SAN FERNANDO : City Goes Against the Economic Tide
While Southern California’s stubborn recession has wreaked havoc on many cities, San Fernando has skirted disaster and chugs steadily along, City Administrator Mary Strenn told business leaders Wednesday.
“We have been able to maintain and it clearly is due to the business community,” Strenn said. “We’re very vulnerable and very dependent on the business community.”
At one point, city officials had feared that Vons Grocery Co.’s decision to eliminate its Tianguis chain would mean the loss of a major supermarket, Strenn said. However, the El Monte-based company decided to replace the San Fernando Tianguis with a regular Vons market, she said. Similarly, the city feared losing Pace Membership Warehouse because of a corporate merger, but the new parent company replaced it with its own warehouse, Sam’s Club.
And according to a recent study, there are sound economic reasons for San Fernando’s stability.
Residents are generally not rich--the city’s median family income is $32,128--but they spend locally and loyally, making them a reliable economic force, according to a business retention study conducted by Cal State Northridge.
The typical shopper at the city’s downtown mall is a Latino immigrant who prefers to speak Spanish, visits often, spends less than $50, shops with his family, and eschews checks or credit cards, the study found.
Mall merchants who attended the chamber meeting said business lags on weekdays, but bustles on weekends, when shops brim with regular clientele.
“If you come by on the weekend, it’s wild,” said Patty Quezada, a board member of the San Fernando Mall Merchants Assn.
Still, all may not be paradise at the mall. The report showed 42% of merchants polled had been victims of vandalism in a 12-month period, and reported that a third of their employees had been assault victims.
Strenn said she did not highlight the crime statistics because she questions their accuracy and wants to compare them with Police Department figures. Strenn said the word in Spanish used for “assault’ in the surveys can be construed to mean any crime.
“I don’t feel we have a serious crime problem,” said Esther Hellawell, vice president of the mall association and owner of a formal-wear shop that has been on the mall for 21 years. “Our police are there all the time and our parking lots are lit.”
The report said few customers polled reported being crime victims, although they had a perception that crime was a problem.
