Mom and Pop shops doomed in Harbor

If you follow "OneView InRedondo's" facebook updates, you will find a chain of comments related to the City Manager's request for a pay raise.  Our former Harbor Facility Manager, Mary Anne Campeau, weighs in on the City Manager's management methods:  the beatings will continue until morale improves.

But one of her comments is very revealing of the ongoing CenterCal Harbor "revitalization".  Campeau is speaking about the City Manager's direction for the harbor area:

" I am an example of his fury! I was too close to the businesses... he saw it as "they: verses "us".  He would state in management meetings...he wanted all the small (mom and pop) gone... he envisioned national companies taking over... and the Council supported his vision."

Finally, a voice from inside City Hall confirms what BBR and others have been saying all along.  Any local flavor and our beloved local establishments like Polly's on the Pier, Naja's, and Captain Kidd's are doomed if the current CenterCal plan goes through.  We will have a waterfront mall of cookie cutter national chain stores that will have a tough time competing with the other local malls that are refurbishing and expanding and have better traffic circulation and parking for customers.  One wonders why the Chamber is supporting this development and throwing long term local businesses under the bus... I would bet CenterCal is "contributing" to the Chamber to influence their support - just like AES does.

CenterCal, the City Manager, and some of our elected officials try to mislead us by saying these local establishments will be part of the CenterCal Mall.  But there is no way these businesses can survive the increase in lease that CenterCal will require.  The CEO of CenterCal tipped his hat when he stated "they will have to change their business model".  He even went so far as to visualize Naja's as a bistro.  (And, no, I am not making that up!)  So while some storefronts may say "Naja's" and "Polly's", they will not be the mom and pop places we all know and love.  And now we have Ms. Campeau revealing the City's "behind closed door" dealings and true vision for our harbor.  It appears she was fired because she supported current harbor businesses.

Ms. Campeau confirms our harbor is doomed to become yet another national chain cookie cutter outlet location and the "Redondo Beach" will be sucked out of our harbor.  To add insult to injury any views of the harbor will be blocked by the wall of mall outlets.

We might as well rename it the CenterCal Mall (and  harbor) right now.  The CenterCal Plan is not a "revitalization" of our harbor.  It is overdevelopment and over-exploitation.   It is a wholesale sell out to the developer.  Any semblance of our quaint harbor will be buried beneath and hidden behind the bloated cookie-cutter overdevelopment of national chains.   And when these national chains leave for greener pastures, we will be left holding the bag.