Bee Exclusive: Region's shuttered stores tell a thousand stories

[FarCenter]

Published: Sunday, Feb. 14, 2010 - 12:00 am | Page 1A

An empty shell occupies 9,500 addresses across the Sacramento region – one closed business for every six still open, according to a Bee analysis of U.S. Postal Service data.

That's more dormant businesses than in 17 entire states, including Utah, Arkansas and New Mexico.

You can see it on Madison Avenue in Fair Oaks, where Mike Castagnola is liquidating his party supply store, counting down the final days on a business with a 30-year run.

It's just as apparent on Lake Tahoe Boulevard, the main strip cutting through South Lake Tahoe, where James Dalton counts five vacant businesses within sight of his antiques shop – and plans to add his store to that number.

And it's vivid along Main Street in Woodland, where Jill Caunedo happily ran a bagel and coffee shop – until about two weeks ago.

"Thirty percent of all the businesses (on Main Street) are vacant," Caunedo said, adding that she is left to sell her former cafe's equipment for a quarter on the dollar.

A glut of empty businesses means less sales tax revenue for the four-county region, fewer jobs, fewer shopping options, less commercial construction, plenty of thwarted dreams.

<SNIP>http://www.sacbee.com/topstories/story/2536025.html

[Dogmudgeon]

1. That's the Sacramento Bee *newspaper*, not honeybees

Sac'to has been hammered by the Great Recession.

--d!