Gino's Restaurant and Paul's Book Store.
Taking stock of State Street
From the Isthmus archives, June 16, 1989