I am saddened at the pending closing of Local Hero Books in the arcade. I understand that people read less these days, but I would have hoped and expected that Ojai could have supported at least one small retail bookstore. Yet, I admit to being at fault. I mostly shop at Bart’s, not due to any animosity for Local Hero, more because I like the idea of reading recycled books and recycling my own as I finish them. I also shop at Amazon, as my reading list gets rather esoteric and Local Hero could not compete for a variety of reasons. However, I do/did frequent the store, often to buy gift books for friends. So I can’t point fingers here. I am as guilty as any. Yet I am saddened nonetheless.
When I go downtown these days, I am struck by the empty stores: nearly the whole Solomon building, Iron Pan, Ojai Sports, with Ojai Video next. What does this mean for our community? Are the landlords pricing the shops out of existence? Have we all ceased to shop downtown? Recently a blog published a “walkability” survey, but that assumed that there is something to walk to. How many boutiques can the downtown bear until no one local even bothers? Are our only choices to become either Montecito or Bodie, CA?
If a new shop were to open in the arcade (or Matilija St.), what would you like to see? With gas prices going where they seem to be headed, what would you rather walk to buy? Just curious.
{ 25 comments… read them below or add one }
indeed, Dennis…very sad. it reminds me of when the Pacific View Mall finally shed its last bookstore. up until that moment i was hoping that that giant corporate-plex could retain a tiny bit of culture and soul.
and speaking of boutiques: how the hell do those survive indefinitely while everything else vanishes? i don’t mean to be down on boutiques necessarily, but they seem to sprout up everywhere in this town, selling stuff too expensive for locals to buy, and then manage to keep their doors open while others close. i just don’t get it.
I realize that you are asking what I’d walk to town for, but first I’d like to share something I wrote on the OVN site for the Ojai Video article. I think the same commentary can apply to the book store closing – just change video to books.
I’d like to say, having two local business owners continue in the bookstore location is great.
Until our appetites change, in regards to consumption, convenience, and war, it seems that businesses will continue to close. Ideally, I’d like to walk for everything. Of course, this may not be realistic so a related question that I hope we can explore too is how can we “find a way to build and support a local economy that is sustainable.”
It is sad to see our former Table of Contents and both incarnations of Local Hero bookstore go. I have many happy memories of the early years when Mitnee Duque owned the store.
From today’s Ojai Valley News article I gather there will be a wine and tea tasting shop at this location. My first thought was if the town can’t support a bookstore how can it support a wine and tea tasting place?
The truth is, we are in for big changes in the business world!
To answer your questions, check out the second issue of the “new” Voice (the one called the “View”). It has an excellent article by Tanya Lancoff,(not sure of spelling of her last name) a lifelong Ojai resident and businesswoman, that explains, at least in part, why there are so many empty buildings.
Do you think all the new buildings have anything to do with it?
Who remembers what downtown Ojai looked like in the 50′s and 60′s?
Remember how Bayless Market (now Star market) was located where the new buildings stand now, right next to the Ojai Frosty? The current Star market site was a grove of majestic Oak trees (if I remember correctly.) Yes, they paved paradise and put up a parking lot. The first of many.
The arcade had a fabulous toy store –I was forever trying to save up enough money for a plastic doll with long hair. And there was a grocery store in the center of the arcade…
The way things are going…it might look like that again someday…
hate to bring this up but if the commercial vacancy rate continues to increase is it possible the city govt will revisit the chain store policy?
I don’t doubt there are those who would like to use this as an excuse to revisit that policy. But it would be a tragic mistake. The formula retail ordinance is at its most valuable in helping to restore and sustain viable, independent business when it is reinforced in the face of vacancies. The real issue is that commercial rents need to come down, way down, to levels that can be sustained by owner-operators of independent, real businesses. Giving landlords hope that Ojai is going to welcome in chains, which by design can pay larger rents, subsidize each other, and hang on well past the time when nobody patronizes them anymore, will only extend the time it takes for rents to go down, increase the vacancies we suffer on the way, and ensure that we will not recognize the town we love in a few short years.
Empty storefronts aren’t the only kind of ghosttown. A far uglier, more depressing ghosttown is the strip of McSame chains, empty of patrons, empty of anyone who gives a c**p about them, staffed by bored, morose teenagers sitting forlornly tapping their fingers until someone drives up to get another 99-cent McSame. To go. God forbid we embrace that kind of ghosttown.
These are real quality of life issues. The time to act was years ago. A good start could have been had by embracing the initiatives that were squashed by the city. Would we be where we are today if our city had implemented even some of those policies, instead of filing lawsuits to squash them?
