Courtesy of the Bancroft Library at UC Berkeley. http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/tf7x0nb906/?brand=oac

2008 Holiday Parade

It is a busy week this week in San Pedro, but with this chaotic time of year, it was nice on Sunday afternoon to spend time with my family and walk in the 2008 edition of the Holiday Spirit of San Pedro Parade.

So as I was walking yesterday and freezing my butt off (a warmer jacket would have been nice), I spent a lot of time looking at all the retailers and restaurants along the Parade Route and I got to thinking about a challenge to our community…

Even in this difficult economy, you are a good American and you are probably going to spend a few hundred bucks on presents no matter how much your 401K has dropped and no matter how busy your company’s human resources department has been writing pink slips.  So would you rather spend your last couple hundred bucks buying cheap plastic crap at Target or would you rather spend your last couple hundred bucks buying thoughtful gifts from local San Pedro merchants?

Here is the challenge: I challenge all readers of the Yarn to buy just one gift from an independent merchant in San Pedro this Holiday Season.

And when you do purchase that gift, drop me a line and tell me about it and where you went shopping and let’s help spread the word about the great independent businesses in our community.

Now I love and shop at Target (just to let everyone know that I am not completely self-righteous) but I also love this community and I don’t want to lose anymore of our great independent and family run businesses.  It is disappointing to see Ramona’s with paper covering up the windows.  We need to spend in our community in order to build it and keep it strong and most business groups will tell you that dollars spent at local community merchants stay in the community.

And for the local businesses out there who read the Yarn, what are your visions for the future and what would more support from the community and an increase in sales mean for you in terms of reinvesting in your business and growing your business?  At what percentage increase would you be able to hire more workers and provide a greater variety of merchandise?

In closing…A few thoughts from AMIBA (American Independent Business Alliance):

Economic Value of Independent Businesses

It’s time to consider the real costs to a community that loses its locally-owned business base. Independent local businesses employ an array of supporting services.  They hire architects, designers, cabinet shops, sign makers and contractors for construction. Local accountants, insurance brokers, computer consultants, attorneys, advertising agencies help run it.

Local retailers and distributors also carry a higher percentage of locally-produced goods than chains, meaning more jobs for local producers.  In contrast, a new chain store typically is a clone of other units, eliminates the need for local planning, and uses a minimum of local goods and services.

A company-owned store’s profits promptly are exported to corporate headquarters.

Dollars spent at community-based merchants create a multiplier effect in the local economy that, by most findings, typically amounts to three times that of a chain.  This is well-evidenced by a 2003 economic impact study by our IBA in Austin, Texas that concluded for every $100 spent at a chain, $13 remained in the community while $45 remained when spent with home town businesses.

Ensuring Choice and Diversity

Retailers sift through competing goods and services to find those appealing to their customers. Though a single local shop may carry a smaller selection than a big chain, a multiplicity of independent retailers creates great diversity. When thousands of independent book and music shops serve their local tastes and each owner’s preferences, the result is demand for a wide variety of ideas and music. This makes accessible controversial books or music from new artists with the expectation that a market exists somewhere within a variety of stores.

As fewer giant corporations dominate production and sales, our options — determined by a powerful few — dwindle.  Our freedom of choice is imperiled when a few buyers from national chains choose what reaches customers — perhaps moderately disturbing for most goods, but truly frightening when you consider the impact on our choice of news sources, books, music and other expression modes. Maintaining Community Character When asked to name our favorite restaurant, cafe, or shop, it’s typically a unique local business. Just look at the results in any community’s “Best of” polls as proof. Those businesses define our sense of place, but we often forget their survival depends on our patronage.

Local owners, typically having invested much of their life savings in their businesses, have a natural interest in the community’s long-term health.

Community-based businesses are essential to charitable endeavors, and their owners frequently serve on local boards and support numerous causes.  Yes, some chains give back to towns in which they do business, and not all local businesses are exemplary models. However, the overall impacts are clear: locally-owned businesses play a vital role in our community that chains rarely do, while chains often even undermine community interests.

