Neighborhood hardware stores come back
In 2003, in Washington’s Logan Circle, Gina Schaefer opened what she believes was the first new neighborhood-scale hardware store in the nation’s capital in 20 years. Since then, she’s opened six more in other Washington neighborhoods (see photo above), in suburban Takoma Park, Maryland, and in Baltimore—all affiliated with the Ace Hardware national co-op. A story in the July-August issue of Better! Cities & Towns reports on these and other similar stores that are opening in urban places — apparently the neighborhood-scale hardware store isn’t dead after all; it was just waiting to be revived. The locations that Schaefer looks for are walkable, have lots of renovation, and benefit from a strong "shop-local" orientation.
For more in-depth coverage:
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• See the July-August 2012 issue of Better! Cities & Towns.Topics: Urban retail, Street fear in new urban neighborhood, Subdivisions without a pulse, Walk Appeal, Pruitt-Igoe, The neighborhood hardware store, Columbia Pike in Arlington, Urban and environmental e-books, The Economics of Place, Design After Decline, Urban thoroughfares
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