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Flat tire on Salvation Mountain

Wednesday, June 19, 2024

Main Avenue Blues

The little pink perennial flower was so beautiful, really blooming out. I was just talking to me neighbor Reyna about it yesterday. So pretty. It sat in the flower bed under the Cape Chestnut outside our shops, having luckily survived the last weeding.

I had seen Jackie H. just the other day and thanked her for saving the gorgeous flowers.

I arrived today to see that the pink cosmos with multiple blossoms had been removed this morning, the whole area now replaced by a mulch. I was in shock and asked the manager next door what happened? She told me that she told the man removing it to stop and he continued right along, said that he was only following orders.

I sought out the crew, now across the street and Jackie said something to the order of, well, they are gone now, get over it.


Funnily enough I had bought some color at Ace this morning to add to our flower garden and I quickly planted it.  

The nice folks at Sage agreed with me that we would continue to plant out a nice flower garden there to be proud of. 

We will see how long it survives the purge. 

I guess the Fallbrook Beautification Group has dissolved and we recently got word that it was the merchants responsibility to now care for the potted plants outside our shops.

Fair enough. It would also have been nice to save our flower.

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I have noticed that the powers that be in Fallbrook pay little respect to the rights of commercial property owners.

Decisions are made, like the Saturday Farmers Market, which covers two blocks but could easily fit in one, that affect our businesses, with little to no buy in on our part. Maybe Chamber members knew what was about to happen but few of the rest of us did. I certainly didn't. And we get no say in the matter and they seem to exist for perpetuity. 

A few weeks ago, they scheduled the Fallbrook Vintage Car Show and shut down the street on a Sunday, the day after it was shut down for the Farmer's Market. So I had two days in a row where I could not access the front of my shop. It was a great show but two days in a row is too much. My wife and I both own businesses in this town, for 28 and 20 years respectively, and our wishes are meaningless.

And on the Sunday, they wouldn't even let me park in the back of my shop, on parking spaces I own and I needed to unload my van. Much of my work is done out of town as you know, at the various shows I attend.

Anyway, I told the guys to try and stop me and after a few choice words, kicked the barricades out of the way and parked. Arrest me.

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This sort of attitude unnerves me. Why allow these ngo and civic groups to schedule back to back like that and shut down vehicular access to our stores? Do business owners get any say at all in the matter? I own a building and I pay substantial property taxes and it means nothing. 

Don't even get me started talking about the parking lot across the street, one that I partially own and have paid taxes on for years, which everybody wants to use for free and not help maintain. One Planning Board member told me it was not his fault I made a bad investment. 

People obviously do not respect private property rights, especially when they think they can do whatever the hell they want anyway and get everything for free and rule like autocrats.

I will miss that pretty pink flower.

1 comment:

Still listening said...

When we spoke about the back-to-back events, I let you know that I value your opinion and would work to avoid that in the future when other events are scheduled that we are not in charge of. We don't hold the market the day before our Harvest Faire or before the Avocado festival. As far as the farmers Market goes, it is not fair to say the merchants had no say, as they when this was requested (not by us) A meeting was held, per my request, with the merchants (including your wife) where their opinions were asked. The implantation included these direct requests. Now, while the market is slow to grow, we continue to volunteer each week in the assumption that it will eventually be of greater benefit.
As always, I am here to listen to everyone (not just Chamber members).
With kind regards and open ears.....