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Monrovia Citizen Cries Out: “Help Old Town Merchants”
By Frazgo | February 13, 2008
Good morning and this is my first official post on the FC Blog which I have held as a must read and must quote since its inception. I have been reading and commenting here, even using what is on the FC Blog as fodder for posts relevant to the group on Blogging.la. I look forward to blogging and increasing the awareness of what happens in my section of the Foothills.
It is no secret that Monrovia, like the rest of the SGV, is going through some interesting times and growing pains. Monrovia is unique in that a gang war erupted last month after many months of escalating shootings in town.
The sudden shock to the locals that we were no different the rest of Metro LA has had some immediate affects. Despite largely successful programs like MAP the gang war happened, kids died. No one faults MPD for what happened, rather they look to City Hall for allowing the department to be understaffed. In the end we have merchants whose business is being impacted. The loss of sales tax revenue will have farther reaching problems in the months to come for the city.
I received this in my email last night:
I don’t know who to send this to, but I want to send it to someone…. -K
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The arrogance and pompousness of the City of Monrovia to not even communicate with or in any way make contact with the merchants and shopkeepers in Monrovia (those within Old Town as well as those elsewhere in the city) about the recent crime problems and the recent business plan changes (i.e. the delay to Gold Line extension, the delay in opening of the much-touted Old Town condo complex, etc.) has contributed to bringing the small business owners of our wonderful town to their breaking point. Many are close to closing their doors. Worse, many are beginning to not care.
The small business owners are at once dealing with having their rents doubled and at the same time having their revenues nearly disappear. The rents are being doubled by landlords anxious to realize the “increased value” the City has touted — all but promised— was coming their way, great increases in our property values which we were all told would be realized when the Gold Line and new in-town mixed-use developments were in place. But which now are not happening anytime soon.
The shops’ revenues are dropping, meanwhile, because the customer base has been reduced drastically and suddenly, by a tragic confluence of the recent drop in local real estate values and sales, the reluctance of the locals to spend money now due to fears of recession, and the relucatance of many people to shop in the area— born of the yet-unsolved recent gang murders and shootings.
According to merchants both in Old Town and in other parts of Monrovia, neither the City of Monrovia nor the Monrovia Chamber of Commerce have made any direct contact with the business owners regarding any of these issues. There have been no attempts to communicate to them what is being done about the current situation or even, indeed, to clarify what the current situation is (regarding either the crimes or the real estate developments).
Consequently, Monrovia’s merchants and shopkeepers have given up: If the City were to now hold a meeting for the business owners, to explain the situation or hear their concerns, as one owner told me, “…only five of us would probably show up— and two of those would be shills for the City anyway.” No one believes City Hall cares anymore and no one can believe what they say. “We just don’t care. We don’t know what to do, but we know they (the City) won’t be of real help. They’ve already proven that.”
This is a dismal situation for the business owners, and a dismal situation for those of us who reside here and who proudly call Monrovia our home.
We don’t want to see Monrovia become yet again a “ghost town”, with the pawn-shop and the pool hall being the most successful small businesses. Nor do we want to see Monrovia become just another ubiquitous “psuedo-old-town”, filled with carbon-copy franchises and chain stores which will come and go with each fad and fashion. (Yes, these will make the Realtors who lead our city lots of money with each change of hands, and these businesses will employ lots of minimum-wage clerks, but they won’t contribute to the long-term health and benefit of our community as the individually-owned and owner-operated businesses do.)
So, as Monrovians, what can we do to help our town, to keep our local small businesses strong (or at least viable until things improve) ? How can we help our local businesses to get full and accurate information about what transpires in our area so they can make reasoned and fully-informed decisions about staying or going ?
There you go. Frustrations outlined, ones shared by many I meet each day on my rounds about town.
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Topics: Main Page, (Re)Development, Cops and Robbers, Monrovia |
February 13th, 2008 at 6:48 am
I found your site on technorati and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you.
Eric Hundin
February 13th, 2008 at 7:11 am
Wow, thanks for the support. This site has been pretty amazing I hope to live up to their standards.
February 13th, 2008 at 9:14 am
I just heard that top-of-the-line reporter Todd Ruiz from the Pasadena Star News is only the latest victim of the Monrovia shootings. He was forced out by upper management for reporting the hard-hitting news that are worthy of great investigative awards. RIP Todd, figuratively, and hope to read you stuff somewhere else where the uppers recognize real hardcore talent in reporting the news when its shown. I will write a letter to Larry Wilson today and ask him how can they let someone with those writing skills go without a care in the world. We should all be up in arms about this one. One of your Pasadena fans.
February 13th, 2008 at 9:25 am
We should all cancel our subscriptions to the Pasadena Star News.
Hey, Todd, if you’re reading this, please post on the Foothill Blog?
Another fan, from Sierra Madre
February 13th, 2008 at 11:05 am
Todd Ruiz axed from the PSN???? There’s nobody left there to axe!
February 13th, 2008 at 11:24 am
Can someone give the link or source that Ruiz is gone? I called and left him a voice mail but no answer doesn’t mean he isn’t there any more, could just be busy.
February 13th, 2008 at 11:29 am
I hope you’re right.
February 13th, 2008 at 11:35 am
Me too, he was a good guy and fair reporter.
February 13th, 2008 at 11:37 am
fair as in HONEST…great reporter
February 13th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
I called and left a message for Larry Wilson for confirmation too, but no call back to me yet. If Todd is still there, lets hope he’s busy, if not, the paper should come clean with us readers and subscribers. Larry, Call Me Back ASAP!
Pasadenan through and through
February 13th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
Well this has gone off track long enough. We are Ruiz fans locally as he covered what has been going on in the area honestly for years.
Back on track…what about what one citizen had to say about the state of affairs in Monrovia from her very personal perspective?
February 13th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
I believe the City and Chamber is to blame for a lot of the problems or lack of assistance or information to the businesses, but not 100% to blame. In the past few years Monrovia Old Town has been hosting many higher end restaurants and retail shops… all great… but in all honesty, not everyone can afford these places. Monrovia is still a simple and beautiful family oriented City. The movie theather brings a lot of traffic to Old Town but a lot of those visitors come for one thing and one thing only…. to watch a movie and do window shopping. Families cant afford to take their kids to these outrageously over priced restaurants, or to buy his or her daughter 80 dollar jeans from one of the local little shops. I mean come on… this is not Rodeo Drive ok? My suggestion is… be more realistic, drop your prices and people will come. Greed has a lot to do with the fall of sales around town. If the rent is going up, then look for ways to save rather than making customers pay the bill.
February 13th, 2008 at 2:27 pm
Rumors of my termination are greatly exaggerated! As much as I enjoy being canonized, I’m not sure where this comment came from. My editors and “upper management” were entirely on-board with the Monrovia coverage and even treated us all to lunch.
I *am* going to be operating in a lesser capacity — blogging for the paper — while I focus on teaching at ULV and pursuing my next professional move. That was my decision and was the plan long before things heated up again in No Man’s Land.
Haven’t sought to broadcast it because as a reporter, I sincerely believe in that whole “it’s not about me” thing. As much personality seeps into the blog, I don’t want to be the news — just the opportunity to try and report it well.
February 13th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
Great News Todd. We’ll watch for you in the future!
February 13th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
Todd, you’ve have always been a fair reporter. You shined during Pasadena’s District 1 council race last year. It would have been very easy to pick a side but you rode it right down the middle. That was the most talked about and best contested political race that Pasadena has seen in the last 25 years. One won and the other lost the contest but both were seen as winners.