Reinventing Piru

A century ago, this was a fine little railroad town, built on farming and oil, with its own depot and general stores, butcher, barber, blacksmiths, stables, dressmaker, telegraph office, hotel and restaurant.

Today, after decades of decay and the demise of the local railroad and oil industries, Piru’s downtown has dwindled to two downtrodden blocks on Center Street, home to four shops: two convenience stores, a laundromat and the Blue Bird bar.

Unemployment is 10%, double the countywide rate. Much of the work to be had is seasonal.

This unincorporated village of 1,800 residents, in a core of about 1.5 square miles in northeastern Ventura County, has been on the decline.

Its death knell seemed to be the 1994 Northridge earthquake, which left 10 of Piru’s 12 downtown commercial structures either uninhabitable or precarious. The only bank in town, housed in a pretty brick building that was the cornerstone of Center Street, pulled out and sold the damaged structure to the county for $1 rather than invest in repairs.

But politics and natural disasters can work in strange ways. Ultimately, county officials say, the Northridge quake may turn out to have been Piru’s saving grace.

Using hundreds of thousands of emergency management dollars as seed money, leaders have amassed about $11 million, mostly through state and federal grants, and hatched a plan to restore Piru to a condition far better than before the earthquake.

In a town where it seems there is nothing to do, their vision is no easy sell: Piru as a tourist destination.

A redevelopment effort is already under way and could be largely complete next year. It relies on two things:

* Reconnecting a railroad track on the Santa Paula branch line to bring in passengers on the Fillmore & Western Railway.

* Cashing in on outdoor enthusiasts visiting nearby Lake Piru.

The track through Piru is being laid to run from the west through town, east to Rancho Camulos, which earlier this month was designated a National Historic Landmark by the U.S. Department of the Interior. It is the only site in the county with such status, which could help the site draw special grants.

The ranch inspired the fictional site where the heroine and her lover met in the 19th century Helen Hunt Jackson novel “Ramona.” Eventually, the track is expected to be extended to Santa Clarita in Los Angeles County and hook up with Metrolink.

In the early 1900s, the Ramona story spurred a cottage tourism industry, and, with several film adaptations, put Piru on the map as a popular filming area for Hollywood crews.

A bicycle and walking path is planned to run alongside the train track. There are plans for a public museum on the grounds of Camulos, ranched today by a local family.

An old-fashioned train depot with a gazebo will serve as Piru’s anchor in a town square area that would bisect Center Street, the road traveled by thousands of people each year on their way to Lake Piru for family and boating weekends.

Electrical lines will be buried. Quaint lampposts will replace steel poles.

And beginning this month, for $300 a month, the county will lease Piru’s former bank building to a local family that hopes to open an ice cream shop by Memorial Day weekend.

If backers’ predictions bear out, tourists would pour enough money into the local economy to sustain other start-up boutiques and perhaps some light industry. Piru residents could work and shop in town year-round. And the enclave, rich in history from the county’s pioneer days, would enjoy a renaissance.

Whether this is a reasonable goal or an imprudent gamble with tax dollars is a fair subject for debate.

And residents are not without hesitation. Because Piru has some relatively cheap land zoned for development in an otherwise expensive county with strict slow-growth laws, residents don’t want tourism to invite too much expansion.

Many already have mixed feelings about a 113-unit development with a large proportion of low-income homes that sprang up here during the last decade, increasing Piru’s housing stock by nearly 50%. They don’t want Piru to lose its old-fashioned, small-town feel or to be overrun by traffic.

And there also is skepticism about the redevelopment plans.

At Elva’s Center Market--one of the two convenience stores in town--customer Vince Alverdi said he is one of those who distrust the county’s motives.

“I don’t think it’ll help Piru’s economy. It’ll help Fillmore and the railroad company,” said Alverdi, who believes the depot and town square are just gestures to appease Piru residents who might otherwise object to trains roaring through town on their way east.

Still, most residents interviewed said they do want more stores in walking distance, some beautification and new jobs. And they are willing to invite thousands of people in to accomplish this goal, as long as those newcomers are only passing through.

“There’s nowhere in town, a family setting, where people can have dessert or a soda and just talk,” said Patricia True, the owner of the soon-to-open ice cream store.

Town’s Isolation Both a Blessing and a Curse

True and her husband discovered Piru years ago on trips with their boat to nearby Lake Piru. In 1998, they left their home in Sylmar and bought a century-old farmhouse here.

But True, a controller for a post-production firm in Glendale, soon saw the flip side of Piru’s isolation.

“You go to what should be the downtown and there’s nothing,” she said. “You need almost anything and you have to drive to Fillmore. It’s sad to see an area so empty.”

True’s 23-year-old son, now working as a stock clerk at a big box store outside of town, will run the ice cream shop.

“We need a clothing store, a shoe store, a toy store,” said Armando Rodriguez, a bricklayer and father of eight who finds most of his work in Los Angeles.

“We need something for the kids. They go to school and then they just stand around on the corners.”

Other neighbors say they would like a hardware store and a place to get a meal. The only restaurant around is a Mexican cantina on the road up to the lake, open at lunchtime.

“I don’t see any drawbacks” to redevelopment, said Steve Alcocer, a horticulture instructor at Ventura Community College and vice president of the Piru Neighborhood Council, a five-member board that serves as an unofficial town council. “What I do see is the chance for Piru to take advantage of cultural tourism.”

Jeffrey Finkle, president of the Washington-based Council for Urban Economic Development, said a tourism economy could work in Piru if plans are modest and well thought out.

