> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Letter: Readers split on whether Downtown mixed-use businesses serve neighbors - URL: https://www.smdp.com/good-service-20080823/ - Published: 2008-08-23T15:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-24T20:49:53.000Z - Author: Guest Author - Tags: Opinion, Downtown, #archive-import This past week, Q-line asked: Mixed-use development with businesses located on the ground floor has become all the rage in Santa Monica, Downtown especially. Do you consider this a good thing? Are these businesses truly neighborhood serving? Here are your responses: “YES, BUSINESSES DO ACTUALLY SERVE neighbors as they should. I’ve lived adjacent to Main Street for 12 years now and I have been able to witness what I consider a very positive change in our city; more mixed use developments and more businesses tailored to the needs of Santa Monica residents. I actually gave up my car three years ago and have never been happier, opting for public transportation and car sharing through Zipcar (formerly Flexcar). Everything I need is here in Santa Monica. And what I can’t get is easily delivered. The quality of my life has risen steadily over the years I’ve lived here as I shifted my lifestyle. Things like walking to the store, using the Farmers’ Markets, staying in town to socialize at local venues rather than trek to Hollywood have all made life here even more fantastic.” “SANTA MONICA HOTELS AND SMALL businesses, especially along the Third Street Promenade, depend on tourists and individuals who live outside of Santa Monica’s boundaries. We also have the multitude of those who work in the high-rise office buildings that we see as we drive along Wilshire Boulevard, from Ocean Avenue to Barrington Avenue. There is truly a mass of humanity that crowds into Santa Monica’s boundaries on a daily basis. This is good for business, especially for the restaurants. Still, it is this mass of humanity, with their automobiles, that creates all of the congestion we see in Santa Monica on a daily basis. You ask me if these new businesses are truly neighborhood-serving. The answer, in my opinion, is no; nor do they want to be neighborhood serving. They serve the world. The world is changing, and it’s only a matter of time when we will no longer see in the window of a business stating, ‘Se Hable Espanol.’ The signs will only state, ‘English spoken here,’ — if we are lucky.” “SANTA MONICANS FOR RENTER’S RIGHTS should change their name to ‘Santa Monica for Rip-off Retailers.’ They’ve sold our once, sleepy little town to tourism and big development. It used to be that the mall was geared for low and moderate income locals. Now, it’s just a tourist trap. When Target wanted to move by the mall, our City Council said no. Why would someone buy a pair of sandals for $129 at the mall, when you could go a block and buy a nice pair for $8.95 at Target. Santa Monicans for Renter’s Rights needs the big development and tourism to pay for their expensive socialist programs and parties.” “LIVING IN THE SAME BUILDING WHERE you work might be convenient for commuting, but a disadvantage would be that on your day off, they can always know where to find you.” “IT’S THE DENSITY, STUPID. MIXED USED is developer code for bigger projects and bigger profits. Living in such tight quarters has many drawbacks. Think of the nightly bar noise, the early a.m. deliveries, hauling six bags of groceries, the small number of windows, and the lack of daylight, to name a few. If you like New York, move there.” “WHEN CAN I STOP LAUGHING? OR IS IT crying? First, the City Council mothers overdevelop in this town, thereby squeezing more dimes from the gullible taxpayer citizens. Multi-use buildings are a New York City idea. How many people left the east coast, big city disaster, to bring their European, urban planning ideas to our town? Destroy the concept of openness of our charming beach community, with a crowded, ugly, dubious multi-use businesses and cheap housing for migrant workers, and you leave us with a hideous example of elitist, urban city planning. Eliminate building pollution, City Hall greed, and the old women on the council, and then we’ll have a chance of regaining a once livable town. Multi-use is like multi-tasking. You just mask incompetence and lack of a simple and correct vision for Santa Monica.” “THAT SOUNDS GOOD, IN THEORY, BUT the developers in the city will find a way to screw it up. Namely, they won’t provide enough parking. They will say that because individuals in Santa Monica are locals, they don’t need parking, when we do need parking because people do go other places. All units should have one parking space if it’s a studio, two parking spaces for a one bedroom, and three parking spaces for a two bedroom, no exceptions. Plus, the retail space each hundred square feet should have at least one parking space. But, naturally, they won’t do it, and they will complain about traffic and parking.” “THE MIX-USE DEVELOPMENT IN SANTA Monica so far is suspect. So many of them sit vacant, so I don’t see how they’re truly neighborhood serving.” “MIXED USE DEVELOPMENT IS TACKY IN the extreme. It reminds me of the old tenement, low-income housing in New York’s past years. Speaking about the businesses serving the citizens, that hasn’t happened in a long time — not in Santa Monica. Those that did really provide for the citizens’ needs, are long gone.” *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 23, 2008.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/082308.pdf?ref=smdp.com)