Downtown Redevelopment Revisited

By David L. Margrave

As a young businessman I believed the City fathers were the wisest and brightest of all city dwellers, I question this now some 40 years later having experienced several past failures in this downtown business district. The Orangerey was our first downtown redevelopment project to fail, there have been others. This newest downtown redevelopment project is yet another unneeded, undesired, unacceptable taxpayer funded project destined to fail. Look what the Council did to Fair Oaks.

Of course no such projects have been completed but many have been worked upon and millions of our tax dollars have been spent on Councilmens forgotten dreams. The dream of a bustling downtown shopping center within South Pasadena will never take place unless of course businessmen step up and use their own money to build and develop new businesses in the downtown area. Construction of new office, residential and business space within a limited parking area is not the answer to increasing our sales tax revenue.

I and others like myself make business decisions to help create wealth and income based upon our own ability to dream and pay for those dreams in order for them to become reality. If I fail to cover at least the development costs, guess what? I lose all that I have invested. With this Downtown Plan the Councilmen are using our tax money to foot the bill on their concept of building what we want and need. The very worst comes into play with developments like this one which no developer would get involved in unless the City Council gives them the money to construct the buildings.

What must be done of course is to purchase a few of the properties next to the Rialto Theatre and create parking in this area. All of the small Mom and Pop stores will benefit as will the Rialto Theatre since it has no parking today. Having been involved with nearly every business on Fair Oaks I have heard not one of them support the redevelopment just the opposite, most oppose and ask me to help stop the waste of yet another million or two of the Cites' tax revenue. If I am elected I shall work very hard to stop giving our money to developers and attempt to buy the few properties behind or west of the Rialto Theatre to expand parking.

We must create parking first and foremost in the downtown business area so as to help the existing business men and woman increase customer satisfaction in downtown South Pasadena. I shall vote against housing and giving away more of our tax money to developers who would not build without the gift of taxpayer funds. A good old friend told me today that he believed in redevelopment so long as the developers use their money not the Cities money. I agree!