By:Joseph Kellard
With the Zoning Board of Appeals considering an application to tear up the parking lot between Tennessee Avenue and Vermont Street to build single-family homes, debates have resumed regarding how best to use this and other properties in the West End.
Some Long Beachers hold that commercial property in the West End does not prosper, while others argue that no new housing is needed because there are enough vacant homes in the area.
"I don't think you need more commercial space and businesses in the West End," City Manager Ed Eaton said. "It's a matter of location, but most businesses there are season oriented, and historically businesses have had a tough time down there as compared to business in the center of town. There's more traffic in the West End than in the center of town, and that can be a problem for businesses."
Asked if the city, which plans to build an $11-million garage in the center of Long Beach, also plans to create more parking space in the West End to assist businesses there, Eaton replied, "People have a right to develop their property. If the developer wants to build houses there, that's his right. While some would like to make it parking, they can't deny a person his right to use his property. And parking has already been addressed in this area."
Eaton cited construction in recent years of two parking lots in the West End -- at Connecticut Avenue, on the former property of the Gary Owens bar that burned down, and between Virginia and Tennessee, where a row of stores had been condemned. Properties at both sites were purchased by the city and made residents-only parking lots.
Ed Buscemi, city councilman, executive director of the Chamber of Commerce and West End resident for 47 years, believes higher property values are shaping the development of the area. "Who in their right mind would put in an empty lot?" Buscemi said. "If I were a planner, what I would do is have parking in the back of the stores. But to do that now in this price age, it would cost you half a million dollars."
Although Buscemi also believes the West End has enough businesses and calls it "reasonable" to place houses on empty lots, he discounts the argument that commercial businesses cannot thrive there today. "Many smaller business come and go. Some start up to serve certain trends, and they come and go with them. It's always been that way. The bottom line is that the businesses that have value and give you something good for your money are old and lasting."
Buscemi cited O'Rourke FM Hardware & Plumbing, C-Town supermarket, Henry's Little Inn and Shine's Bar & Grill, among others, as having existed in the West End for decades and called them "venerable businesses."
But John White, past president of West End Neighbors, believes businesses generally fail to last in the area and doesn't want to see new ones built.
"Business is good in the area only during the summertime," White said. To make his point, he cited the closing of the Fleet Bank on the corner of Wyoming Avenue and West Beech Street. "That bank did little or no business, and most of your banks depend on commercial business."
Along West Beech, White said, there is empty commercial property that formerly housed businesses. He cited as examples the bank space, empty now for about a year; a former plumbing store between Indiana and Louisiana, vacant for seven years; an Allstate Insurance office on the corner of Arizona, vacant for five years, and a lawyer's office on the corner of Wyoming, vacant for about a year.
White also opposes housing being built on the parking area between Tennessee and Vermont. He says he has been asking the city to buy the lot and make it more attractive. "For a long time I've asked the city to buy the property and keep it a parking lot, but they never did."
Larry Elovich, president of the Chamber of Commerce, is another who thinks the West End business district is doing well. He acknowledged that back in the 1950s and earlier, West End bungalows were mostly summer homes and that business would boom during those months before many would close down in the winter. "They used to have lots of problems after Labor Day," Elovich said.
Over the decades, though, a trend evolved, he said. Increasingly more owners began living in the bungalows year-round, to the point where more than 80 percent of them are now people's primary residences, he approximated.
As a result, business prospers year-round, he said.
Elovich said that the value of homes has gone up substantially and so has the value in the businesses community. He did concede that there remains a certain disparity in business between the summer and winter months.
"Businesses are doing very well in the West End," said Joe Sinnona, president of a realty business bearing his name. "We need to add more businesses."
Business beautification proposed
On Monday, Eaton met with Sinnona and other realtors from the Long Beach/Island Park Brokers Council about improving the business districts along Beech Street in the West End and along Park Avenue in the middle of the city and the East End.
The proposed project involves the city's purchase and placement of trees, potted flowers, bike racks, banners on poles, and garbage receptacles throughout the areas. Realtors have agreed to visit business owners to find out what improvements they would like added to their storefronts. They will receive their request, so long as they agree to maintain it.
"We said, find out what particularly the business merchants would want, but they would have an obligation to participate in watering their flowers and cleaning up garbage outside their stores," Eaton said. "If so, the city will spend money on this."
Eaton indicated that he and the realtors will meet again July 30 and then begin to implement the project. "We can start immediately by putting garbage receptacles along the sidewalks and then planting trees in the fall. Next spring, we can bring in the flowers."
A second phase was proposed, too, which would involve installing old-style street lamps, benches and brick sidewalks. Eaton said it's do-able but would likely require federal and/or state funds.
"I think it's money well spent to make these areas more aesthetically pleasing," Eaton said, "because it will attract shoppers to their businesses and it will attract people to buy homes in the area, which is good for realtors. So, it's good for everybody."
"I think this is a great idea and applaud the city for making this become a reality," Elovich said.