For long-term progress, a conceptual change also is necessary. We must consciously plan that future with rules that will encourage the values we want reflected in our communities. And each time we spend a dollar, we would do well to weigh the full value of our choices, not solely to ourselves immediately, but for the future we want for our home towns.

The American Independent Business Alliance: http://www.amiba.net/

Photo by S.Rogan

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food,
For love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends. –Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

Dr. Bunsen Honeydew released a statement to Rogue’s Yarn today apologizing for the mix-up with the LA City Fire Department yesterday which caused the evacuation of an apartment complex along Western Avenue.  Dr. Honeydew has gained wide acclaim for his revolutionary work in pharmaceutical research with his “Insta-Grow Pills” as well as his work on green technology with his invention the “Automatic Wastebasket”.

Dr. Bunsen Honeydew stated, “My deepest apologies go to my neighbors who were not allowed inside their apartment for hours due to the investigation by LA City Fire Department and the FBI.”

Dr. Honeydew blamed his assistant, Beaker, for not putting the chemicals away.  The chemicals were seen by the Fire Department as they responded to a call on an unrelated issue and assumed to be a methamphetamine lab by Fire Department Officials.

“I can see how an honest mistake like this would be made,” said Dr. Honeydew, “From now on I will keep my work at the lab and not bring it home with me.”

Dr. Honeydew addressed a quote in the local press from a neighbor that Dr. Honeydew has frequent late night parties by stating that he is close friends with the famous Muppet Show band Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem and that they often visit him after late night concerts.  “It isn’t that all the guys in the band are wild and crazy, it is really just the drummer and we are happy that he is currently seeking professional help.”

For the details on the entire farce: http://www.dailybreeze.com/ci_11067697

In case you missed the news the last couple of days because you have been on a sail boat in the middle of the Pacific Ocean or climbing a mountain in Alaska, staff in the City of Los Angeles Planning Department recommended in their report to the Planning Commission that the creation of a specific plan that would allow 1,950 homes and 10,00SF of commercial space to be built on 61.5 acres of former Navy Housing along Western Avenue be rejected.  City Planning has summarily denied and disagreed with the proposed specific plan for the Ponte Vista development at every level from the land use and density to the design.  Not only did the planners reject the number of units (they suggested 1,046 to 1,196 with a density bonus instead of the developers proposed 1,950) they also questioned the idea to put a large number of senior housing so far away from essential services.

In other words, it looks like the developer of the Ponte Vista Project, Bob Bisno is going back to the drawing board.

Why is this the “Revenge of City Planning”? How many city’s are there in this country whose history and current political environment are so tightly entangled with the back room deals of real estate developers?  It is a history and culture that permeates city hall and city politics to this day.  From the boosterism of the turn of the last century to post war developers and politicians who turned orange fields into housing tracts in the San Fernando Valley.  Planning and zoning codes in this City have been little more than suggestions or recommended guidelines.

City of LA’s Planning Director, Gail Goldberg, who stated at a neighborhood council-sponsored forum in San Pedro in November, 2006, said:

“In every city in this country, the zone on the land establishes the value of the
land. In Los Angeles, that’s not true. The value of the land is not based on what
the zone says or what the plan says. It’s based on what that developer believes he
can change the zone to. That is disastrous for this city. Disastrous. Zoning has to
mean something in this city.”

The Planners appear to have reasserted themselves against the power and money of the developer in the case of Ponte Vista, but it wasn’t without the encouragement and hard work of the well organized and tenacious local opposition groups such as R neighborhoods R1.  These groups effectively utilized the internet and blogs to organize, pressure Council District 15’s office, and publicize their positions on the negative impacts of this housing development.

The hydra-headed monster that Bisno Development faces in addition to local community opposition, Planning Department opposition, also includes market conditions which do not appear to support the original pro forma for the project.  How much will a housing unit need to be sold for when Bisno paid 122 million for the property?  We are left pondering the next move on the part of Bisno Development.

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