Like We Didn't See This Coming

Like We Didn't See This Coming: Bye Bye Tait's, Hello Tancredo

Another one bites the dust:

Tait's Natural Foods, a deluxe grocery store on the ground floor of the Plaza Towers in downtown Iowa City, will be closing because of low sales.

Ah, Tait's. Another one of those funky downtown places that added color and atmosphere to downtown Iowa City that no one spent any actual money at. Hey, the Pearson's soda fountain at That's Rentertainment really worked, huh? Or Great Mid, which was always jam-packed with people - each one filling up a table alone and nursing one 85 cent cup of coffee through a seven hour study marathon.

Developer Marc Moen said "he felt terrible" for Tait and his wife, Joan, about the closure. He said the site will remain a grocery store despite the closure.

"Our goal at this time is to find another operator," he said.

When people said "we want a downtown grocery store," they meant a HyVee with a big flat parking lot. And the big flat parking lot doesn't work downtown because it'll be full by 7 AM with people going to class and work. Besides, there already IS a downtown grocery store:

"It was interesting," said Jason Thrasher, a store manager at New Pioneer. "Our business grew every month even when Tait's was open."

---

Tom Tancredo: even crazier than Steve King? The GOP Kucinich? Or the Buchanan of 2008? There've been a spate of Right Wing Seeks True Love stories lately and Tancredo sees an opening. "I'll only run if my issues aren't addressed." Riiiiight.

Tancredo could pull off a surprise second or third as the Iowa Republicans show their true xenophobic, don't talk Spanish in front of me in the Walmart line roots. The frontrunners will overreact and alienate Hispanic America from the GOP even more.