The place was like the sinister ghost town in the Robert Rodriguez movie From Dusk 'til Dawn . Even the Walgreen's was closed. Maybe it was the dehydration. But I had a vision. No, not of a plastic Jesus, but of something closer to my own heritage.
Shopping is clearly the answer to downtown's woes.
I've even figured out a way to do it. I've come up with a better solution. Put La Encantada downtown. Make it part of the Rio Nuevo redevelopment project, which is foundering because of the usual combination of greed, special-interest politics and lack of sophistication. But they're talking about an AJ's, which I'm told is a stupendous gourmet supermarket, and Williams-Sonoma, the upscale cooking equipment shop.