December 5, 2007

Victory for Proponents of Giant Empty Parking Lots


fletchersquare101, originally uploaded by Luis Lopez.

THE GIANT, EMPTY PARKING LOT near Fletcher Drive and San Fernando Road will stay giant and empty a while longer. The Home Depot has been chased away, officially, from developing the old Kmart site. This is a huge win for people who think northeast LA has plenty of jobs and that taggers don't have enough unoccupied buildings upon which to practice. And for people who love California Pizza Kitchen. Yay.

3 comments:

mjs said...

Your reasoning has a kind of handcuffing effect: either one was for another Home Depot or one was for large, empty parking lots. No other options?

Note: Home Depot's withdrawing from the site may indeed have more to do with economics than with local protestations. One reason to build three mega stores in a four mile stretch is to keep out competition, which is gaming the market a bit but so be it. One good reason to not build another mega store is that the anticipated profits vs. "suppressing competition tactic" didn't add up to equal "Happy Stockholders."

++++

qazwsx said...

I couldn't agree more. I know I *love* living near an abandoned KMART.

Miles said...

I agree with MJs -- Home Depot and big empty parking lot are not the only options. The point of not having Home Depot there was that it would have added more to congestion and ugliness than to making this small part of the city better. A mixed use set of buildings with parking in the back and a decently landscaped front can transform the corner. Home Depot was never a good option.