It’s old news now. The Tomato is no more, gone the way of the old Delta Lodge and burned to the ground with a good deal of the rest of the corner at Hickory and Fry. Last month I spent a long weekend in Denton that included a long sadness over the empty corner close by where I used to live. I’m unable to understand why Denton didn’t value Fry Street enough to protect it, and why the continuing depredations of developer, United Equities, which intend to replace historic Fry Street with a cutesy “Fry Street Village,” aren’t viewed with more skepticism by the Denton City Council than apparently they are.

Meanwhile, Save Fry Street continue to do what can still be done to oppose the excesses of this predatory developer. Good coverage of the current situation can be found at recent posts, complete with links to Denton Record Chronicle and North Texas Daily articles. Save Fry Street also published a good account of the fire that destroyed The Tomato back in June, including this YouTube video.

The comments at Save Fry Street’s coverage almost universally accuse the developer of negligence in advance of the the fire. Certainly the event was fortuitous for United Equities–all that demolition cost gone up in smoke and an insurance settlement to boot.