There were many years when time just stood still while everyone waited for saviors to reclaim what was once such an economic spectacle along Main and Market streets in downtown Wheeling.
For decades, there were theatres mixed between businesses of all brands and restaurants that served fried baloney sandwiches during lunch rushes but delicious Demonico steaks for dinner. Anyone younger than 50 years old didn’t experience IT, or at least what was left of IT in the 1970s, but the photographs from Wheeling’s hey days display a prosperous population that local government prayed would someday return.
All that happened, however, was a tragic decay-and-demo cycle that erased what once was and turned into places to park.
Well, that’s changing now, and it hurts. The growing pains are real. Really real, especially since all of the infrastructure work isn’t in reaction to population increase but instead out of “build it and they will come” hopes and dreams.
And it’s not healthy. The unofficial diagnosis for the untold many is, “Pot Hole Pissed,” and the most unfortunate side effect suffered by many has been the insatiable urge to avoid the area completely. And that fact makes this long-awaited transition hurt even more. With the $30 million streetscape project in full swing and the construction of the new $15 million Market Street parking garage nearing the half-way point, it seems there are detours for the detours with no end in clear sight. BUT, after nearly four years of constant construction, an end appears in sight.
That’s the good news. The bad news? We’re not there yet and won’t be for many months from now. That’s why, periodically, LEDE News will take a good look at the changes taking place now thanks mostly to local and state taxpayers, and hopefully by private investments once all the orange barrels are in our collective rear view mirror.
