Arrested Development : Downtown Merchants See City Official’s Firing as Step Backward for Revitalization

For decades, merchants and business owners have complained that the city’s downtown area is an unwanted stepchild.

During the past year, some downtown locals thought Peter Apanel would change that. As the city’s new downtown manager, he was hired nine months ago to walk the streets, get input from merchants on how to revitalize the area, recruit new businesses and report back to city staff.

But one week ago, Apanel was fired. He says it was a clash in personality and philosophy with the city’s community development officials that led to his firing. City officials say they needed to take a “new direction” with downtown revitalization.

Some city officials say they were not convinced that Apanel did a good enough job recruiting businesses.

Whatever the reason, some downtown merchants and business owners are angry that the person they considered their first true link to an inaccessible city bureaucracy has been let go.

“Peter was the first person who actually tried to accomplish a lot more in these past years,” said Genji Otani, a third-generation downtowner whose family owns Otani’s fish market. “I had never seen anybody from the city come in here.”

Oliver “Bud” Folcke, whose family has owned downtown property, including several buildings, since 1931, added that he did not know who to even approach about problems before Apanel’s arrival.

“He has been a great catalyst for the property owners to go to for something to happen,” Folcke said. “He was a one-stop problem solver.”

The downtown area is in the heart of old Oxnard, off Oxnard Boulevard, and encompasses 2nd Street to the north and Wooley Road to the south, with C Street to the west.

Designed with a colonial-style Zocalo, or downtown plaza and park, the park today is a bastion for the homeless and drunks.

Many of the historical buildings have been razed to make way for parking lots. Instead of the old classic Victorian-style architecture, downtown office buildings are box-like structures. On any given day, the coffee shops and art gallery are empty. On weekend nights, a billiards hall and Garcia’s Mortuary on A Street attract the most business.

One problem, city officials and downtown merchants agree, has been a legacy of delays on city projects and a lack of following through on expensive consultant studies. This has contributed to, if not exacerbated, the downtown area’s malaise.

* The city paid more than $140,000 to a Miami architect for downtown renovation studies in 1991 and 1994. The plans have not been brought to the City Council for approval. In two years, none of the recommendations has been implemented.

* A $1.2-million plan to realign A Street for smoother traffic flow, which was scheduled to begin in April, has been moved to January due to funding shortages. City officials say unexpectedly high bids--$500,000 more than they expected--is the reason for the holdup.

* Only five of the 18 applicants for a $400,000 city plan to improve store facades have been informed they are eligible for funding. Only three merchants have actually received the money. Plans to finalize a deal to build a 14-screen multiplex theater, which were to have been completed by April, have been pushed back to January.

The lack of progress on these projects is a result of the city neglecting downtown, said Tila Estrada, president of the Downtowners Assn., an ad hoc group of downtown business owners and merchants. She said the city has put its priorities instead on projects like Shopping at the Rose and factory outlets.

“In my opinion [downtown revitalization] has never been a high priority,” she said. “Revitalization starts with a handful of owners and the city in a partnership. There has never been a partnership.”

Yet the city cannot be held responsible for all the problems, Apanel said.

“It’s a two-edged situation,” he said. “It’s part of this whole culture of not being able to get things done and not having a good relationship between the city and the private sector. They have been at each other’s throats for 30 years.”

Some downtowners agree that there is a lack of direction and organization among them.

“I think the city laughs at the Downtowners,” said Joe O’Neill, a downtown attorney and one of the roughly 10% of downtown locals who are members of the Downtowners Assn. “They showed us that when they fired Peter and did not let us know.”

Added Peter Lopez, a local coffee shop and art gallery owner: “I don’t think we have ever had a direction as to where we want the downtown to go. As business people and others who are members of the community, we have not taken the time out to set our goals, objectives and mission statements.”

For the past 20 years, revitalizing downtown has been an inscrutable problem that city leaders and merchants seem unable to overcome.

In part, Oxnard’s downtown problem is simply a reflection of a national reality where shopping malls, strip malls and freeway corridor shopping areas have sucked business from many downtowns, say city officials.