Today, more and more of our young families are leaving – I know four families who have left town in the last three weeks. Housing prices are making their way down, with freefall likely coming soon in our downtown area, but with increased gas, food, water and energy prices, and decreased job security in this flattened economy, what might have been affordable even a year ago looks less so today. Meanwhile, as businesses like our bookstores, independent video store, chef-run restaurants, auberge, O-Hi Frostie, etc. close, we become a less attractive town to live in, and more of us contemplate throwing in the towel.
We can turn it around, and we will. But please, not by embracing chains, unsustainable new development, and the like.
Well said “Not Torn”!!
Many thanks!!!
“N-T’…
I fully agree. Chain stores are not the solution and your depiction of that other kind of ghosttown is apt.
Perhaps MOtown will become the new local center and the arcade will settle into the role of a Main Street Disneyland quaint tourist strip.
I do not go as far back as the oak grove on the Bayless/Starr cite, but I do recall Mighty Bite, appreciate Serendipity, Rains, and the various other locally owned stores and eateries which have managed to survive. Yet I know we can’t go back. The question is what is the next step forward? What is a product that you drive for that you would buy in Ojai if it was offered?
How about expanding the question to “What is a product or service that you would buy in Ojai if it was offered at the same price that it costs in Ventura?”
Even my “green” friends shop at Trader Joe’s and Lassens. Others go to Pet Smart to buy bulk catfood at a discount. They usually don’t make special trips to Ventura but combine shopping with medical appointments, etc.,
but SUza those are all chain store!! there must be another WAY!! to all the sacred ones
Nyostiu Ay!!
Everyone needs to change their perspective about what a chain store is. When I’m in Ventura, my kids love going to Presto Pasta. Quality food, simple ingredients, reasonably priced. The owners, who are brothers, are kind and very community minded. They have been successful enough to open a location in Ventura, Camarillo, Santa Barbara and Newbury Park. These locations have made it so these business-owning-brothers can sustain their families and make a living.
Just because you become successful enough to open a few stores, doesn’t mean you should be grouped with face-less, corporate monsters. I remember when I was getting signatures for the chain store initiative, the owners of Tottenham Court would not sign the petition because they had another location and considered themselves a chain (even though I explained the difference). They felt that so many locals consider any business with more than one location a chain, and didn’t want anything to do with the petition.
As far as what I’d walk into downtown for … the experience. I love Barts and the conversations that we get in with the owners and staff, I love Serendipity and how they continue to squeeze in so many interesting toys I couldn’t find at Toys r Us or Target if I wanted to. I love the personalities of some of our store owners like the folks at Bonnie Lu’s. I love the super knowledgeable guy who owns Regals (now Ojai Beverage Company). I love the folks at Georgios who make us feel like ‘Norm’ (Cheers reference) when we walk in. What’s gonna get me out away from this computer and into town are the people. If owners/staff are interesting, knowledgeable, quirky – I’ll be back, again and again. That’s why we live in Ojai.
a little bird told me that the former Ojai Sports location will soon reopen as a “spiritual eco-store”, whatever that means. as much as i like these types of places in general and in theory, i have to wonder if that’s a good location for it and whether we really need another when we have other “staple” (or at least traditional) services closing down, such as independent, local places for books and videos.
Wow, I didn’t even now HERO was going out of business. This is horrible. What’s going on with the local economy??? I’m still grieving the loss of the local video store, which like our local library, I didn’t mind paying late fees to. I did not shop at Hero but for those rare moments when I could afford to pay full price for a brand new book. I think that’s part of it for many of us..everything is so expensive these days, we either go used or a discount website in some cases. Hmmmm…I can’t think what I’d like to see. But I’m saddened by the loss of yet another store. Saw this trend in Santa Barbara 10 years ago and scary stores like Sacs Fifth Ave moved in to take over the vacancies.
Ojai isn’t alone and the vacancies aren’t because of the formula retail and restaurant ordinance. Just look at the rest of the country. Contrary to the views of the corporate media and the stats. out of the Treasury Dept., the economy is in real trouble.
It has been sucked dry by the corporations and by 30 years of Friedmanesq/voo-doo/Reaganomics. The vast discrepancy between the rate of productivity(highest ever) and the wage rate(worst since the roaring 20′s) has caused the US to have the income inequality profile of a banana republic. This combined with the incredibly regressive tax “reform” by Reagan, Bush I, Clinton(yes him too) and W. has seriously thrown our economy out of balance and shifted it toward speculation and debt. Additionally, From a macro-economic perspective, it has been a prescription for a kind of wasting disease for the middle class.
