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If you had trouble accessing JohnsonCityPress.com on Monday, you weren’t alone.
Heavy traffic volume generated by links on national Web sites to a Johnson City Press article about a vendor’s eviction from The Mall at Johnson City caused JohnsonCityPress.com to bog down through most of the day, making it difficult for visitors to connect.
Press Staff writer Brad Hicks wrote the story about the plight of Dan Fuchs, owner of a small printing company called the Graphic edge, which specializes in novelty items like bumper stickers, coffee mugs and T-shirts.
The number one seller for Fuchs was anti-Barack Obama merchandise, which accounted for over half of his merchandise. Fuchs was seeing an increase in business at his kiosk when The Mall gave him an eviction notice last Friday.
Fuchs said he was given no reason for this termination and was shocked and upset. Thursday evening, Fuchs said mall officials met with him and told him to take down the anti-Obama items on display by closing time or face immediate eviction.
“I was upset about it, of course,” he said Friday prior to receiving the notice. “That’s my livelihood.”
Now it appears Fuchs is out of business at the mall, but mall officials say this decision was not based upon political views.
Friday afternoon, Fuchs was handed a lease termination notice by mall officials and signed by Mall General Manager Tembra Aldridge. The letter stated that the option to terminate the lease agreement was effective 11:59 p.m. Friday and that he must vacate the mall premises and remove his property before then.