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Joyce Clark Unfiltered

For "the rest of the story"

Disclaimer: The comments in this blog are my personal opinion and may or may not reflect an adopted position of the city of Glendale and its city council.

On Monday, June 6, 2022, City Manager Kevin Phelps and Vice Mayor Aldama hosted a downtown merchants meeting. The City Manager wanted to offer in detail City Council’s decision to bring an internal city employee on board as Downtown Manager within the Economic Development Department and the city’s plan to renovate the city hall complex.

This new person will have the responsibility of branding and marketing downtown to a greater extent than is done now. In addition, this person will have the responsibility of working with property owners to fill store vacancies as well as encouraging new downtown investment.

He then explained the council’s $70 million dollar investment in renovating City Hall, Council Chambers, the parking garage and Murphy Park. All renderings used in the presentation were strictly conceptual for council is expected to approve contracts for design prior to its July break.

It seemed as if the merchant attendees failed to appreciate or acknowledge the importance of this major investment in downtown Glendale.

I make no secret or apology for the fact that I was one of the councilmembers who preferred moving city hall to the Westgate area. My motivation for such a decision was that it would have signaled a city council and senior management, forward looking and confident in Glendale’s robust future and that Glendale has moved into the 21st century.

I am frustrated by downtown merchants who spend most of their energy continually asking the city to do more and to invest more. I firmly believe that until such time as a broad swath of downtown merchants (not just the historic area) coalesce into a legitimate, 501-C3 downtown merchants association with ‘skin in the game’ in the form of dues downtown Glendale will remain adrift and rudderless. It’s way past time for these fractious merchants to come together and to forge a vision for their future the old-fashioned way, through consensus. It’s way past time for the downtown merchants, through internal debate, to create self-crafted goals and strategies that will benefit all.

However, majority still rules and a majority of council felt that $70 million investment in our city hall complex would signal to all that we still believe in the importance of a robust and successful downtown. I eventually did and still do support council’s hope that this will help downtown Glendale but after the merchants meeting my initial reaction was how ungrateful they are and the city can never do enough to satisfy them.

There were some very thoughtful questions offered at the meeting. I was impressed with those individuals. However, some topics raised offered an insight into just how fractured downtown merchants are. Some wanted the city to rid downtown of the homeless while others wanted to open public restrooms. Public restrooms are a magnet for the homeless. Witness the city’s closure of the Velma Teague library public restrooms. They were closed because they attracted the homeless who used them to the point that the restrooms became a public health and safety issue. And yes, the city promised to find out from other Valley cities if they have public restrooms in their downtowns and what do they do to ensure that they are safe, clean and healthy? Frankly I don’t think other downtowns have public restrooms. This will be interesting data collection. So, downtown merchants which is it? Do you prefer to reduce the homeless downtown or do you want to encourage them to come downtown by offering public restrooms?

Mr. Phelps explained the term, “experiential retail” using examples of venues that combine food and beverage with recreational experiences. One of the attendees felt that the $70 million for the city hall complex renovation rather should have been used in developing experiential retail for downtown merchants. Ah, no. While the city in the past has offered grants to improve the exterior of existent or new downtown buildings it cannot and should not use public tax dollars to enhance the business model of any individual’s business.

Another query centered around the use of food trucks at Glendale’s LIVE event at Murphy Park. Some prefer removal of the food trucks as they compete with downtown’s restaurants while others wanted to see a process that allowed them to compete for space.

Just to put my comments in perspective, I have owned two businesses in the Valley. In my first, to become a tenant of the retail complex, I had to join the merchant’s association, pay dues and commit to being opened a minimum number of hours every day of the week. In my second business there was no merchant’s association as I was in a stand-alone building but I put in long hours and was open every day of the week from 9am to 9pm.

I had my own “experiential retail” before it became a ‘thing’ by having people like Ted DeGrazia, Hugh Downs and Irma Bombeck visit and meet my customers. Successful entrepreneurship is made of equal parts of long hours, passion for what you are doing and always trying something new to attract customers. I didn’t rely on a city to attract customers to make me successful. Why are these merchants always expecting the city to market downtown or create new events for them to attract customers? There are small businesses all over this city that have never made such an ‘ask’. They struggle just as some of the downtown merchants but yet they persevere reliant upon their own talents and resources.

