Commission Impossible

Hey it's a robber fly! This is spooky. I do believe you've had a string of challenges right up my alley lately.

Hey, it's the star of the show!

I was thinking this morning that you might actually be undercover PD since you rolled up right in front of all the police.

Are you Chico's Crocket (Miami Vice style)?

There's a challenge left hanging in the water post, if you picked that one up I think you'd get the coveted Turkey Shoot award.

Lon

I just watched the video. What a goof ball!

I always wanted to be a star on Commission Impossible News.

That is funny. I wonder what it would take to get that many cops downtown to deal with skateboarders, bicycles and scum that frighten the shit out of the few people that venture downtown.

Holding up a bank and robbing the downtown sidewalks of people has the same result.

A future CIC video might be of a frail old woman walking along our side walks holding a Lulu's bag. When all of a sudden she hears the rolling sound of a scate boarder behind her. She freeze's in fear...O Look the scateboarder made it past her. No harm done.

What brewery ? the Pride of Chapmantown or other.

Mike

Mike,

Of course there is a difference between riding on the sidewalk and robbing a bank. But I would suggest we form a downtown Guardian Angels club. Scattering some gravel in front of skateboarders would probably take care of the problem.

Lon

Oh, and yes it would be the Chapmantown Neighborhood Brewery (CNB) I was talking about.

Lon

Lon,

The difference between robbing a bank downtown and embarking on a sidewalk fear ride is your going to jail for the bank job.

Most street level shops require customers and visitors to navigate our sidewalks in order to access our stores. Downtown operates just the opposite of strip centers and other autocentric retail. Our sidewalks are used to circulate and propel pedestrians between shops and other matters that people have downtown.

Riding on the sidewalk seems harmless but it robs Mom and Pop of customers. Fear should not be part of the value proposistion or the customer experience.

Its against the law to ride on the sidewalk or rob a bank. The victims Im talking about is small busineses.

even a loss of 50 dollars a day in sales is about $18,000 a year in gross. That could relate to offering a couple of workers healthcare.

You have a retail storefront downtown. How many of your customers arrive via the sidewalk?

This is a real problem. No amount of advertising dollars will undo the damage done.

It looks like robbery to me.

Mike

Mike,

I don't have a retail store front. My business generates very little income from our region and virtually no local retail sales.

A bank robbery is a federal crime and bank robbers threaten the economic fabric of our society. Most people keep large sums of their money in banks. There are very obvious reasons why robbing a bank brings the wrath of god down. I use banks to transfer money to overseas vendors, maintain my home mortgage, keep my personal and business accounts, provide lines of credit, and credit cards. Banks must be secure.

Skateboarding is a local issue with locally defined penalties. Prioritizing enforcement is something that local officials could easily do. And that means it's something that you could influence.

But if I was a mom and pop and was losing as much money as you mentioned I would consider moving my store. If local officials are not responsive to problems then go where they aren't needed to do good business. Whenever possible people should avoid expecting government to solve their problems.

There are plenty of retail areas in Chico with ample free parking and no bums or vomit. Some stores that cater to a younger crowd are doing well downtown ie Lulu's, Trucker, Gigi's are good examples (all same owners I think). So is the Powder Room. Businesses that cater to an older crowd have a host of problems when locating downtown. Longer walks and dirtbags are just a couple. There are a lot of punks downtown, and even without retail customers they find ways to annoy me.

Lon

Lon
The really good thing about CIC is we all get to learn a little. You provide a great service to many of us that have something to say and very few places to say it.

I get your point about getting out of Downtown. Many retailers have done that.But its not a option for my clients like the Upper Crust Bakery. They need a better retail enviroment in order to prosper,retain and attract great workers. Hope might be all we have to work with but its something.

It must be old age on my part. Because when I pass your place it looks like a store front. The zoning is for retail and as you know here on the street level we all depend on each other to attract foot traffic.

I have been thinking about stopping in and having my Solutions Cubed. Do you dice

Mike

Mike,

What's interesting about our location is that you would expect it to be perfect for retail. There is usually parking of the 10 hour sort nearby. But no retail attempts since 2000 (when we moved in) have been successful.

There is currently a martial arts dojo that is typically only open evenings. They are a great neighbor for us, since when they are doing there thing there are lots of bumps and grunts that can be heard in our office.

On the other side of us is something associated with the University that uses the space as a warehouse.

A mortgage guy who left town in a blaze of criminal accusations and debt, but not before subleasing to a tatoo parlor, was on the corner. They are all gone now.

