With the news that infamous big box chain Wal*Mart is going to move into the former Home Depot Expo building we can now finally declare the city of Encinitas to be a neurotic mess.
One of the biggest cultural and economic changes to ever happen in the history of Encinitas was the complete rezone of the "New Encinitas" area from agriculture to the Target shopping center.
Target changed all of our lives forever. It shifted the El Camino emphasis away from Wiegand Plaza. Leucadia Blvd now connects all the way through. We got a spiffy golf course. We got Barnes and Noble, Stater Bros, places to eat, all kinds of stuff!
The Target center has been a big success despite the boring facades and some waste of space. Target just did a big remodel and if you've been there lately you've seen it was a success and the store is rocking.
Linens and Things didn't make it and remains vacant, but let's face it, that store was pointless.
The difference between Target and Wal*Mart may just be different marketing and merchandising approaches, but Target achieves a level of yuppie class that Wal*Mart just doesn't have.
Wal*Mart moving into town right across from Target is like getting a new fat drunk neighbor move onto your street who immediately lets the lawn die and works on that crappy old van in the driveway all the time and never wears a shirt.
Now, all the wannabee free market libertarians are tripping over themselves to defend Wal*Mart's right to exist and they would be correct, if only they would make the same free market arguments about strip clubs, adult book stores and marijuana dispensers in Encinitas.
Allowing Wal*Mart into a town that previously made a huge culture shift in building Target, borrowing $20 million for a classy library, forever changed downtown Hwy 101 with Pacific Station and Whole Foods, a city which is trying to dramatically rezone the El Camino Real commercial corridor , a city that does all these types of things and then welcomes a thing like Wal*Mart to slip in through the backdoor, these are actions of a town with no real direction, vision or leadership.
The Expo space should have become a multiplex movie theater. Our town of over 60,000 people want it, the theater chains were interested and it wouldn't have taken much for city leaders to encourage the Home Depot property owners to go in that direction.
Total FAIL.
GOOD ARTICLE!
ReplyDeleteI agree. Right on the money. Or in Wal-marts focus. The less money the better. There stategy is a race to the bottom.
ReplyDeleteI for one will never shop at wal mart and I will never sell my soul to the devil like some City Leaders do all the time. Hint- who always defends the coming of wal mart. The worse joke is Encinitas didn't let Costco buy some of the Hall property, but they let Ghetto Walmart into town. Man Jerome Stocks is a moron.
To be fair Cardiffians would never have allowed Costco in their hood. The theater option was never discussed at Council seriously if I remember. Too bad for us, now Del Mar and La Costa have lost their theaters too. We have to go to O-side or San Marcos now. They dropped the ball on the movie theater option. I too will never shop at Walmart.
ReplyDeleteWho needs movie theaters? My home system blows away any movie theater. If you want a movie theater experience invite over some friends for your favorite flick. Theaters are a thing of the past just like libraries. Now our 20 million dollar space if for transients to gather to check their email and surf the web. check it out. The books are on the shelves. the computers are full. Bond was right. We should have built a 5 million dollar building with twice as many computer spaces for the poor. Maybe turn part of the library into a movie theater. the books are just wasting space. Dead inventory.
ReplyDeleteCardiffians don't want anything but passive in the hall property. Of course NIMBY classic. I get it. They should have had an option Costco or Public works yard and sports fields. That my NIMBY option. Leucadia has all the apartments and trailer parks. Lets spread the diversity around.
All I have to say is I will never shop there. None of my neighbors will either. I can only hope that they will go out of business and not survive. I feel bad for REI and the rest of the smaller stores who will not have parking. Or the traffice on Leucadia. I bet the people in LaCosta are ticked off. Never in my wildest dreams did I think Encinitas City Council would let this happen. Jerome you gotta go!!! Even Patrick Murphy said at the meeting, he doesn't shop there. WTF????
ReplyDeleteA movie theatre like the newer concept theatre at Del Mar Highlands on Del Mar Heights Rd. would have been a perfect fit and offered great continuity with the Forum clientele neighbor. Wal Mart, such a disappointment for Encinitas.
ReplyDeleteWal Mart in Encinitas - seriously people, who on earth thought that this was a good idea? The beginning of the end..... I am sad, this is NOT why I moved here or live here.
ReplyDeleteAnyone remember the K Mart in Solana Beach (where Office Depot is now)? late 70's..possibly 80's...anyway, it didn't cut it.
ReplyDeleteAnyone remember the K Mart in Solana Beach (where Office Depot is now)? late 70's..possibly 80's...anyway, it didn't cut it.
ReplyDelete@ Anon 9:44 PM
ReplyDeleteMost of the people surfing the web are actually very normal-looking people, not homeless, and the computers are not always full. But regardless, has it ever crossed your mind that the point of a library is to provide access to information for all people? Not just books, but internet, films, music, magazines, newspapers, and whatever other documents relating to our existence, our creative capacity, and the advancement of our species. As books go, I see people reading there all the time. In fact the last time i was there every single book on my list was checked out. Makes sense for the second busiest library in the county, no? Or would you be happier if all the shelves were empty? Nah, you'd still insist it's a failure. Confirmation bias and all.
Oh and fyi, the attraction to theaters is first run movies that folks can enjoy on a night out. You can't get that at home no matter how much money you wasted on your TV. But hey, it's cool, grumpy old men like to scoff cantankerously at things they don't want to understand.
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ReplyDeleteLots of books in the library
ReplyDeleteBooks are made of paper
Paper is bad
Library is very bad
Does anyone but me wonder why Olivenhein doesn't seem to get stuck with things like WalMart and other such awful stores. Are they that special, or is there something going on out there that I am unaware of?
ReplyDeleteDr. Lorri,
ReplyDeleteOlivenhain will have it bad enough having to get through El Camino gridlock just to get the freeway if the staff and developers get their way on the general plan.
Plus Olivenhain is getting high-density, low-income housing dumped on them at Desert Rose.
There are other curses that council and staff can dump on a community besides Walmart.
Thanks W.C. I didn't know that. And you are right, there are other curses. Many of them yet to be revealed.
ReplyDeleteLorri,
ReplyDeleteWhat to you mean? Don't you remember all the "4H not 7-11" picketers in Olivenhain?