A Long Winter’s Nightmare
Instead of decorative brick sidewalks, some sections of downtown have no sidewalks at all.
Instead of the warm glow of faux-Victorian light standards, downtown Santa Paula has no street lights period, prompting one merchant to compare the area at night to a cemetery.
In Santa Paula this holiday shopping season, the barren sidewalks are populated largely by a platoon of construction workers trying to complete the initial phase of a $3.5-million downtown revitalization project, a phase that was supposed to be finished in mid-November.
“Since the construction started, we’ve lost 70% of our business,” said Noble Inglett, manager of a dime store that has succumbed to the construction delays and will go out of business by month’s end. “We had a very good year until this started. . . . I had regulars who came in once a week I didn’t see for weeks once the construction started.”
Inglett’s experience is an extreme example of the toll Santa Paula’s vaunted downtown make-over has exacted on merchants.
To be sure, many Main Street storefronts have been empty for years. And most shoppers have long since abandoned the traditional retail core for Ventura’s malls and strip centers, only 15 minutes away.
“There’s not a lot of boutiques selling Christmasy items,” said John Nichols, owner of a bookstore and art gallery. “There used to be. . . . It’s not entirely lost. It’s dormant. It’s a Rip Van Winkle Christmas.”
It is the potential of reviving what was once the hub of the community by bringing in out-of-town visitors--attracted by Santa Paula’s quaint small-town ambience--that sustains merchants’ flickering hopes of better times ahead.
But for now the owners of the modest collection of stores that remain say months of enduring ripped up streets and incessant noise have helped dissuade what few loyal customers they had from venturing downtown.
“It’s going to look nice and pretty, but nice and pretty don’t pay the rent,” said beauty parlor owner Susy Reyes, whose business has plummeted 70% during what is usually her busiest time of the year. “We can deal with a mess, but this was completely insane.”
Before work began on the ambitious 22-block project in August merchants were warned to brace for frustrated customers and a downturn in business. Some stockpiled savings. At least one store owner simply shut down for the duration.
An elaborate plan to minimize the impact of closed roads and the obstacle course of heavy machinery soothed concerns. So too did the schedule, with city officials assuring retailers that work on the two-block heart of downtown between 8th and 10th streets would be completed before the holiday shopping season arrived.
But city officials now concede their effort to allay fears about the politically sensitive project may have backfired.
“We probably, in hindsight, oversold the simplicity or how smoothly the project was going to run,” said project manager Ken Ortega. “There have been a lot of things happen that we didn’t anticipate to be honest. . . .”
Three subcontractors proved incapable of handling the demands of the complex project, contributing to delays. A critical storm drain needed a major redesign, which also slowed the work’s progress. Bad weather further hampered the job.
Although the project’s timing changed, merchants’ expectations didn’t.
“I knew it was going to be a mess and it was going to be dirty and it was going to be noisy,” said florist shop owner Nancy Brogan, who barely broke even last month. “But I didn’t know how noisy it was going to be, how dusty it was going to be and how unsafe it was going to be. . . . I don’t think they did a good public relations job at all.”
In what some business people saw as an insensitive move that added insult to financial injury, local politicians decided they would hold a dedication ceremony on the Thanksgiving weekend complete with self-congratulatory plaques. The ceremony was scheduled long before work even began, to coincide with the city’s Christmas parade, the opening of a downtown museum, the supposed completion of the initial phase of work and to serve as a kick-off for the holiday shopping season.
Merchants were livid.
After all, the work the dedication ceremony was intended to acknowledge remained unfinished. And the plaques were seen as self-serving, considering that many retailers believe city officials have little to be proud of so far.
Bowing to pressure, officials canceled the ceremony.
“I don’t think it was a mistake,” maintains Councilwoman Robin Sullivan. “We were still trying to do what we had promised the merchants we would do. . . . We wanted to create the illusion downtown was open.”
Merchants are more interested in reality.
The reality is that the entire project should be finished by the third week of February--so long as El Nino-driven rains don’t cause further delays. Meeting the February timetable means work would only be about two weeks behind schedule, Ortega said.
But Nichols is fatalistic, comparing the project to a car wreck.
“What do you think about when you’re [in an accident]?” he said. “Am I going to have to get my car repainted or am I going to die? . . . Your whole retail life flashes before your eyes.”
Still, things are looking a little rosier.
The city’s Christmas parade drew a crowd some merchants said was the largest they had ever seen, prompting speculation people were curious about what was going on in an area they had gone out of their way to avoid.
Sales have improved somewhat as Christmas approaches, although some merchants say their heavy discounting to lure customers doesn’t do much for the bottom line.
The city is working on a loan program to help merchants improve their store facades now that the street’s virtual hedge of bushy ficus trees has been chopped down to reveal charming, if neglected old buildings.
And with few shoppers around, parking is at least plentiful.
It is thoughts like these that merchants are comforting themselves with during the cold, cruel retail winter. One day, perhaps, this will have all been worth it.
“I view this as having kids,” said Jayne Cooper, among the most outspoken downtown retailers. “We’ve gone through the pregnancy. We’re in the terrible twos. And if we can get to the college stage, we’ll survive.”
