Around Town: Bigger does not always mean better

Let’s be realistic. Although Sport Chalet began as a local business in 1959, a “bigger is better” philosophy led to its very non-local demise.

Sport Chalet started small. Norbert and Irene Olberz bought a local ski and tennis shop. Norbert had a vision. As his business grew, he hired experts in each sport to do sales, offered part-time jobs to local teens and made donations to local youth sports programs.

If you needed Boy or Girl Scout equipment, you went to the Scout lady at Sport Chalet.

If you needed equipment for the Sierra Club’s Basic Mountaineering Training Course, you went to hiking experts at Sport Chalet.

If you needed a tent, a cooler, or golf clubs, it was Sport Chalet.

La Cañadans had a lot of loyalty to this local business, but when Norbert pitched his plan for a new corporate headquarters and shopping center, there was some opposition and the debate, which lasted for years, divided the community.

At its core, La Cañada is a small town. Even though I publicly opposed Norbert’s initial plan whenever we ran into each other, he’d end the conversation by handing me his business card, the one with the generous discount coupon on the back.

I kept them in my desk drawer.

His original plan would have had a skating rink, movie theater, a parking lot on Foothill and a few shops. Many of us felt that the plan was too big, poorly designed, and not pedestrian friendly. We wanted parking in the back, and a walkable area extending out to Foothill Boulevard.

“Bigger is better!” rallied the supporters. “It’s a local business. They hire our teens!”

Eventually, a compromise was reached. The result is what you see at Angeles Crest Highway and Foothill Boulevard.

In 2014, when Sport Chalet was sold to Vestis Retail Group, the message was the same. “In today’s world of sports retailing, bigger really is better,” an industry analyst, Marshal Cohen, told the Los Angeles Times during an interview about the sale.

And now, predictably, bigger was not better. Vestis has filed for bankruptcy. Sport Chalet will close.

With the growth in the region, the Town Center doesn’t seem so big today. The problem is that it’s still unfriendly to pedestrians. Since the parking orients to the Sport Chalet store, as opposed to the restaurants, it’s easier to dine at Min’s or the Proper.

There are hints at what the project could have been. You see it in the outdoor space between Sakura and the three restaurants (Habit, Blaze and Panera). Families gather at the tables. There are babies in strollers, pre-teens and toddlers.

But it’s not the safest area. It’s too close to the cars. The space is small, not like the Americana in Glendale.

You see the same hints down the street at Gelson’s, next to Zeli’s. People bring their dogs, sit outside, read the paper and schmooze.

The hints tell us that bigger is not better. What our town really needs is a town center where people can easily park their cars, or walk in, then stroll into a safe area where a mom can drink a coffee and keep an eye on her kids. Instead, Foothill Boulevard is left with a couple of strip malls and three shopping centers with parking in the middle.

I’m not sure how we can fix this. This is a job for experts from our city council, commissions and staff.

Our region is changing. From San Francisco to San Diego, the West Coast is becoming more urbanized and home prices are soaring. Condos, mixed use and town houses are the future for young millennials in the region.

As for La Cañada, the proposed bike and pedestrian walkways for West La Cañada are a step in the right direction, but the town also needs a redesigned town center that allows families to gather safely.

Bigger is not better.

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ANITA SUSAN BRENNER is a longtime La Cañada Flintridge resident and an attorney with Law Offices of Torres and Brenner in Pasadena. Contact her at anitasusan.brenner@yahoo.com. Follow her on Instagram @realanitabrenner, Facebook and on Twitter @anitabrenner.