Old Town’s Face Lift Has a Flaw

The squiggly lines Tustin antique dealer Gerda Brucks draws in her ledger on days when nothing leaves the store have started outnumbering the painstakingly detailed entries she makes when something is sold.

Brucks hasn’t made a big sale since summer, when a customer bought a $7,500 buffet, and she spends most of the days in her cluttered Old Town Tustin store fine-tuning an award-winning holiday window display few customers will pass.

“While we’re waiting to be discovered, business stinks,” she said.

A $1.8-million rejuvenation project intended to make Old Town Tustin a destination for shoppers has instead repelled some customers from the five-block stretch of antique dealers, specialty shops and vacant lots.

Although the construction noise and dust have mostly disappeared, leaving behind ornate iron streetlights and flower-filled planters to brighten the newly widened streets, luring shoppers is yet another challenge in an already difficult time.

As the holiday shopping season begins, merchants in downtown Tustin, like those in aging city centers around Southern California, are hoping they will be able to hold their own against malls and big-box retailers.

One such merchant is salon owner Margit Aaron, who hopes customers will forgive the inconveniences of the construction work that for nearly 10 months tore up the roads around El Camino Real between Newport Boulevard and 1st Street.

“The new streetscape was something to bring people downtown to shop and make them more comfortable while they’re here, not to deter them,” said Aaron, who was president of the Tustin Old Town Assn. during construction. “People need to give Old Town another chance.”

A dozen people were strolling through the area at any given time Saturday, meandering into stores and chatting with conversation-starved proprietors.

To fill stretches of downtime between customers, store employees straightened show boxes or worked crossword puzzles, and cigar store manager Sean Gutridge tossed a football with a friend in the parking lot.

Florist Janet Johnson blames the construction for the dip in walk-in business.

“We have mostly an older crowd, so they understandably got a little perturbed when they had to walk farther and farther just to get to the store,” she said.

Although her affectionate Jack Russell terriers are a big draw for The Ruffled Tulip, most shoppers leave without buying anything, she said.

Cooing at Gumbo and Sweet Pea as they placed their paws on her legs before she walked out empty-handed, Deborah Swensen, 35, of Irvine was a case in point.

Swensen was shopping in Old Town for the first time with friend Don Kolling, of Tustin, enticed by an ad for an antique store called The Vintage Lady, where she bought a trio of green felt Christmas stockings. Swensen and Kolling said the area has a lot of potential.

“I always root for these cute downtown areas to make the transformation and become destinations rather than just places you stop at because you’re passing through,” said Kolling, 43. “We need to have boutique types of places as alternatives for those of us who don’t like malls.”

Other business owners might say Vivian Heredia, who owns the well-known McCharles House Tearoom with her mother, Audrey, has nothing to worry about. Vivian Heredia said the construction didn’t affect business at the tearoom, which was booked Saturday.

“Our clientele really appreciates beautification,” said Heredia. “They don’t mind a little inconvenience.”

Still, she looks forward to the day when people think of McCharles House as yet another attraction in Old Town Tustin.

“The mingling and strolling will create more of a village-type atmosphere,” she said.

Store owners in Jamestown Village, a small plaza at one end of Old Town with a dozen shops, including Brucks’ antiques store, hope the mingling will extend to them.

After unsuccessfully attempting to cajole Los Angeles costume designer Pat Welch into buying a silver ladle Saturday, Brucks started poking fun at her own boldness.

“I’ve got to have fun in here because I’m certainly not selling anything,” Brucks said.