Main Street isn’t a ghost.
Not yet.
During a recent Parking Committee meeting, District One Councilman Joe Kalmick said: “It’s not a healthy Main Street at the moment.”
Actually, Main Street is sick. It’s too soon to tell if it’s a serious illness. I counted four empty spaces facing one side of Main Street; two on the other. Main Street is three blocks long.
Temecula Olive Oil Company will close its Seal Beach shop forever on Sunday, March 3, bringing the count to seven.
I’ve shopped there and enjoyed some of their products. It seemed popular to me. The company is keeping its stores in other cities open.
Before the recent fire, Walt’s Wharf has consistently ranked among the top sales tax producers in Seal Beach; its closure (which I hope is temporary) is a blow to city revenues as well as to one of the iconic Main Street businesses.
Add to that closures of Old Town Café and the Station 17 store, and you’ve got an ever-growing number of empty store fronts on Main Street.
It’s not a good look.
More importantly, empty store fronts are bad for neighboring businesses.
I used to live within walking distance of a shopping center in Long Beach. There was a big department store there. Maybe two; it was a long time ago. Then one by one, the stores disappeared. It became increasingly uncomfortable to go to any of the remaining shops. It felt like a ghost town. Customers started staying away.
More shops failed.
Eventually, the entire shopping center had to be remodeled. I’m not sure, but I think the comic book store is still there. I recently looked at the center online and I didn’t recognize any other places.
Years later, I moved to Seal Beach. I used to live next to the Rossmoor Center, later renamed the Shops at Rossmoor in Seal Beach. The ghost center syndrome kicked in again. Store after store closed. The bakery relocated or closed; I forget which. The bowling alley was often quiet. The center was remodeled. That appears to have been largely successful.
I don’t know if we are at a tipping point yet, but Main Street appears to be approaching a tipping point.
The empty storefronts are only part of the problem. The sidewalks are uneven. I walk Main Street with my eyes aimed at the ground to avoid tripping and falling.
I don’t want to be an alarmist, but I remember a series of mistakes I made when I was younger. Every time I pulled on my pants, I felt like someone had kicked me. I ignored it. When I was 38, I learned I had testicular cancer. I should have paid attention to a rather obvious symptom a lot sooner. Seal Beach needs to look at this problem while the problem is still in its early stage.
I asked District One Councilman Joe Kalmick about the Main Street Revitalization Committee. “At this time there are no plans to reconvene the Main Street Revitalization Committee. The meetings were paused with the onset of the Covid pandemic crisis, and since then the introduction of all of the State housing laws and their unfunded mandates to implement them has not allowed us to return focus to Main Street improvements. Also, budget constraints have limited our ability to invest funds for Main Street. I still meet on occasion with Staff to review the status of possible grant funds and any new ideas that we might be able afford to implement,” he wrote.
I recently emailed the following questions to Mayor/District Four Council Member Schelly Sustarsic.
• Does the city know how many businesses in town have closed?
• Does the city government gather data on foot traffic on Main Street?
• Does city government know how many business have closed this year?
• What plans does the City Council have to stimulate business in town?
• Does the city plan to advertise for tourists? I’ll be asking these questions starting this week.
• Should Seal Beach update the Main Street Specific Plan?
• We have a parking committee. Should Seal Beach form a business committee?
On Feb. 26, hours before the regular council meeting, Sustarsic answered me. She wrote that she didn’t have the answers to most of those questions.
I’ll follow up as soon as I can.
Charles M. Kelly is associate editor of the Sun. His opinions are his alone.
