Cheers to Smithfield’s new social district

I don’t drink, not anymore, but I don’t mind if others do. To me, “Do as I say, not as I did” would be just as hypocritical as its present-tense cousin.

So no, I don’t mind that the Smithfield Town Council last week approved a downtown social district. The state still has to say yes, but if does, people will be able to carry beer, wine and mixed drinks along many downtown streets and into participating businesses.

I don’t think open-carry alcohol will prove a panacea for what ails downtown Smithfield. Downtown’s condition, marked by few retailers and little nightlife, has many causes. For starters, downtown Smithfield is disjointed and small. Years ago, a Board of County Commissioners, indifferent to the well-being of downtown Smithfield, razed several storefronts to make a new home for the Sheriff’s Office and Emergency Services. Those departments, and the county jail too, have since decamped to the outskirts of town, though I doubt County Commissioners will start razing downtown government buildings so entrepreneurs can begin building new storefronts.

So whereas towns like Benson, Clayton and Selma have long “Main Streets” with uninterrupted rows of storefronts, Smithfield’s downtown is small and piecemeal.

Also, what many would consider Smithfield’s downtown — Market Street between Second and Fourth Streets and Third Street between Bridge Street and Johnston Street — was small to begin with. It became smaller and disjointed when those South Third Street storefronts came down and government offices also took over the Market Street building that housed Belk.

Of course, Smithfield leaders played a significant role in Belk’s exodus. When a Town Council OK’d the shopping center that once housed Walmart and a Winn-Dixie, Smithfield’s commercial center gravitated to North Bright Leaf Boulevard and to a growing outlet center next to Interstate 95. When Belk executives got the chance to join the likes of Walmart on North Bright Leaf, they did so.

It’s not that a past Town Council was wrong to OK shopping centers on North Bright Leaf and more stores at the outlet center. I generally think businesses should be able to locate where they choose. It’s just that actions can have unintended consequences, and that has clearly been the case downtown.

So Smithfield Councilman Sloan Stevens was right when he said the council owed it to downtown businesses to give them tools to bring people to their shops and restaurants.

A social district probably won’t help right away. When retailers left downtown for other pastures, building owners filled their spaces with lawyers and bail bondsmen. Those folks sell services, not clothes or jewelry or food, so they won’t be bringing people downtown after 5 o’clock.

Still, a social district is a tool for economic development, and it’s one that three other towns in Johnston County have deployed. Selma was the first a year ago now; Clayton and Benson recently followed suit. None have reported the problems that some Smithfield leaders feared.

So if downtown merchants and a council majority think a social district is a tool that can help bring people downtown, then by all means, let’s give it a shot. I could almost drink to that.

Scott Bolejack is the editor of the Johnstonian News. Reach him at sbolejack@johnstoniannews.com .

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