Awakening to Adams Square

Claudia Peschiutta

SOUTH GLENDALE -- On the cloudy window above the crumbling red bricks

that frame the front of Crysti Cleaners is posted a fading image of the

future.

In yellowing tones, an artist’s rendering says Crysti’s and the rest

of the aging, dark brown building on the corner of Palmer Avenue and

Adams Street will one day look new again.

The building’s owner, John Cianfrini, is confident the changes

promised to him by the city-sponsored Adams Square Facade Improvement

Program will be in place within a few months.

The senior entrepreneur also expects other good things to start

happening in Adams Square, the struggling commercial district that lies

mainly on Chevy Chase Boulevard between Adams Street and Acacia Avenue.

He is waiting to see the city put in more street lighting, landscaping

and improve the look of many of the businesses in the area.

But behind Cianfrini’s hopes lie doubts. He wonders whether the city’s

promises will come true. He worries, because those promises have become

his own.

GENERATING INTEREST

When a few Adams Square business owners, with help from city

employees, began to unite in the late 1990s, Cianfrini took a lead in the

effort to create a merchants’ group for the area.

Founded in March, the Adams Square Merchants Assn. has attracted 15 of

about 40 business owners in the area.

Cianfrini, the organization’s president, said it has been difficult to

generate interest in the endeavor.

In a diverse community where Armenian and Spanish are as common as

English, Cianfrini figures many of the merchants have come from other

countries where business may have been conducted in secret and government

officials were feared.

Some of the merchants “don’t trust their government,” he said.

“Everybody’s a lone wolf and they have to survive.”

Promises of facade improvements, landscaping and more street lighting

have encouraged local business owners, Cianfrini said, but the enthusiasm

will fade quickly without follow-through.

City officials said facade improvement work on six businesses will

probably begin later this year.

Construction on traffic-calming improvements, to slow drivers and make

them take notice of the businesses along Chevy Chase, is expected to

start late this year or early next year.

Cianfrini is hoping there won’t be any delays.

“If this thing doesn’t pull off in November, I’m in deep trouble

because I’ve made a lot of commitments [to the merchants],” he said. “If

we don’t keep it going, they’re not going to believe us at all anymore.”

WAITING FOR RESULTS

Association member Khoren Keshishyan has heard all the talk about

Adams Square beautification.

By summer, the city hopes to have a quaint plaza with flowering trees

and a gurgling fountain on the southwest corner of Adams Street and Chevy

Chase. Farther up the drive at Acacia, plans are to install an Adams

Square entry monument and a median decorated with shrubs and red roses.

Keshishyan needs more than plans and artists renderings. He needs to

see results.

In Adams Square’s most prominent building -- a pink, Art Deco

structure on Chevy Chase and Acacia -- the Iranian native runs a hair

salon, beauty supply store, floral boutique and print shop.

A wiry man of 52 with a pepper-colored beard and glasses, Keshishyan

would rather talk about the books and plays he’s published than his many

shops. He is not the kind of man willing to waste his time on business

ventures that don’t yield a return.

Keshishyan joined the merchants association, he said, because it’s

important for neighbors to know each other and “give each other

business.”

He believes the group is working hard and that the city is genuinely

interested in improving Adams Square.

“The city thinks about me, I know that,” said Keshishyan, who spoke in

English and through an Armenian interpreter.

But if plans don’t soon begin the journey toward reality, Keshishyan

said he will quit his membership.

“I am a very serious man,” he said. “They can’t play with me.”

A JOINT EFFORT

City officials are counting on the support of local merchants and

residents in the effort to revitalize Adams Square.

“It has to be a partnership between the city and the community,” said

Madalyn Blake, director of Community Development and Housing. “The

success depends on it.”

In 1997, the city hired a team from USC to conduct a study of Adams

Square that included a survey to find out what amenities are most

important to people in the area.

The survey found street lighting, clean stores, retail variety,

parking availability and safe conditions at night were priorities.

The study said Adams Square was “not a pedestrian-friendly

environment” and that half of the 40 businesses considered had

unattractive storefronts.

However, the report concluded that the area has a “tremendous

opportunity for economic growth and development.”

Seeking to seize the opportunity, the city in 1998 once again asked

community members for their input with “The Visioning Tour,” during which

people were invited to walk through Adams Square and share their views

for its future.

“Your participation is essential to a successful realization of

reinventing Adams Square,” read a brochure about the event.

City officials also recognized the importance of organizing the local

business owners and began meeting with them, which resulted in a street

fair, a tree-lighting ceremony in 1999 and, later, the Adams Square

Merchants Assn.

“We found there is a need to enhance the business in the area,” said

Zizette Ayad, an economic development analyst for the city. “We went out

and said, ‘OK, we’re here. We want to help you.”’

PROMOTION FOR PROGRESS

Adams Square lacks the charm of the Montrose Shopping Park and the

variety of downtown Glendale, but many people believe in its potential to

become an attractive and successful business district.

“There are a number of buildings in Adams Square that have a lot of

character,” said Jess Duran, assistant director of the city’s Community

Development and Housing Department.

The problem is that a lot of people don’t even know Adams Square

exists.

“The area is not being recognized throughout the city,” Ayad said.

“People in Montrose or people up on Brand Boulevard, they may not be

aware of where Adams Square is.”

That’s due, in part, to a lack of advertising, she said.

“The businesses need to start being focused on promoting themselves,”

Ayad said. “I think they rely more on word of mouth.”

That’s what Keshishyan does.

He said he doesn’t advertise. Asked how he attracts customers, he

joked, “I smile.

“In this country, the advertising is very important,” Keshishyan said.

“It’s my fault because I’m not a good businessman. I think about my

literature and the arts.”

CONVENIENCE COUNTS

While people outside of the area may not know about Adams Square, many

local residents depend on its coin-op laundry, cleaners, markets, beauty

salons, shops and liquor stores.

“Around the area, most people do shop here,” said Lupe Del Cueto,

walking home laden with shopping bags.

She said she goes to Spector’s Super Mercado Latino almost every day

and also frequents the Zeitoon Grocery, Hair With Flair Beauty Salon and

Palmer International Cuisine.

For Del Cueto, the attraction is the convenience of having these

stores so near her home.

Horacio Lovato also lives within walking distance of Adams Square and

said he makes use of its stores because “me queda cerca” or, “it is close

for me.”

Both also agreed that while convenient, Adams Square needs more

variety.

Everyone from city officials to merchants agrees.

Aside from their geographic locations, downtown and the Montrose

Shopping Park attract more people than Adams Square because “the needs

are focused in one area,” Ayad said.

Cianfrini also wants to see more of a mix in the area.

“We need businesses that cater to everyone, to all the cultures,” he

said. “You can’t have isolationism.”

HOPING FOR THE BEST

Whatever its problems, Adams Square has the support of many optimists

who hope to see it thrive some day.

Cianfrini is among its most vocal supporters.

“I came here with very little money,” he said. “When we came here, we

amassed a good chunk of cash ... I feel I owe the area something.”

He said he could sell his Adams Street building, “but it would be like

running away.

“What I’d really like to do is see this part of town prosper and come

into its own. Then, maybe, I’ll leave, and not until then.”