© Joyce Clark, 2022      

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This site contains copyrighted material the use of which is in accordance with Title 17 U.S. C., Section 107. The ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Section 107 of the US Copyright Law and who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democratic, scientific and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such material. For more information go to http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use,’ you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Many years ago I owned and operated a bookstore. It was definitely a Mom and Pop operation with one paid employee. I was in a high traffic shopping center and I made sure I was open when all the other businesses were open. There were times when it was difficult to do so. One of the kids would get sick and I had to scramble to find someone to watch the munchkin until I got home. It was tough at times but I couldn’t afford not to be open and to miss any sale. My shop was open 7 days a week at the very same times that all of the other businesses were open in the shopping center.

I also founded and operated a craftsmen’s cooperative art gallery in downtown Phoenix for 10 years. We were always open the very same hours that all of the other businesses were open. There were times when a craftsperson scheduled to man the gallery could not do so. We were always juggling the artists’ schedules to make sure the gallery was always open.

Do you think the owners of Tanger Outlet allow their tenants to be open when it is convenient to the business owner? Not on your life. One part of Tanger Outlet’s success is the consistency of hours when all of its tenants are consistently open for business.

Apparently this is not the mindset of some downtown Glendale merchants. One time when I had out-of-town company I decided to take my guests to a particular downtown restaurant only to discover, much to my chagrin, it was not open. Now this did not occur on an odd or exotic day. It was a regular Monday – Friday workday and in the middle of the day…not even at night. Just one of the commitments of any shop or business owner (even a Mom and Pop business) is to offer the public consistent and regular hours of operation generally expected by the public.  

As a councilmember on and off since 1992 I have seen the many city efforts to help foster and maintain a viable downtown Glendale merchants’ association. At one time former Councilmember Phil Lieberman and I even wrote a charter for such an association. Every effort has been a failure.

In all of those years I have seen some downtown merchants who are quick to complain and to demand that the city do for them what they are unwilling to do for themselves. Recently I heard this anecdote. A group of citizen volunteers were donating their time and energy to pick up trash on the sidewalks in downtown. One of the business owners had the temerity to come out of the store to point out some trash and to tell the volunteer that he/she had missed picking it up. Was the business owner’s arm broken that day? What about a simple thank you directed to that volunteer for the effort?

What downtown Glendale needs most desperately is their very own, independent merchants’ association — an association that has created and passed its own mutual charter and that requires dues so that everyone has some skin in the game. It needs an association where all of the members agree to set some minimum and consistent hours when all will commit to being open.

I have seen downtown merchants who set their business hours whenever it is convenient for them. There is nothing worse that will turn a potential customer away, never to return. I have heard some of the business owners say why be open when there is no traffic? I beg to differ. There is always some foot traffic and these businesses need to be open consistently to capture those potential sales. The overhead remains generally the same whether a business is open 5 days a month or 30 days a month. The rent is the same every month.

It should be an association that establishes its very own authority in order to establish the credibility needed to be able to interact with the city for each party’s mutual benefit. As an association it needs to be able to create its own downtown mini-events without constantly relying on the city to establish events for them. It needs the ability to identify common problems and craft solutions to deal with them establishing fair and consistent goals for everyone with no favor. It should encourage collaboration and communication between all.

I am optimistic. There are downtown merchants who realize that it’s time to take action in their own self interest. They have recognized that the downtown is broken and not as robust as it could be.  They are willing. The question is…will their peers join them?

 Downtown merchants… it’s time to join the 21st century. It’s time for your own unique brand of creativity, innovation and energy to help Glendale’s downtown, your downtown succeed. It’s time for a downtown Glendale merchant‘s association…by, of and for downtown merchants.

© Joyce Clark, 2017          

FAIR USE NOTICE

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which is in accordance with Title 17 U.S. C., Section 107. The ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Section 107 of the US Copyright Law and who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democratic, scientific and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such material. For more information go to http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use,’ you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.