Village Matters

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Be Bold, Breathe Easy

By Ann Christoph
By Ann Christoph

Personalized repairs—that’s what you got at Karl Klass Electric downtown on Forest Avenue. I took my toaster there once and when I picked it up there was a piece of stale toast in one of the slots. “I just wanted to show you it works,” Craig explained. No point in waiting until you get home to check it out after all. Craig Charters was also our neighbor across the street. Nice to know he had this repair job in addition to his music and bus driving for disabled kids.

On the same side of the street was Marriner’s Stationery store. Mel had been with the store for ages, and knew all the stock. One time I went in looking for a nib for an antique pen I had bought. It wasn’t even as new as a fountain pen, it was the kind you dip into an ink well. Mel rummaged around behind the counter and came up with a new pen point that fit the old pen perfectly. Need ink too? Of course they had that in whatever color desired.

There was Sprouse-Reitz on Broadway where Laguna Drug is now. Among so many things that this old-fashioned dime store had were fabric, patterns, and all the sundries needed to complete a sewing project.

Another favorite was Stottlemeyer’s Deli. Their sandwiches were named after famous people and the ingredients were chosen to represent some aspect of their well-known attributes. Chicken breast was a featured ingredient in sandwiches named for well-endowed actresses. Then there was the Richard Nixon, “With this one you never know what you are going to get,” the sign said. Mark Christy, who worked there then, said the guys behind the counter really enjoyed making up extra creative sandwiches for the trusting people who chose the Richard Nixon.

There was also an auto parts store, a sporting goods store, book stores, Bill Thomas Cameras …

These are the kinds of businesses that inspire loyalty and that hometown feeling. Today Bushard’s Pharmacy, Coast Hardware, Factotum Shoe Repair, Café Zinc, Laguna Art Supply, Copy and Print Center, among others… hold onto our hopeful hearts. The ones that still believe we can have a real downtown that offers what locals need—not just the goods and services, but the feeling that it’s our town, that it hasn’t been turned over to tourists completely.

There is a critical mass of resident serving businesses that is needed to provide the range of items needed at affordable prices so that residents don’t have to go “over the hill” to shop.

Over a year ago the city hired the MIG urban planners to re-examine the Downtown Specific Plan. Studying retail uses in the downtown is one of their tasks. Their scope of work says that their objective is “to develop a nuanced understanding of the various

factors that impact downtown’s retail potential, so that we might provide realistic

direction.” They would also “comment specifically on the potential for additional and/or different resident-serving businesses as well as the role that downtown retail does/can play in enhancing and reinforcing Laguna Beach’s brand as an eclectic and artsy outsider within the broader retail firmament.”

So far work on retail uses has not been presented in the public workshops.

 

Yet in July and August MIG consultants have done two presentations featuring some preliminary ideas for the downtown. These include a parking garage along Cliff Drive, another one at the Las Brisas parking lot, moving the library, making Ocean Avenue two-way along its whole length, adding parklets where parking spaces are now along Ocean and Forest, allowing more two-story buildings downtown, and building more residences.

While some of these suggestions are interesting design-wise, it’s not clear why they are needed.

How do the suggestions relate to the most pressing problems defined in MIG’s extensive public outreach program? How do we preserve village character, strengthen sense of community and balance retail for residents and visitors?

Last week the Council boldly took a unanimous vote to eliminate short-term rentals from residential areas. “It feels like we are taking back the town,” one councilmember observed. This, in the midst of a particularly trying summer fraught with extra traffic and crowded beaches, helped residents take a hopeful breath.

We will breath easier too with a focus on being a genuine American small town, with its downtown truly serving the needs of its residents. With this balance the experience of visiting us will be better for tourists, too.

 

Landscape architect Ann Christoph formerly served on the City Council.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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