There are more people in Excelsior than there used to be, but it still feels nostalgic and lively. Ann Woodbeck and Brittany Sulsar, two small business owners in Excelsior love the long-lasting community, but have differing opinions about recent changes in expansion.

      Woodbeck co-owns Excelsior Bay Books with her husband. Woodbeck said, “Excelsior has done a really good job of managing to keep the charm of the town, and put the focus on independently owned shops so that we don’t have a lot of nationally franchised businesses.” Woodbeck and her husband bought the store three years ago from Ellie and Ann Temple who are well revered in the community. Woodbeck enjoys her job, and she loves her customers, “It’s been quite an adventure [owning a bookstore], it’s been a lot of fun.” Not all aspects of owning a business in Excelsior are perfect, especially with the infamous parking problems. Woodbeck mentioned that, “The parking issue in Excelsior is something a lot of people talk about. People say ‘I wanna come into town, I wanna support your business but I can never seem to find a place to put my car.’”

     The parking shortage in downtown is mostly due to the influx of people to Excelsior. In recent years, the city built a new free parking ramp under the new condo development where the town hall used to be to help with parking, but the city continues to grow. I asked Woodbeck how she feels about all these recent developments and she pointed to two paintings in the front of the store. They are both artistic drawings of Excelsior in the 1950s, when there used to be an amusement park where the commons are now. Woodbeck said she thinks the charm of the small town “will be sacrificed to a certain extent.” Long term residents of Excelsior have noticed in recent years how updated and expensive the city has become: “people that lived here in Excelsior in the 1950s… bemoan that the town isn’t what it used to be.” But Woodbeck still thinks that it’s “A little slice of Americana.”

     Brittany Sulsar, manages and does “a little bit of everything” at Amore and Fedé, a clothing store in downtown Excelsior. She had a different opinion about the way Excelsior has changed in recent years, “It’s such a great little town and it keeps getting better and better as the years go by, we’ve seen a lot of changes over the years but now it’s in a pretty good stride of businesses and restaurants.” Sulsar’s mom, Debbie owns Amore and Fedé and her dad helps out with the business as well, “We’ve been here for 18 years, it’s been a great time in Excelsior, it’s been great being a part of this community. We really appreciate that and we love being able to build a repertoire with our customers… we like to make it feel a lot more like home.” Sulsar, like Woodbeck, also values all the businesses in Excelsior, “We all want to support each other, nobody wants to see anybody go anywhere, we wanna keep the whole street full.” Excelsior has changed a lot, and probably will continue to in a few short years. The Old Log Theater and open lot by the movie theater were bought by the same developer who plans to build a restaurant where the theater was, and a condo complex with rentable spaces on the first floor where the empty lot is. Brittany commented, “We’re all for it, the more the merrier.” Sometimes when a town like Excelsior grows businesses are lost, and buildings are torn down, but as Woodbeck put it, “If nothing changed that would be just as weird.”