I don't know why retail fails there, but we are the longest renters, and have seen a few come and go. I don't think our site faces the same issues as downtown central, but it has not been retail friendly.

We'll cube any solution, for a price...
Lon

Lon,

I think it might be good to talk to the leasing agent about why that building is not being used for retail the way the General Plan calls for. I agree with you about the retail opportunity in your building and I am upset that that building is not used more effectively.

Mike's right the current GP declares your business should be second floor and that that building should be retail only. All the ingredients are there, ample parking, easy access, $/sf, but why isn't it working?

Most downtown retail businesses would kill for the parking opportunity you have and it is being wasted on storage for the university.

I went to a meeting yesterday where they mentioned several times about Trader Joe's turning away from the downtown because of parking issues when, in my opinion, your location would have been perfect for them.

That opportunity still exists, but I am not sure if we have the right people carrying out the General Plan on the street level.

TJ,

Regardless of General Plans I've seen a number of retail attempts fail here. Our business has been here for 7 years and pay our rent early. There have been times when we were the only tenant. We originally signed a 3 years lease and were told the building would be sold and removed after three years. An enforced General Plan that left a building vacant and not generating income for the owner would be rather poor economics.

For a period Tom at NUB had his eye on this spot. He had what looked like a good design with retail on the first floor and office/apartments on the second. There would even have been a promenade along the creek to our backside.

I believe a State of California environmental issue that occurred prior to the current ownership clouded the title. I'm of the opinion that that cloud could be lifting.

I see vacancies all over downtown so I think the economics and issues are pretty broad. I'll leave it to you downtown thinkers to figure it out. Just let me know when you're going to move my business out to make room for a pretzel dealership.

Lon

Lon,

Are you advocating that it is OK to ignore the General Plan?

TJ,

If the General Plan says my business can't be where it is and that the owner of the building that I rent a space in can't generate money for their investment, then yes.

A General Plan is not a stone-written bible. It is a guiding document for decision makers. If Chico's downtown is facing economic stagnation and following the plan says that more businesses should be removed from the area, then the plan is wrong.

People shouldn't confuse the effect of economics and reality with words in documents written by committees. Successful businesses are run by successful business people, not General Plans. There will be times when the "plans" do not produce desired effects.

For downtown I would say that a lack of accessible parking hurts retailers. A lack of free parking hurts retailers. The abundance of loiterers hurts retailers and long term business prospects. Some property owners* do not maintain and upgrade the appearance of their facades, which hurts retailers. And finally, there is a hustle and bustle and alcohol fueled nightlife that dirties the area and makes some people not want to go there.

That last thing is one of the reasons I like downtown (not the dirty part, but the activitiy). Unfortunately, it is also the reason so many bars and tatoo parlors want to be downtown. A downtown with no bars and tatoo parlors and all boutiques would be lame too. We have to keep a balance that reflects our students and long time residents in the downtown area.

And we have to keep engineers there who spend money on cookies and burritos, as well as shop for gifts at Bird In Hand.

Lon

*People make blanket statements about downtown property owners. Tom Hall, who sometimes posts on this blog, is a property owner that is engaged in downtown issues. There are others as well. I want to point out that we also have good local owners that need to earn income, and are paying attention.

Lon,

If you buy a building in a downdown then you owe it to yourself and your community to understand the part it has in the social and economic foundation that makes the place.

Throwing money at a facade dosent make it better.

We have overtime stripped our downtown buildings of great things and replaced them with doors and windows from home depot. Crappy landlords and crappy tenants go hand in hand. Our trusted local architects,city planners and realtors have redesigned us a bonifide visual shithole.

If another downtown landowners tells me that a mall has 7 spaces to the 1000 sg ft and thats what we need... Im going to puke all over this place. (I will aim for Lasalles that way it wont be noticed ) Parking is a big issue downtown but very few people understand the problem..including you.

Mike

Mike,

At least one architect bought/built a building downtown. I think that's a great way to go. Once you spend your own money you can make all of the decisions.

As far as the parking issue it must be difficult to understand because there is no forward movement on solving it. It seems to come up regularly as an issue for people with downtown businesses. Maybe the next big meeting will fix it.

Lon

Lon,

It kind of sounds like you are setting yourself up to get pissed off about how the city spends too much money on reports and studies that don't get applied.

What is the use of having a "guiding document" if it is going to be arbitrarily ignored? And then ignored with long-term leases that could outlive a General Plan and get carried into perpetuity.

