CRISFIELD, Md. - Along West Main Street in Crisfield, visitors are greeted with a less than warm welcome - "no trespassing" and "keep out" signs on empty storefronts.
"There's no shops here to attract anybody, not even an ice cream shop," said Shah Yahya, owner of the Crisfield Discount Pharmacy since 2005. "There's nothing up here right now."
In between the few businesses such as Yahya's, the once bustling downtown area is now an agglomeration of cracked windows, boarded up doors, and broken dreams.
"Whenever it rains or anything, it just takes a toll on their business because it either gets flooded due to poor maintenance of the building and they just can't keep it up, and they leave after a while," Yahya said, referring to other business who have tried to set up shop downtown.
The Town of Crisfield has identified ten key projects to improve the town, with West Main Street a targeted area.
A longtime neighbor identified the demise of a local industry as a factor in downtown's decline.
"When the charter fishing business was here, there were restaurants here, and it was seasonal, but they were booming," said Frank Hohrein, who has lived in the Crisfield area for over 30 years. "It was always crowded and a lot of people here during the charter fishing business."
Hohrein said that environmental factors caused a decline in fish populations that caused fishing charters to seek more fertile waters.
Yahya and Hohrein say downtown's distress is a result of many problems and that a vibrant downtown has to be part of an interconnected series of projects, some of which are being considered by the Town.
"Everytime there's high tide we see water all around Crisfield. There are a lot of places that when we do delivery, we can't go there because of flooding," Yahya said.
"If the fish come back in the bay, then the restaurants come back, to keep people busy and keep people employed," Hohrein added.
There have been previous attempts to revitalize this part of Crisfield, but according to other neighbors, they've all had mixed results.