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Originally Posted by danvillain
last time i checked, berkeley was near SF, not in it. why, pray tell, are we discussing berkeley in a thread titled "san francisco's retail scene?" oh well, merge-time...     |
I figure this article is best to put here (as opposed to Bay Area development thread), even tho, as danvillain pointed out, Telegraph is nowhere in the limits of San Francisco.
Telegraph will change with the times. How are the stores on Haight doing?
The internet is hurting local record stores like Amoeba too. My old roommate was really into the revamping of everything about the music industry, and with a little research, found out that most mom and pop music stores were going out of business and "huge" indie stores like Amoeba make their profits essentially from their selection of used cds.
Also, I'd like to point out - Telegraph's main consumers day in and day out are the students of UC Berkeley, who heavily populate the campus's Southside neighborhood. And one thing - Berkeley students (and students in general) are CHEAP and quite fickle when it comes to spending their money. Why pay at Amoeba when you can download of your house network? Why buy expensive food when you can steal food from the DC for free? Who has time to leisure read when all your free time is spent studying? Berkeley students, while refusing to spend more than 5 dollars on a meal, will also throw down $75 bucks on a Tuesday night at Henry's or $50 on a Thursday at Blakes for booze. And *will* waste their money at Annapurna or the other head shops. I was one of them,
They are notoriously cheap and will find ways around necessities in order to fund non-essentials. And everytime I go back, it's like going back to a completely different mentality.
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BERKELEY
Troubles on Telegraph
Closure of Cody's is only one of signs of 'The Ave's' decline
- Patrick Hoge, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, May 11, 2006
The closure of Cody's Books on Berkeley's Telegraph Avenue is the latest, and perhaps sharpest, blow to a famed but increasingly troubled area renowned for its intense pedestrian traffic, youth-oriented businesses, colorful street vendors and vagrants.
Business owners, city leaders and UC Berkeley officials say things have hit a disturbing low on "The Ave,'' where the commercial vacancy rate is approaching 15 percent and last year's sales tax receipts were 30 percent below what they were in 1990 when adjusted for inflation - the sharpest decline of any business district in the city.
"Sales are horrible right now," said Al Geyer, founder of Annapurna, an eclectic store that's been on Telegraph since 1968 and offers an array of goods ranging from pipes to spiritual music to sex toys. "I don't think anybody is making any money."
Almost everyone attributes the problems to
increased competition from Internet outfits selling books and music -- two staples of Telegraph Avenue -- at rock-bottom prices and the fact that items once found only in Telegraph Avenue's offbeat shops are now sold in more mainstream venues.
But some believe that an increasing number of
people are avoiding the neighborhood because of the homeless who frequent the area -- especially the youth. And one city official said
the merchants of Telegraph Avenue simply have not kept up with the times.
"New generations of students do not identify with Telegraph Avenue," said Dave Fogarty of the city's Office of Economic Development. "The history of the '60s and '70s was before they were born. There doesn't seem to be all that much nostalgia for it."
Whatever the case, city officials are well aware of Telegraph's decline and are moving aggressively to reverse it. Just last week, Mayor Tom Bates called a meeting of business owners, city employees, university officials and police to discuss what to do.
"We've known that Telegraph Avenue has been a problem for a long time," he said.
Bates said he expects to present a package of initiatives soon aimed at increasing law enforcement, deploying a mental health worker to help the homeless, marketing the area as a worthwhile destination for more than just youth, and easing the requirements for businesses trying to locate in the area.
The last item has long been a goal of the business community, which argues that city limits on the number and nature of businesses in each district and the red tape involved in opening a business have long been a large, and often expensive, hurdle.
"That's obviously nonsensical," said John Lineweaver, president of the Telegraph Property and Business Improvement District.
Lineweaver said 23 of 210 commercial spaces on The Ave are vacant, but he expects that number could rise to 30 by July because some businesses are on the verge of closing.
"That's an extremely high percentage, especially in an area with one of the highest foot-traffic counts of any shopping district in the Bay Area," said Lineweaver, president of Diablo Holdings, which owns a building at Telegraph and Durant avenues with apartments, a bar, restaurant and cell phone distributor.
Beyond the impending loss of Cody's Books -- a Telegraph Avenue institution that owner Andy Ross announced Tuesday was closing down after losing some $1 million -- the Gap store directly across from the UC campus closed in January and remains vacant.
Telegraph's image problem -- the street between Parker Street and campus is often littered and dirty, and homeless youth often loiter outside businesses -- is hardly new, and the city has over the years made various efforts to clean things up.
"Now more than ever we need new political leadership that will stop defending the 'rights' of people to sleep, camp, sell drugs and sit on the sidewalks," said Greg Murphy, who lives in Berkeley's Willard neighborhood. "We need to push back at criminal and anti-social behavior to make Telegraph a safer and more viable place to work and shop."
But Telegraph Avenue is also not alone in its economic woes, with downtown businesses hurting almost as much, Fogarty said. The entire city has seen sales tax receipts stagnate or decline, with the notable exception of the trendy Fourth Street shopping district that has seen almost consistent growth since the 1980s, he said.
Citywide, sales taxes dropped from about $13 million in 2001 to about $12.8 million last year, and inflation makes those numbers look even worse, he said. And if anything, things ought to be looking up on Telegraph and south of campus because the university has added hundreds of units of housing in recent years.
But Roland Peterson, executive director of the business improvement district, said one reason the avenue's merchants are hurting is that students no longer have to frequent them now that the university has expanded its retail offerings and created university debit cards students can use to pay for meals and other campus services.
The university is considering allowing students to use the cards at businesses in the south-of-campus area, said UC Berkeley spokeswoman Irene Haggerty. She said the university has a stake in seeing Telegraph Avenue's slide reverse because it is a gateway to the campus and 80 percent of its students live nearby.
The university has increased police patrols and has been trying to clean up People's Park, for example repeatedly removing the "free box" where people leave unwanted clothing.
"The feeling was that Telegraph was reaching some sort of tipping point," Haggerty said.
But some merchants said there is reason to be optimistic.
A new Adidas store near campus appears to be thriving, Peet's Coffee wants to open a store, and the owner of lot at Haste Street that has stood vacant for more than a decade is expected to offer a development plan soon.
Doris Moskowitz, owner of Moe's Books, another venerable bookstore that is next to Cody's Books, agreed that Telegraph has some serious blight but said the bookstore her father founded in 1959 will not be leaving.
"I believe the neighborhood is just about to turn around," she said.
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