There Goes the Neighborhood

I travel Route 108 through Clarksville quite a bit these days. And I have noticed something recently that makes me wonder. Now that the Clarksville Commons project is up and running, suddenly the adjacent Wendy’s looks seedy and out of place. The colors look wrong. The size seems out of scale.

Has anyone else noticed that? Or is it just me?

Long ago an electrical fire in a old dishwasher meant my mother was in the position to choose both a new sink and dishwasher. Once they were installed, the rest of the kitchen looked dreadful. In the end that one dishwasher ended up being the cause of a compete kitchen remodel. Funny how that works.

I thought of that when I looked at the Wendy’s. It hasn’t changed. But the location around it has been transformed rather dramatically. Does it matter? Does the Wendy’s meet a community need and is it doing the kind of business that makes it financially viable? That’s probably more to the point than whether I think it looks out of place.

Surrounded by a natural food grocery, a sit-down restaurant known for its gourmet vegetarian menu, and now flanked by an artisanal pizza place and a farm-to-fork establishment, the little fast food joint feels strangely out of place. How long can it hold out against the creeping progress of healthy and upscale living? Perhaps, in the future, River Hill residents will be going through the drive-through for their take out orders of kombucha and avocado toast.

Just kidding. But, who knows?