Oxnard is no different from many other cities, said Mayor Manuel Lopez. Yet, Lopez acknowledged that a lack of political leadership may also have contributed to the downtown area’s demise.

“There may be some legitimacy to that concern,” Lopez said. “Some things are easier to implement . . . and that may account for the lack of action or perceived lack of action.”

Downtown business owners say the lack of political leadership is reflected in poor communication between city staff and merchants.

“I can understand why most of the downtowners would be extremely frustrated,” said Gary Blum, a downtown consultant for the city. “It’s been stressed that there should be better communication, but it’s been given lip service, that’s it.”

Apanel said poor communication extended even to his own dealings with his immediate bosses, Richard Maggio and Alex Herrera, both of the city’s Community Development Department.

Apanel complained in several memos to city staff that while he was actively pursuing new tenants for a building at 7th and A streets the city began negotiating a lease extension with the current tenant without informing Apanel.

In addition, Apanel said he was left out of multiplex theater meetings after he sent a memo to city staff criticizing aspects of the entertainment complex proposal.

Maggio, community development director, said there was no communication breakdown on either the lease extension or the theater project.

“I am not aware of any particular memo he sent out,” Maggio said. “He was never a part of the [multiplex theater] negotiation team.”

Herrera also said there was no communication problem with Apanel.

But City Manager Tom Frutchey said communication needs to improve and government should be accessible.

“I don’t think Peter is solely being held responsible, nor is he being made the scapegoat,” Frutchey said. “Pure and simply, we have not made [downtown revitalization] happen. We need to do what’s right and make progress. . . . If I need to be the one that sits down and shares the mea culpa, I am willing to do that.”

While some still wait for the city to act, others in the downtown community are improving their properties with their own money without relying on city funding.

Roberto Garcia, owner of Garcia’s Mortuary, said he got tired of waiting for the city to approve his facade improvement application. So, he began rehabilitating and expanding his business with his own money.

“I was hoping the city would have the motivation to help,” said Garcia, who has been downtown since 1978. “They are really slow in everything. It’s really frustrating. The rain is coming and we needed to get the roof and remodeling done before December.”

Alex Herrera of the city’s Community Development Department said projects like the facade improvement plan have been delayed for a variety of reasons including short staffing and inaccurate information on applications.

“We might not have gotten to them as quickly as they liked,” Herrera said. “Now we have gotten to the point where we are available to process the forms much quicker because more staff has come on board.”

Oxnard’s problems are typical of many cities, said Bert Stitt, a Wisconsin consultant who came to the city three years ago to analyze the downtown problem.

Depending on the government for answers and financial help can be one of the biggest obstacles to revitalizing downtowns, he said.

“It’s a welfare mentality,” Stitt said. “Instead of becoming masters of their own fate, they become victims of the city’s whims. They become totally disenfranchised and disillusioned.”

After three visits and meetings with members of the community, Stitt said he left Oxnard feeling like there was no concerted effort by merchants to take charge. Stitt began negotiations with a downtown group to work as a consultant, but plans fell through.

“Those merchants are whistling Dixie,” said Stitt, referring to the downtowners relying on the city to get projects done. “They need to start saying, ‘Look, I am in charge of my life and my business and I am going to proceed with it.’ ”

Indeed, several downtown merchants said they are waiting to refurbish and repaint their shops until the city finishes the realignment of A Street and cleans up Plaza Park.

“I am one of those guilty ones,” said Tila Estrada, adding that relying on the city for help is not like expecting a handout. “I was going to redo my building, but I said, ‘Well, there is going to be construction [on A street] and it will get dirty.’ So I’m waiting. You let the building go a little bit.”

In the meantime, Apanel said he has applied for several jobs in Ventura and in Northern California. He said he is ready to leave Oxnard, a little bruised, but with an “arsenal of information” that will help him land a job in his field in any other city.

“There are no issues in particular to Oxnard that precludes it from revitalization,” said Apanel. “Whether they want to blame it on the freeway corridor or the outlet stores, that is just an excuse. There are other cities that have transcended those issues.”