REI’s decision to “get out of Dodge” is a devastating comment on our City government’s spectacular failure, on every level, with regard to Third Street Promenade. I mean, REI is one of the only shops on (or just off) Third Street Promenade that Santa Monica residents actually regularly use.
Everyone knows The Promenade is a tourist trap, not really made for locals. Third Street’s prime real estate was repurposed by the City and designed to draw in out-of-towners to spend their money here and leave their sales tax revenue behind. And most locals avoid it. The only problem? That experiment is failing!
With online shopping and cleaner, safer alternatives all around LA, retailers don’t think it is worth it to pay the astronomical rents on Third Street only to have large portions of their inventory stolen, their shops vandalized, and their front doors covered in whatever is being left on the sidewalks in Santa Monica nowadays.
This is why Third Street is less of an attraction than it once was. But let’s not get it twisted: although REI and other retailers are leaving Third Street partly because of the changing retail market, they are also leaving because of the decay we all know and see is happening in Downtown Santa Monica, and the city as a whole. REI knows and sees it as well, and is voting with its feet. And without all the tourists being attracted to big stores, we now have a space in the heart of our city that no one wants to go to.
And it will keep getting worse as companies like REI, who should want to be in a place like Santa Monica, decide to leave. I only hope that the City government recognizes what is happening and responds. How? I am not a policy expert, but maybe, if the City wants to fill all the open spaces on Third Street and/or attract — I don’t know, residents — back to the Promenade, they should make it easier for local businesses to move in? An example; maybe help a great local spot (something like Santa Monica Brew Works) get space on the Promenade? Maybe cut out some of the red tape for local restaurants and/or watering holes to open downtown? More foot traffic will make Third Street safer.
Maybe up the police presence around Third Street? That might work too! Maybe strong arm the Third Street landlords and Downtown Santa Monica, Inc. to stop pricing out businesses and sullying the potential Third Street has always had? They just write off their losses, so it doesn’t matter to the property owners anyways. If residents come back, big companies and tourists will too.
Or maybe our City government should keep making excuses, keep ignoring Santa Monica’s unacceptable crime and vandalism issues, and keep losing sales tax revenue from tourists and residents alike to better planned, cleaner, newer, and safer alternatives that are popping up outside our City. But, if that keeps happening, I hope us residents vote with our actual vote, as opposed to our feet like REI just did, and “clean shop” for elected officials that help keep our City’s favorite shops clean and safe and still here.
Kabir Chopram, Santa Monica