The 1983 Reagan/Greenspan increase in payroll taxes(Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) tax) was the largest single tax increase on over 90% of the people in this country ever. So much for the myth of Reagan as tax cutter. This assault on the progressive taxation scheme of the United States has combined with the failure of the wage rate to keep up with gains in productivity to aggressively bleed over 95% of the population dry. Believe it or not, the wage rate in this country hit its’ peak in 1973, and has been falling precipitously ever since except for a brief period from 95 -96 where the the rate of collapse was slowed slightly, not reversed. The Chicago School of Economics ideology of the past four Presidents has been an experiment that has gone horribly awry and done serious damage to our country.
And I’m not even talking about our retarded trade policies yet.
Re the many boutiques still standing in Ojai, evan wrote:
“and speaking of boutiques: how the hell do those survive indefinitely while everything else vanishes? i don’t mean to be down on boutiques necessarily, but
“they seem to sprout up everywhere in this town, selling stuff too expensive for locals to buy, and then manage to keep their doors open while others close. i just don’t get it.”
I wonder how many of them are truly profitable and even operating in the black. I know that (a few years ago anyway) many of these places were owned by married women whose husbands subsidized their ventures. It gave a false sense of success to other would-be shopkeepers who had no idea how impossible many of these stores would be if your mortgage, healthcare, bills, etc. relied solely on profits.
I always felt the new Hero was a shadow of it’s predesessor the wonderful inviting Hero of yore, where you could sit and read with your dog next to you and chat with people wandering in. I’ve always passed this one by because it seemed so uninviting…kinda like walking into an old/new closet and trying to find a place to put on your shoes.
Some places are just more inviting then others, and that’s why (in my opinion) some make it more than others. Kindred Spirits always seems to be doing well. Why? Because for some reason it’s inviting…so is a place called, Jones and Company. (My dog drags me in there all the time and doesn’t want to leave)
Have you been to Jones & Company? It’s out of the way on Montgomery, but the minute you walk in there, you want to stay because it feels so good and the merchandise is so artistically gorgeous and there’s something beautiful and inspiring for everyone. Just walking by invites you in. How many stores do we have in town like that?
I feel if we had more innovative, creative, unique store owners that displayed their intent, beauty and expertise more artistically, people would be more inclined to visit and buy. I think many of our stores have lost their unique flavor and appear very much like chain stores in Bevery Hills (even tho they’re not), instead of unique, exceptional, cool artistic colony stores.
I know the rents are a problem and people are concerned with just maintenence, but nowadays you have to be really creative and welcoming to create interest – or you have to have a lot of bucks to just hang in there…I know everyone’s doing the best that they can – but in this day and age – we need to offer more than glitter. It needs to glitter with heart beauty, and spirit…I think most of us (especially in Ojai) are pretty much “materialed out”, regardless of how much money we have…It’s love, quality and beauty that’s going to get me in a store…
Its a dog that will keep me out of a store. There are those who avoid going into a store where there are dogs because they do not wish to be sniffed, licked and possibly bit by your “special” dog. Dogs belong outside.
Its a dog that will keep me in a store. There are those of us who happilly go into a store where there are dogs because we wished to be sniffed, licked and loved by someone’s “special” dog. Dogs belong both inside and outside, depending on circumstances. They like being near their guardian.
Someday a dog may save your life, and you will hopefully feel differently.
#16 is no doubt a cat person
I’m a cat person, but I can tolerate dogs.
Well, that settles it. More stores should have dogs laying around…maybe dogs covered in glitter.. and the problem will be solved and then a few places can be dog-free zones where one could be safe from sniffing. Glad that I brought it up.
A spiritual eco-store??? Don’t we already give them all enough material to mock us with? How about a past-life massage center?
I wish someone would be brave enough to take on our youth and give them some place else to hang out (you know the ones that don’t wanna skate). We’d love to see an actual arcade in or near the arcade maybe incorporated into a skate/surf shop, comic book store. A neighbor suggested the best thing you can give a kid in Ojai is a bus pass – and that simply won’t do if we want families in Ojai – cause you know what happens to all those little fellas in strollers? They grow up!
There is hope!
I just called Local Hero to see if they had any of my books in stock. I found out that there is a plan in the works to raise funds to open up another store at a new location.
If you are a book lover who believes Ojai should have it’s own book store, and you are in a position to make an investment, please contact John at Local Hero book store, 640-9250.
(PS I’m posting this on my own initiative, on the chance that a book loving billionaire will read this.)
I’m afraid the millionaries have bailed (book loving and otherwise). Now, arcade stores are closing, 2 galleries so far, and more to come most likely. Seems the prime real estate is not so prime anymore.
One of the 2 galleries you cite simply merged with another: Human Arts went from 2 arcade locations back to 1. I wouldn’t get all up in arms about that.