Welcome to downtown, just don?t stay very long

Let?s take a trip to newly renovated downtown McMinnville today. First let?s find a place to park.

We have parked in front of the old City Drug store. Now let?s go look at some antiques. We spend about 30 minutes looking in each antique store downtown.

Now it is kind of warm and I realize I need a haircut. So I stop in to get a haircut in one of the salons. I have to wait for about 15 minutes before I can get a cut. Now let?s go and get some lunch.

We will stop in either New York Grill, Capalano?s or Main Street Bakery. We take about an hour to enjoy our lunch because we are in no hurry. After lunch we decide to look at some jewelry. That can take some time.

We want to admire the new downtown fountain. So we go and sit a spell and watch the fountain. Now we go to the library to check out some books for the weekend. We have thoroughly enjoyed our visit to historic downtown McMinnville and are ready to go home now after spending a few hours there.

We get back to our car and are welcomed with a parking ticket because we spent too much time downtown! Do you realize there is only two-hour parking in most of downtown and one street only has one-hour parking?

A possible slogan for downtown McMinnville: Come visit historic downtown but don?t stay and shop.

Mark Johnson

Downtown business owner

Spring Street

McMinnville