[Muncle]

Boomer,
Interesting story but it begs the question, who is the villain? Yes, landlords can get greedy, especially for property that is growing in popularity. You move into a new or struggling property and build a nice business. Suddenly the property is more attractive, so the landlord raises the rent. Yes, you could have gotten a 10 year lease with a 10 year option, but what small business can afford to think beyond the next couple months. Therefore, the landlord is the ogre.

But wait, your friend's friend's friend's friend's friend's friend's landlord says that the tax laws make it more beneficial to have an empty store than reduce the rent. Suddenly, the ogres just might be your friendly neighborhood political hacks. Maybe these tax laws should be an inducement for landlords to fill bldgs rather than drive out tenants with high rents.

Don't know if any of this applies, but I worry about the empty storefronts in Spanish Springs and Lake Sumter Landing.

Oh, by the by, I like the little stories too. Difference is, not all of mine are necessarily true. In my youth, I knew a woodcarver who really wanted to have a real little boy. Unfortunately, his wife was a :edit: and refused to have kids. So the man carved a wonderful little marionette modeled after the son he always wanted. Then one night a cockroach and a fairy turn the puppet into a kid. When the kid lies, his nose gets like super big. But since the kid is still wood, the wife, who didn't want a kid anyway and nobody asked if she wanted a longnosed, lying marionette, go really torqued and threw him into the woodchipper and she made some toothpicks. Oh, and she killed the bug too, and the cat ate the gold fish. And everybody lived kinda pretty miserably ever after.