The local media has gotten on board the bandwagon to ask what's REALLY going on in Downtown Newhall these days. All are in agreement on one basic item: That the City of Santa Clarita is at least partially responsible for Newhall Hardware's demise. The parking issues and the City of Santa Clarita's decision to redirect traffic away from the Newhall Hardware location are stated by many as significant factors in Newhall Hardware's decline in sales and the ultimate closing of the store. Suzie Szabo, Manager of the Old Town Newhall Association, said in an interview with The Signal, "(The city) cut the flow of traffic to the merchants here. You take away people's view of what's down here." An editorial in The Signal states that "The problem is that pedestrian-friendly means car-unfriendly. If you need a bolt or a hex driver, it's likely you plan to get to the store in your car, not on horseback." It should be pretty common knowledge by now that the City's plans for Downtown (or Old Town) Newhall were based largely on the redevelopment project in Old Town Pasadena. However, what the City of Santa Clarita failed to consider in its Newhall plans was the fact that the Downtown Newhall is still an active business district, where the Pasadena area was largely vacant when redevelopment started there. "Downtown Newhall is a living, if eclectic and minority-friendly, business district. It's a shame we have to give up the truly old for the faux old," say The Signal's editors. Santa Clarita resident Shellie says, "This is so sad that such a quaint historic area is going to eventually be lost." Agua Dulce resident Gary Hebdon had this to say about the redevelopment plans in a recent comment on this blog: "Saving gems like this [Newhall Hardware] is what the downtown Newhall Redevelopment should be about. It's nice to see renovation but if we have cookie cutter stores for trendy shoppers, I'm afraid that we've missed the point of this whole exercise." Gary also says, "My hope is always that wise city planning can strike a delicate balance between growth and cultural preservation necessary to create a quality of life that all residents can embrace." Meanwhile, employees of the City of Santa Clarita thought it easier to blame the closing of Newhall Hardware on the recent writers' strike in the film industry. Personally, I can't see why a fairly short-lived strike could have caused the failure of Newhall Hardware, but I guess it could have been a contributing factor to some minor extent. Could Newhall Hardware have been saved? Hard to say, but it's interesting to note that I've been posting articles on the folly of the Old Town Newhall Revitalization Project for months now, with most people asking "Why do you care?" Well, now you know the answer to that question... How many more businesses will have to be put out of business before someone stands up to the Santa Clarita City Council to say NO! to the current redevelopment plans? Still on the chopping block at the City of Santa Clarita are those businesses that are at the corner of Spruce Street and Lyons Avenue, adjacent to San Fernando Road. The owners of the CarQuest building have already had the City's purchase of the building approved by the City Council, although the status of the tenant (CarQuest) is apparently still in limbo. The Antique Flower Garden already went out of business, but the building's owner would likely want to find another tenant if this historical jail building wasn't scheduled for tear-down or "redevelopment". Was the Antique Flower Garden's business severely affected by the revised traffic patterns as well? Likely we'll never know for sure... As it currently stands, Manny Santana is facing at least two years of vacancy at this location unless he can find a tenant who is willing to open up shop without knowing how long they'll be able to stay there. White Light Chiropractic Center, Just Passing Thru and Paws for Fun are also still in limbo, with the building owners receiving low-ball offers from the City for the "purchase" of their properties and the tenants receiving a lot of conflicting information regarding their situations from Chris Price at Santa Clarita City Hall. Yes, I know, some think that Just Passing Thru is not a good representation of what we should have in downtown Newhall, we've seen the comments on this on blog posts before. However, if you take the time to go into that store, you'll find clean rooms, friendly staff, and normal clean-looking teens (with their parents in tow) waiting to have various parts of their anatomies pierced amongst the funky decor. Auto Service Plus owner Larry Totter says that he has been "harassed" by the City of Santa Clarita for months now for doing "business as usual", which has apparently been recharacterized as "code violations" per the new Old Town Newhall building requirements. Totter recently stated that his legal bills for defending himself against the City's lawsuits are upwards of $160k and still rising! Meanwhile, every time Larry attempts to get permits to correct these supposed code violations, the permits are denied. And of course Auto Service Plus has been affected by the new traffic patterns as well. Danny at Sound Station has reported similar actions from the City of Santa Clarita, with threats of lawsuits due to supposed "code violations", and the City's refusal to issue permits so he can correct these supposed violations. Somewhere along the way to the current Old Town Newhall Revitalization plans, the City changed its building codes for the Newhall area to make it so automotive-related business are clearly given the "Keep Out" sign, and these two businesses are clearly caught in the middle of this code change. Hey, I'm all for "prettying up" the Downtown Newhall area, but at what cost? Now that everyone's in shock from the closing of Newhall Hardware, it seems like a good time to take a closer look at the redevelopment plans to see if they still make sense. Thus far, there's been almost no public interest in this project at all. Maybe now that Newhall Hardware has brought this situation into the spotlight, more people will take notice (and hopefully take action) regarding the Newhall Redevelopment plans. Do we really want to "give up the truly old for the faux old" and replace current businesses with "cookie cutter stores for trendy shoppers", or are there better options to consider? 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