Piru’s demographics are a factor: a population that is 75% Latino, with many residents seasonal citrus workers, and a median household income of $25,000 a year compared with $46,000 countywide. The Fillmore-Piru Citrus Assn., a cooperative packinghouse for regional Sunkist growers, is Piru’s main private employer, with about 100 employees.

“The problem with tourism strategies is that tourism generally creates low-wage jobs,” Finkle said. “The advantage is that migrant farm workers don’t have two-year associate degrees, which is what it takes to work at an Intel factory. You are matching skills with wages.”

Finkle also sees the county’s commitment thus far as a good sign. The Piru project is part of a larger Heritage Valley tourism project aimed at encouraging tourism in nearby Fillmore and Santa Paula.

Marketing is crucial, Finkle said. Primarily, two types of tourists would stop in Piru: campers and boaters en route to Lake Piru, and train passengers. Understanding who these tourists are, and what sort of goods and services they would want, could help determine what shops could make it.

A camping supplies store? Upscale or economy lodging? Finkle sees the potential for Mexican souvenirs, and perhaps woven baskets, given that Piru’s name is taken from the word American Indians had for a reed used in basket weaving.

Somehow, county leaders would like to integrate native Harry Lechler’s expansive collection of local junk, treasures, artifacts and historical records into the tourism experience.

Lechler’s museum is now housed several blocks from Center Street, on the lot next to his home. But as he and his wife approach 90, county leaders are working with them to have the collection appraised.

It’s also important for leaders to have realistic expectations, Finkle said. There won’t be 1,800 tourism jobs. Piru would be lucky if tourism creates 60 jobs this year.

Most Activity Likely on the Weekends

Most tourists would come on weekends. Could Piru’s residents spend enough to keep restaurants or shops open on weekdays, or would Piru be better served by setting up kiosks that would be open on weekends and operated by housewives, schoolteachers with summers off, or others who could run a business on top of their full-time work?

Finkle said having the current business owners on board also is important. They should be willing to beautify their storefronts and expand the products they sell to appeal to tourists as well as local residents.

Then, of course, there is the film industry.

Starting with “Ramona” star Mary Pickford’s stay in 1911 at the Mountain View Hotel, later renamed the Round Rock Hotel and now vacant, the movie and television industries have enjoyed filming in Piru.

It has a lot to offer: bridges, green open space and orange groves, old-style buildings, generally friendly people and virtually no traffic.

Filmmakers also have been drawn to one of the county’s most important works of architecture--the four-story, 12,000-square-foot Piru Mansion, within walking distance of Center Street.

The mansion has its own Web site, which lists it for sale at $3.25 million. Although the mansion lies just beyond the redevelopment district boundaries, county officials hope an eventual buyer would convert the mansion to a bed and breakfast. It also sits on nine acres of land, one-third of which are citrus groves.

Built in the late 1800s by Piru’s founder, religious publisher David Caleb Cook, it later became home to newspaper baron Scott Newhall, former editor of the San Francisco Chronicle. A fire in 1981 burned the mansion to the ground, but the Newhall family rebuilt it.

In recent years, crews have filmed throughout Piru, and at the mansion and the lake, for “Devil in a Blue Dress,” “Chaplin,” “Of Mice and Men,” “Attack of the 50-Foot Woman” and television series ranging from “Murder, She Wrote” and “Melrose Place” to “JAG” and the “X-Files.”

Many residents say they love having stars in town, being able to grab an autograph for their kids or share in friendly banter between takes.

But the industry’s presence has financially benefited only a handful of landowners, who get paid each time filming is done on their property.

Some, like Jimmy Sanchez, who owns three vacant storefronts downtown as well as one of Piru’s two convenience stores, have intentionally kept their storefronts vacant.

They make more money in filming fees once or twice a month--standard fees range from $500 to $1,000 a day--than they could from a tenant. And they don’t have to worry about maintenance, liability or late rent.

Alcocer and other residents say these store owners could stall revitalization efforts if they refuse to rent their available space to would-be entrepreneurs.

The challenge for planners is to get the film and tourism industries to work together, rather than get in one another’s way.

True sees the potential for the film industry to be a draw to the area. Perhaps tourists would come in the hopes of spotting a star. Perhaps stars and film crews would shop at local stores.

“I’ve stood on my front porch and seen the ‘X-Files’ people, Clint Eastwood and James Garner,” she said. “That would make me real happy if they walked in and bought an ice cream cone.”

Hollywood Important to Town’s Future

JAG producer Jim Weatherill said his crews have filmed in Piru six or seven times, most recently last month when they taped a Korean War scene on a bridge.

“Piru is centrally located,” he said. “And they’re very nice people.”

Weatherill said tourism wouldn’t rule out future filming, but it might make the area somewhat less attractive to crews, depending on how much traffic increases.

“The more controllable, the more advantageous it is to us,” he said. “If you have a busy street, you can’t just shut it down.”

Meanwhile, if redevelopment gives Piru too much of a “California look,” it could be less desirable for a crew trying to re-create Korea, or even the East Coast, he said.

“It just depends on what the script calls for.”

Finkle said he doubts tourism would ever get so big it runs film crews out of town.

“You go around the country and we can all name spots we sought out because it was filmed in a movie,” he said. “We’re not talking about generating that many visitors that it will be under siege by movie fans.”

All things considered, Piru’s plan for a tourism economy is a fragile proposition.

If there are problems with the railroad, if lake tourism decreases, if Rancho Camulos’ public opening is delayed, if downtown store owners won’t cooperate with county efforts, if the economy takes a dive or if tourists just aren’t all that impressed, the plan could crumble.

Still, there is a chance for success.

When Cook founded Piru more than 100 years ago, he dubbed it the “Second Garden of Eden.” Today, leaders hope that garden will bloom again.