The city is once again pushing for the bars and restaurants to have exclusive rights over our Main Street sidewalks, and again is running a vendetta against the retail businesses not allowing them to display any merchandise on the sidewalk, as these businesses have done for over thirty years. Their aim, they say, is to revitalize and enhance the vibrancy of Main Street. These are the same people and ideas that took our clean and vibrant, family friendly Main Street where all businesses were thriving whether they were bars, restaurants, retail, service businesses, or professional businesses. They crippled it trying to turn it into a poor man’s copy of 2nd Street, Long Beach: A bar street with a devastated retail sector, not a family friendly place.
They took away a third of our parking on Main Street just for the bars and restaurant’s supposed temporary parklets. With only a fraction of the parking being left, our long time good customers who wanted to come here and spend money we’re chased away by the people that just wanted the free parking and not to spend any money that would fight over the parking. The people that really want to spend money have many choices of where they can go, they’re not going to fight over a handful of parking scraps. They left us and we are still affected by it to this day. That is why you’re seeing more empty retail spots. I’d rather have stores like mac-fusion and the Temecula Olive Oil Company than some dude just upping his liquor sales.
The parklets were never maintained or cleaned; with that, we had our infamous rat invasion. When the parklets were closed, the rats had to find a new home, as it was reported in local newspapers. We had restaurants shut down because the rats went inside. We had restaurants where the sidewalk in front of them was black from all the food droppings even though the city pressure washes the sidewalk every week. The city even let the bars and restaurants put tables in front of other people’s businesses. With the drinking on the sidewalk, patrons of the bars and restaurants were making lewd comments to not only women on the street, but also to women who worked in the businesses and their customers, as it was explained to the entire City Council by the women that work in the hair salon in the hundred block of Main Street.
I’d come in the morning into my parking lot next to the church. and hear screaming from the drinking establishment on the other side of Main Street from their clients that were drinking in the parklets already, and watching games from Europe. When we fought against this and the Planning Commission, letting food and beverage places permanently, bolt furniture to the sidewalks by using the in lieu parking policy, which was a complete fabrication of its use. When we as business owners complained about all these problems and unfairness of the whole situation, retaliation from the couple of City Council people that were pushing this policy, was quick and brutal against all other businesses. They tried to convolute a banner law to make the poor kite store take down every flag they had; the shell shop couldn’t even have a couple boxes of shells out front, even people that put planters in front of their stores at the city’s request and approval were told to remove them.
Isn’t it interesting that the new two-story building at PCH and Main Street was required to have potted plants in front of their building before the city would even let them open their building? See what the non-bar or restaurant businesses are subjected to by the city. Now they want to change the whole Main Street plan so they can legally harass the other businesses, and give the sidewalk away to the bars and restaurants.
We had filth and harassment from people drinking in the parklets and on the sidewalk. Neither the city or the bar or restaurant managers ever did anything about these problems! They’re not going to do anything this time either and we’re going to have the same problems again. They harass the retail stores saying they can’t have any merchandise up against their building fronts, where it’s not in anyone’s way, but the restaurants and bars can put tables and chairs out up and down the street. It’s up to you guys. Do you want to lose all the stores?
Do you want to wake up one morning and find quaint Main St. gone forever and in its place a bar street like 2nd Street? It’s up to you. Are you going to let the same people who crippled our street do even worse damage? Are you going to let them keep bullying the retail businesses to just accept these things that will put them out of business? How many more empty store fronts are we going to have? You need to write the Planning Commission and the City Council, as I am sure this is just being pushed again by two of our city council people. Let them know that you don’t want them to put our retail stores out of business because of their vendetta against them. Let them keep their merchandise and don’t let the city keep doing this failed experiment of public drinking on the sidewalk. Let them go over to 2nd Street if they want a bar street. You can go to the city’s website and find the email addresses for all the City Council members there and find the email for Gloria Harper, the city clerk, and you can email the Planning Commission through her.
Please tell the Planning Commission and City Council to vote no on any changes to the Main Street plan.
Woody Woodruff
