In 1985, Linden Street in Fort Collins wasn’t looking so good.

A development authority had been formed to enrich the downtown area, and a kiosk and spruce tree were placed there to relieve the sight of the ‘blight’ that was Linden Street.

Today, Linden Street is looking better, probably because of the attention garnered by the cleaned up businesses in Old Town Square. Partygoers, people out for dinner, people out for ice cream, or to see some music trickle onto Linden, just like they trickle onto Laporte and Oak and Olive.

The tree and kiosk effectively blocked any view of Linden from parts of Old Town Square.
The tree and kiosk effectively blocked any view of Linden from parts of Old Town Square.
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As Fort Collins hangs tough in the ‘race to be hippest and most attractive place to be’, the ‘no parking space left empty’ Choice City is lively, even hopping. Restaurant and boutique owners are opening cool, new, upgraded spots throughout Old Town, including along Linden. The street is no longer ‘blighted’. It looks amazing.

New glass facades adorn much of the east side, invitingly featuring lively crowds that span age groups on more than just the weekends.

The west side of the street has looked good for quite awhile, with Nature’s Own, Salon Camisole, Suehiro and Colazzi’s giving it a consistent feel for a long time. The Art Lab, a relatively new addition, fits in well, and formerly Luscious Nectar is ready to follow suit by opening a new distillery.

The other side of the street has seen a lot of change.

Conor O’Neil’s, and Linden’s before it, tried to pull off classy Irish, and may have succeeded in the 90’s. But the locations floundered through the early 00’s, with just pretty good food, marginal staff at best, and an unfortunately placed soundboard blocking access to the dance floor.  Then they tried to hang their hat on Craic, a marketing nightmare of an Irish import that is pronounced ‘crack’.  I tried to explain to them that when someone in this country asks you “Do you want some crack?” you should almost always say “No”, but they didn’t listen.

After some of that didn’t work, the towel was thrown on quality and it seemed like someone said, “It’s in Old Town, just pour beer and shots” and the Sports Exchange was born. Not a bad business plan, actually, but the carding wasn’t effective, so it was doomed.

Finally, someone has come along and just started over, giving the place a new identity as the Blind Pig. I’ve eaten there twice and it was really good.

Elliot’s has been nice for a long time, and so has the Wright Life. For the decade plus I’ve been here, the east side of Linden Street has always been sort of bipolar in the seeming quality and newness of its businesses. The very expensive looking Wright Life next to run down Conor O’Neils. Super nice Elliot’s next to ghetto fabulous East Coast.

I don’t know what it was like before that, but I’ve not heard good things. And the times before Old Town Square sound unpleasant, which is about the opposite of how I would describe Linden Street now.

So, where there was a block, there will now be flow.

It’s like, with the tree and kiosk coming down, a new glasnost will exist between the upgraded and the non-upgraded. The non-upgraded, after years of resistance, are adopting an ‘If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em’ philosophy that probably cost a lot of people a lot of money, but has resulted in a much nicer Linden Street.

Where the first Old Town Square excluded, the new look 2015 Old Town Square will include. It will flow through to Linden, and if people keep walking, as many will, they will run smack dab into the Poudre River, Poudre River Trail, Gus Swanson Park, and the Fort Collins beer belt.

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