Residents want chain stores out
VENICE When east coast transplant Meera Beharry first arrived on Abbot Kinney Boulevard, the native New Yorker instantly felt at home, the street reminding her of the old quirky Gramercy Park area of Manhattan before the large chain stores moved into the neighborhood.
In the past year, Beharry has noticed an all-too familiar pattern forming in her own backyard — a trend where the business districts of Abbot Kinney and Ocean Front Walk are beginning to mimic the commercialization of her old stomping grounds in the Big Apple. First it was the addition of Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf on the corner of Windward Avenue and Pacific Street, followed by Campos and most recently, Pinkberry on Abbot Kinney Boulevard.
The alarm bells started going off in Beharry’s head.
“What attracted me to Venice was it was like that area of New York before the chain stores moved in,”Beharry said on Wednesday. “I know the effect chain retail has had on my neighborhood [in New York].”
It is for that reason that Beharry came to a workshop at the Westminster School on Wednesday held by Los Angeles city planners who wanted to learn more about the issues surrounding chain stores in the Venice neighborhoods, a topic that has sparked a grass-roots campaign called Venice Unchained. The goal of the campaign is to keep Abbot Kinney closed to corporate America.
It was the first community workshop the Planning Department has held since it received direction from the L.A. City Council almost a year ago to research the sudden proliferation of chain stores in the Venice neighborhood in anticipation of a possible ordinance that would restrict new chain stores from entering.
In June, the Planning and Land Use Management Committee (PLUM) instructed city planners to research other California municipalities that have passed similar measures, including Coronado where city officials passed a law restricting “formula retail” establishments, which are essentially chain stores. City planners in November returned to the PLUM committee and received direction to further study the commercial issues of Abbot Kinney and Ocean Front Walk.
City planners said the community workshop on Wednesday was the first major step toward possibly enacting some type of regulation. The purpose of the meeting was to hear the concerns of those invested in the neighborhood and what they would like to see in an ordinance. Planners stressed they are still in the infancy of the entire process and that they aren’t even certain if they will return to council with an ordinance or another form of regulation.
“We want to know what the issues are so we can build a law,” Christine Mahfouz, a city planning assistant, said.
If it was one thing that planners heard loud and clear at the meeting, it’s that chain stores need to be kept out of the two Venice neighborhoods in question.
Mindy Tuhtan, who has lived in the neighborhood for more than three years, said she came from another area of the country whose charm “deteriorated” because of chain stores — Boulder, Colo. Tuhtan said that while she has seen chain stores gradually coming in the past few years, she became alarmed when Pinkberry touched down last spring.
“I’ve lived here for 3.5 years during that span, Abbot Kinney has changed quite a bit,” Tuhtan said. “I think it’s already beginning to feel on the yuppie side and chain stores will (elevate) that.”
One of the concerns mentioned in drafting an ordinance would be to ensure that businesses that started in Venice — but are now chains — are protected. One example is Abbot’s Pizza, which also has a location in Santa Monica, Beharry said.
“I want a definition that would protect the businesses here and would not give chain stores an opportunity to find a loophole,”
Beharry said.
If an ordinance is adopted, some feel existing businesses should be grandfathered in.
City planners intend to hold several more community meetings before they draft an ordinance, which will then be brought back to the community in a public hearing. Mahfouz said she is uncertain when they would begin drafting a document.
In the meantime, residents are hoping to maintain some control over the influx of chain stores.
Oscar Hermosilla has lived in the neighborhood for eight years and has owned a wine shop on Rose Avenue for more than a year.
The West Covina native said he has seen chain store after chain store enter his former hometown, which is one of the reasons why he chose Venice — it’s uniqueness.
“It’s scary that I can wake up in a few years and have a McDonald’s or Starbucks in my backyard and it’s like I’m back in West Covina, but with a beach,” Hermosilla said, adding he personally doesn’t have anything against West Covina. “I want to see an ordinance that supports small business people that have uniqueness.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on February 22, 2008. Read the original PDF.