Question: <i> What shape should development take? </i>

STEPHANIE VORESS

President, Bellflower Chamber of Commerce and owner of Extra Fresh Flowers

We have a lot of industrial property next to commercial next to residential. Redevelopment will help smooth out areas that look a little ragged.

We need to work with what we already have: a real downtown area. I would like to see progress in cleaning up the storefronts and getting them rented to desirable businesses. There are a lot of things that we don’t have in Bellflower that people would rather not have to go to malls for, and we could try to draw those kinds of shops, like a B. Dalton bookstore or a nice upscale clothing store. Maybe an antique store and a gallery. Also, we could use a couple of name lunch restaurants, like Ruby’s or

Johnny Rockets.

If I could park at one end of the street

and get everything I need by walking up and down, I would never leave Bellflower. I think a lot of other people feel the same way.

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PHIL CARR

Owner, Avalon Jewelers

The merchants on Bellflower Boulevard are forming an association. We will be bringing people to the city and showing them what it has to offer. If the city can fund part of our efforts, it would be terrific.

The city can also help by making sure that landlords who own buildings on the boulevard keep them up and make them attractive to new tenants. Right now, many of them are vacant and getting run down.

I really think that in 30 months, Bellflower Boulevard can be back to where it was in the 1960s and ‘70s, really jumping. Bellflower has everything a merchant would want: access and visibility from three major freeways--the 605, the 91 and the 105--and a rent factor that is ridiculously low, making overhead very tolerable.

Years ago, I lost interest in being involved in Bellflower because I could see that there was no focus or direction at City Hall on how to bring in business. Now we have a city manager, Linda Lowry, who is the No. 1 reason I got involved again. She brings great enthusiasm to the table and she knows this town can jump again.

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DAN KOOPS

Bellflower planning commissioner

We are going to take a little while to figure out how to bring business. We need to see how cities like Whittier, Upland and Seal Beach have revitalized their downtown areas, what made them successful.

If we could get one mass merchant, like Trak Auto or Pep Boys, to commit to opening on Bellflower Boulevard, maybe that could be the seed that makes the rest of the street grow. I think we might want to hire an expert to help us.

Bellflower Boulevard still has a lot to offer. It’s never been complete. In the 1970s, we developed parking areas behind the stores. In the ‘80s, they changed the look of the boulevard. But we never put the pieces of the puzzle together to make it look uniform. Now we’ve hired a company to plan storefronts, redesign the awnings, enhance the design theme of the 1930s, freshen up the facades.

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GARY MORSE

Farmers Insurance agent

We need to recognize that what have been most successful are our five family-owned furniture stores. We need to bring other businesses in to complement them.

Bellflower Boulevard could be a one-stop shopping area for everything for the home. We could bring in stores that sell TVs, appliances, carpets, drapes and decorator items and add a restaurant or two so people could stop to eat while shopping.

We could encourage other storefronts on the boulevard, like CPAs and realtors, to relocate around City Hall, building the Civic Center into more of an office area for professionals.