Earthquake: The Long Road Back : District Slowly Getting Back to Business : Aftermath: Burbank’s old Magnolia Park area--where the traditional and the hip meet--was hit hard. Some stores have reopened; others haven’t been so lucky.

Behind the boarded-up windows and the doors that don’t close quite as easily as they did before, a hardy bunch of merchants in Magnolia Park are back in business.

In this city--home to three major studios--Magnolia Park looks like the set for some apocalyptic “morning-after” movie. Plywood still covers display windows shattered during the Jan. 17 earthquake, giving some shops on Magnolia Boulevard an abandoned look.

But consumers, take note: These stores are open and ready for business--at least some of them.

“We were only closed a day and a half,” said Rob Veres, owner of Burbank Coins & Sports Cards, which has seen about a 50% decline in business since the quake. “It’s amazing we’re doing any business at all, the way my storefront looks. It looks like we’re closed.”

Other businesses were not so lucky. Some are still in limbo, haggling with insurance companies and waiting for loans. Others have had to find new quarters. In all, 14 structures are uninhabitable and 58 have been opened only to limited access in the city.

“We were forced to relocate,” said Dr. Fred Dubick of Burbank Optometry Group, which moved two miles away to West Olive Avenue after the quake.

Burbank suffered considerably less damage than many other areas of the Valley, but the old Magnolia Park district was hit hard. Some buildings, like Dubick’s, were made of unreinforced masonry, which is susceptible to quake damage. The area includes a historic commercial district where the traditional and the hip meet: Mom-and-pop-type thrift stores sit next to vintage clothing boutiques. There are health spas and sports card trading shops.

Those who have reopened say much has changed since Jan. 17. Once-familiar faces are no longer around and business is painfully slow.

“I’m not used to it being this way,” said Pat Taylor, owner of Hubba Hubba Vintage Clothes on Magnolia Boulevard.

Sitting behind her store counter, beneath framed photographs of James Dean and Marilyn Monroe, Taylor talked about life on Magnolia before and after the quake: The wardrobe artists and eclectic crowd that filled her store on weekends, browsing through racks of 1940s’ style clothing, and now the long days since the quake that have reduced her flow of customers to a trickle.

“It’s usually a busy store,” she said. “There’s a fun kind of energy in my store. Those people aren’t buying. . . . The only people buying are the ones spending other people’s money,” she said, referring to the studio wardrobe artists.

Before the quake, American Way Thrift next door was a lively place too. But the quake-damaged store now sits closed, and a handwritten sign says it will remain that way “Until Further Notice.”

Taylor arrived at her store on the morning of the quake to find her stylishly dressed mannequins hanging through the shattered windows. Display cases were cracked and costume jewelry was strewn throughout the store.

“It looked like a massacre in here,” she said.

She cleaned up, replaced her windows and managed to open a week later.

But for some merchants, money for new windows and time to scout out a good deal may not come for a while. Rather than wait, merchants such as Seabrook and Ron Ede, who own the vintage clothes store Junk For Joy, opened for business four days after the quake--boarded-up windows and all.

“I make very little money now, but it’s OK,” Seabrook Ede said. “As long as the doors are open and people are still coming in, it’s OK. I could have lost it all.”

From the outside, one can’t see the audacious platform shoes or the black-velvet chokers topped off with peace-sign medallions, or the ‘60s wigs.

Still, Ede has managed to compensate for what customers can’t see by turning the plywood boards into colorful billboards. In bright red, green and yellow, they announce a “Shake, Rattle and Roll” 50%-off sale. Money from the sale will be used to pay for the new windows.

“If I have to have boards, they have to look good,” Seabrook Ede said.

Customers have been more supportive since the quake, she said, like the man who tried to give her $40 for a belt that cost $12.50.

“He said, ‘I’ll help you put your windows back in,’ ” Ede recalled. “It was sweet of him, but I can’t do it that way.

“I’m losing a lot, but you have to give up something to gain something. People are having a good time, getting good stuff. They’re helping me and I’m helping them. . . .”

Before the quake, Veres at Burbank Coins & Sports Cards had prided himself not only on having one of the largest selections, but also on his store’s organization. Cards were stored in numerical order in boxes--3,000 per box--and arranged in a way that made it easy for customers to find exactly what they wanted.

But the quake sent the countless hours of work and organization all tumbling down.

“Almost 100,000 cards that were in numbered order hit the floor,” Veres said. “It was a heck of a 52-card pickup, I tell you.”

After hours of work, the store appears orderly again, but appearances can be deceiving. There is still much to do before the store returns to its pre-quake state, he said.

While he’s at it, Veres has decided to rebuild the shelves so that they slant upward, hopefully making it more difficult for the boxes to be shaken loose the next time around.

For all his trouble, Veres knows that many of his regular customers fared far worse. It may be some time before they begin thinking about sports cards or collector coins again, Veres said.

“They have a lot more important things on their minds,” he said.

So does Connie Soethout of It’s a Zoo, a Magnolia Boulevard store that specializes in “every possible stuffed animal you can imagine, from armadillos to zebras.”

She and a partner are waiting to find out if the building owner’s insurance company will give them the go-ahead to reopen their business--one that had hit a rough spot even before the quake.

“The economy was not good,” Soethout said. “So we didn’t need this quake.”

For some merchants, the quake had a ring of familiarity. In 1985, Dubick’s optometry office and a nearby deli burned down, forcing him to quickly relocate. After 11 months the original building was rebuilt and he returned. But now the Northridge quake has left the new building with extensive exterior damage--forcing him to flee again.

“Here, nine years later, it’s like, been there, done that,” he said. “I didn’t panic. I said, ‘This is what we have to do.’ ”

Five days after the building was red-tagged by the city, he reopened at a new site.

Magnolia Park merchants are hoping they’ll all be able to do the same. After all the frustration and prayers and consoling of one another, they’re hoping the street will one day regain its lively enterprise.

“We’re going to build this up again,” Seabrook Ede said with characteristic optimism. “It’s coming back!”