By Jill Renton Santa Monica
Your recent Q-line question about Starbucks on the Promenade generated a number of startling responses, such as the one which informed us that Starbucks “spreads around this city, destroying everything in its path.” Fortunately not all the callers were cranks, and there was one response I would like to address because I’ve heard this line of thinking before, namely: “I’m sick and tired of the franchises pushing the mom and pop stores out of Santa Monica.”
It’s not the franchises that are pushing them out, it’s the rents. Commercial rents are astronomical, as your Jan. 31 article about Levi Strauss store reveals, and part of the reason is that there is no rent control on commercial properties (see Calif. Civil Code #1954.25-31). The Costs-Keene-Seymour Commercial Property Investment Act of 1987 actually prohibited rent control on commercial property in every local jurisdiction in the state.
A component of this act was a bill (SB 692) authored by State Senator Barry Keene. In 1988 I wrote to then-Assemblyman Tom Hayden about the bill, asking how he voted on it, and his reasons. To his credit, he replied that he voted no on the assembly floor, because “I don’t feel it is proper for the state legislature to impose its will on an essentially local matter.” My letter to Sen. Keene was never answered.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on February 19, 2003. Read the original PDF.