The City Council recently adopted a new law that limits the size of storefronts on the Third Street Promenade to 50 linear feet as a way to discourage more chain stores from coming to Santa Monica’s outdoor mall.
Chain stores typically need a lot of space and by limiting how much they can have on the Promenade might deter new corporate stores from coming here. The City Council has been concerned for years about the homogenization of the street — there aren’t enough independently owned retail stores and restaurants, they say. But critics argue the Promenade is thriving and constantly attracting shoppers, making it a significant sales tax revenue generator for Santa Monica.
So this week, Q-Line wants to know, “Should the city government get involved in regulating the free market?”
Call (310) 285-8106 before Friday at 5 p.m. and we’ll print your response in the weekend edition. Please limit your comments to a minute or less. It might help if you think about the wording of your response first.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 5, 2004. Read the original PDF.