Suburbia: We Can’t Work It Out

 Whatever happens in the zero sum game of development-or-­nothing, the real losers will be the store owners. And the truth is, there are a lot of other ways to help the Ardmore businesses beyond wholesale redevelopment. Better zoning (or any zoning at all?) could eliminate the obvious eyesores — like the Wawa billboard looming over the street. Existing loan programs and facade improvement plans could be more aggressively offered and pursued. And the town could use its new retail coordinator, hired as part of the development plan, to scout for new boutiques to bring in, and to work more closely with absentee landlords, as Haddonfield, New Jersey, has done to great effect. Of course, none of these improvements come with a developer picking up the tab. And piecemeal infusions to the retail climate aren’t the kind of cause most residents will make a call to arms.

And so the business owners wait to see what will happen. Before the letter arrived last year announcing they were about to lose their restaurant, Betty and Eni Foo, who own Hunan, had just signed for the delivery of a new set of china — their first in 10 years. And they’d sent their only son to Taiwan to brush up on his cooking, with an eye to reinventing their menu — all part of an effort to bolster a sagging bottom line. But now, with things up in the air, their son is working at Blue Pacific restaurant in the King of Prussia mall, instead of the elegant but cozy eatery that his father gave up teaching college physics to run (for the benefit of his own father) so many years ago.

The letter from the township was the first shock, of course, but the whole process has been one jolt after another. Serving township officials dinner and having them refuse to sign her petition to save her restaurant? That smarted. And while Betty Foo can laugh now about how clueless she was about the business association dinner — “I even helped them put up the screen!” — she doesn’t go to the public meetings on the subject anymore. Doctor’s orders.

Still, the Foos say, in their polite and respectful way, they would like to just meet with Mr. Manko and the other commissioners and understand how this all came about. They, at least, are still hopeful that maybe the parties could sit down, and talk this thing out.

E-mail: kfifield@phillymag.com