The Eviction of Sugarhouse Shops – Support the “Buy-cot”

They knew it was coming.

About a month ago the Craig Mecham of Mecham Management, owner of a building that houses the heart of Sugharhouse businesses, dropped off eviction notices to those businesses and then left town for two weeks. The area is being redevloped to allow for chain stores to barge their way in and 8 story high buildings to be built, changing the entire look and feel of Sugarhouse as we know it.

In the Deseret News articleSugar House shops forced out, Orion Music Store, Andy Fletcher, owner and other Sugarhouse business owners say this was inevitable and is devastating, but shop owners are facing the music: It’s time to move on. It is likely that some businesses will not be able to survive this change. Fletcher has indicated that Orion Music is facing an end to its business.

To that end, Fletcher has called for a “buy-cot” of these businesses.

“Rather than having a funeral for Sugar House and bemoaning the fact that it’s going away — because it is going away, and there’s nothing anyone can do about it now. The decisions have been made, and the wheels are in motion — I’m advocating a ‘buy-cot,”‘ Fletcher said. “We’re inviting the public to come down, and we’ll have live music and information available so that people understand not just what happened, but where people are moving. It’ll be a festival, not a funeral. “If people want to help, if they want to do something, they should come down and buy that CD they’ve been wanting. They should buy that cup of coffee or that Italian ice, or that card from Blue Boutique. Because if it’s not financially a possibility for these businesses to move, they’ll close. But if they have some money in their pocket, and they know that the people around them will support them when they move, I’d say that most of them will continue to look very hard at finding a solution.”

I spend a lot of time in that area since my friend and sister radical cheerleader owns the radical infoshop, Free Speech Zone there, where we have are practices and where I help organize film showings and other events. I’m still having a hard time knowing that in a matter of months we will no longer have that place to do these things. I really like Fletcher’s call to action to make a bad situation into a good one for the affected businesses.