Lon,

I hope you can find a little time for downtown issues. The downtown adhoc just had its first meeting. It looks like the committee chair is going to take input from the public that shows up.
CIC would be a great asset to the process

Our downtown power brokers did a first rate job sand bagging some good work in the downtown charrette. We owe it to Alan Chamberlain who broke from the pac and actually studied it.

Mike

TJ,

Point me to the location in the General Plan that you're basing your opinion on. I read the design component for the downtown area and didn't find any demand that retail exist on the ground floor. There would appear to be no law requiring that of private property owners.

So I have to wonder why you'd be barking up my tree on an issue that doesn't seem to have any real standing? My guess would be the General Plan recommends that, but most plans of this nature never make black and white demands. Are you downtown planners short of fish to fry?

The plan does say things like parking lots should not line creeks but instead cafes and outdoor seating should be located there. It's rather obvious to me why the city hasn't torn out their parking lots and replaced them with privately owned buildings full of cafes and store fronts. Is it obvious to you? It has to do with private property and private funding.

Lon

Lon,

Sorry for the delay in posting. My precious home became a Chico burglary statistic this weekend.

I used to joke that 'you are not a local in Chico until you have had a bicycle stolen' but now I guess I can update that to be a 'laptop stolen'.

http://www.chico.ca.us/_mod_resource/content/General_City_Documents/3_Land_Use.pdf
Scroll to page 35 and Table 3.4-1

I didn't mean to be "barking up anyone's tree". Sorry if I gave the impression that there is any law being broken. The General Plan is policy, not law. It is primarily about directing new construction and development. No sheriff is going to come knocking on your door.

I really just wanted to point out that the building you have your business in is going in completely opposite direction as the General Plan.

I have no problem with you or your business. I almost leased an office in your building a few weeks ago and I am not retail either. I was prepared to take the heat for not complying just like you are getting from me. The rent was right, I even really liked your landlord.

That location is prime for so many businesses and yet it is being used for storage for the university, who papered up the windows to block the view from the street. That embarrasses me. I got the feeling that it embarrasses your landlord too.

I hate the tattoo parlors too, but I honestly would rather see more of them than papered windows for university storage to take over a long term leases in the heart of our cultural focal point.

I think when leasing agents market their buildings in the downtown area, they need to do more work than the average strip mall leased space. If your particular building is providing everything that everyone complains about not having in the downtown, then it is fair to assume that the message is not getting out. I might be assuming too much, which is why, a few posts back in this thread I said that "it is probably worth asking the agent about it".

I am really not trying to attack anyone. I just want to get a better downtown for all of us. If we are going spend more city dollars to go through the effort of creating a new General Plan for new development in an area that is already built-out, then to a certain degree we have to rely on leasing agents to carry out the intent of policy on new leases as well. If they don't change voluntarily, then we are at their mercy until the building is torn down or alterations made to the building that require a permit.

It seems like on one side you are saying that we need to have a General Plan to keep too many tattoo parlors out, but at the same time you are arguing that it should be OK for a landlord to rent to whomever they can in order to cover their debt. You have become somewhat of a fiscal watchdog and I am wondering if you are going to be complaining in a few years about how the GP was a waste of money because it is weak at best in the downtown.

TJ,

Sorry to hear about the burglary. It is happening to a lot of people in town.

I don't hate tattoo parlors. None of my comments related to the General Plan. I was basically commenting on the fact that business that caters to young people often do well downtown. A balance should be maintained so that other segments of the population are served by the area. Too many bars and tattoo parlors means the balance is lost along with seasonal economic stability.

None of that line of thought contradicts my belief that property owners should have maximum control over their investments. Property owners assume the risk of the investment and if every one of them decided to rent to a tattoo parlor that would be their decision to make.

I will tell you right now that the General Plan costs are excessive. They will embody an ideology that can't be enforced without wrecking opportunities for private investment. The city will still receive most of its tax income from car dealerships, Costco, Wal-Mart, and other much hated retailers. The city will not be able to implement much of the plan's vision because they will have spent all of their money on human resources. They will continue to depend on new development for fees to fund improvements while treating their cash cow like a criminal. They will not have the funds to update older neighborhoods that always should have been a priority.

It should cost no more than $100K to write down the city leader's vision for the future. $1 million is a waste of taxpayer money for a piece of paper.

Lon

Carefull now..your talking bad about business in the hood. Without Costco the city wouldnt have the funds to do all the good things they do for the neiborhood. Its all going to a savings fund for a Welcome to Chapmantown sign. With all the generosity from big business in our neiborhood we should have our sign in about 2017 give or take a few years.

Mike