September 5, 2001

Bring back Grant City?

There are those persons who wish to drastically limit those allowed to visit Yosemite, perhaps permitting only dues-paying, able-bodied members of the Sierra Club aged 18 to 34.

While that would probably be fought to a standstill by the membership of the Mariposa County Chamber of Commerce, and objected to by millions of folks nearing or past my present age, it does represent a state of mind all too common these days. No one ever sees themselves as "the problem." It's those other folks who create the traffic, overcrowd the parks and beaches, make "our" environment less pleasant. Perhaps only the elite should be permitted to visit Yosemite. Keeping out the riff-raff, including (dare I say it?) people like me, seems to be the goal, if unspoken, of quite a few. In the same vein, there seem to be some people who want to keep Pacifica from being too convenient, too accessible, too easy to live in.

Pacifica once enjoyed the benefits of a store that was called, at various times, "W.T. Grant", and "Grant City." It was a large store, at least in Pacifica terms, in the Linda Mar Shopping Center. It sold clothing, and hardware, and a variety of merchandise that might have been characteristic of a smaller Sears store, or perhaps, a present day smaller K Mart or Target. The chain, unfortunately, went belly up, and the store closed. However, if my memory is anywhere near right, the local store was always busy, successful and profitable.

While we do enjoy the benefit of the world's oldest Ross store, it is a pretty specialized operation, one not terribly useful for general clothing shopping.

Some of our city leaders have told me that we can't afford to allow any more houses to be built. Supposedly they don't pay their own way, yet because of prop. 13, it is the homes owned by longtime residents like me which drain our resources. It appears to me that it would be to the city's benefit to bribe folks like me to sell our homes, thus increasing the tax base substantially. My new neighbor's recent home purchase is going to be taxed on a value of about $450,000, while mine is taxed at the lower rate that reflects property values of the 1970's.

If we don't build residences, perhaps we can build commercial, even if all we're doing is replacing W.T. Grant and rising to the level we once enjoyed in the 1960's. Perhaps we could get a Target store? Unfortunately, even that small and unlikely advance is being objected to. One letter writer called it "a joke." It would have a parking lot, for heaven's sake! It would draw cars and create traffic. It would be terrible if it should be a success, but it might fail, and leave an empty building. Having a nearby, handy, convenient store to shop at, I'm told, would cause our property values to go down.

Actually, a convenient, nearby Target, say in Rockaway Beach, would save a lot of mileage. Instead of a 15 mile round trip, folks from the back of Linda Mar would have a three mile round trip. Fewer, shorter, more efficient trips. What a concept!

For the health of the city as a whole, we need a reasonable amount of housing construction and turnover, and we need at least as much commercial business as we had 25 or 30 years ago, say a few car dealers, a department store or two, perhaps even a variety store or two. This isn't growth. This is recovering some of our losses.

Paul Azevedo's older e-mail addresses and website still work just fine, but if you wish you can also send him e-mail atPaul@thereactor.net and check his website at http://www.thereactor.net.