I also know restaurant's and food service, been in that segment for decades.

Cars, home improvements, clothes, restaurants and clubs, nice vacations.

South Bay has lots of great Vietnamese restaurants (I love viet food).

Grocery nearby, restaurants, etc.

For what it's worth, there has been a notable expansion of the city the last 2-years and an abundance of youth downtown...Check out Roca restaurant on a weekend and you'll see...El Bait Shop is great...definitely my favorite beer bar of all time...the expansion is heading north through Ankeny and on to Ames...anyway, best of luck.

R Street Redevelopment http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/news-columns-blog...Some other pluses: Midtown is laid out on a grid system with much of the restaurants, microbrews, art studios, yoga classes, coffee shops located on the center main streets (J,K,L), which means all of the surrounding residences have phenomenal walk scores. 

If you do go retail, stick with businesses that will always be around like oil change centers, convenience stores, gas stations (for now), and hospitality (restaurants, hotels, etc).If you haven't already, listen to Grant Cardone's podcast here on BP.

It's time for lunch, I immediately thought of their(the restaurant chain that is) platters when I saw the title, lol.  

Basically, I have a W-2 job and also own a business (restaurants) and they are subtracting my business depreciation from my W-2 income saying I don't have enough income for the note.  

The cashier at the store, your waiter at a restaurant...go to every party and social event and talk about real estate.Seriously...the more I talk about real estate, and to the more people, the more money I make.