Market Savings

By Oliver Lukacs
Staff Writer

Sept. 24 -- A group of vocal residents successfully urged the City Council Tuesday night to save one neighborhood grocery store slated for the wrecking ball and another from potentially going out of business.

With the council’s unanimous decisions, the corner store on the 600 block of Marine Street won't have to rip down its murals and replace them with prohibitively expensive clear-glass windows, while a market on 4th Street near Strand won't be demolished to provide a front yard for a two-unit condominium.

Fair Market on 2225 4th Street saved from wrecking ball. (photo by Frank Gruber)

While some City Council members said they started the meeting wanting to vote differently, in the end the entire dais (with Council member Pam O’Connor absent) happily handed their unanimous support to the residents.

The decisions favoring corner stores “reflects the City Council’s commitment to preserving the character of our communities,” said Mayor Richard Bloom after hearing from the 26 residents who spoke on the items. “I think it is something small but important in many large ways to the individuals who live near by.”

Marking a special triumph for residents, the council upheld the appeal of a Planning Commission decision to allow the Marine Street market to continue operating only if it tears out two bricked-up windows covered by murals and replaces them with clear-glass windows.

Appealing the condition was former City Council candidate Abbey Arnold -- who spoke for the 13 other Marine Street residents who pitched in for the cost of the appeal -- and Peter Kim, the owner of the store that has been at that location since 1929.

For the residents, Arnold argued, putting in the glass windows -- which the Commission said was an overdue upgrade that would prohibit robberies -- would require getting rid of the murals framing the entrance to the two-story red-brick mini-mart that add a “charm” neighbors have grown to appreciate over the past decade.

The murals contribute to “the family character of the neighborhood,” said Arnold, pointing out that the windows would probably be cluttered with beer and cigarette advertisements. “We like the way (the store) fits into our neighborhood” as it is, Arnold said.

In addition, the cost of adding the windows would be “too much of a burden on the family that owns it,” Arnold said. “They’re our neighbor and we care about them.”

The windows were originally bricked in as an earthquake retrofit upgrade in 1985 to give the small building added structural support, said Howard Robinson, who was representing Kim. Replacing the bricks with a window would mean re-retrofitting, which would cost $37,000, he added.

“The store is working fine, and the neighbors are happy with it,” Robinson said. “If it ain’t broke, why fix it?”

Aside from the testimony of Arnold and other neighbors -- who offered to make permanent the temporary murals painted by a prop crew in 1991 for the filming of a “McGuyver” episode -- the turning point for some Council members was learning that a City permit authorized the 1985 retrofit.

The revelation that the City had allowed the owner to brick up the windows -- violating City code -- proved decisive. The council concluded that the owner should not be made to pay for the City’s slipup.

“What really does it for me is that there is a permit,” said Councilman Ken Genser, reversing his position.

Mayor Pro Tem Kevin McKeown also changed his mind, which he said just proves that Council members aren’t deaf to the concerns of the community they represent, and that they don’t go into hearings with a “preordained decision.”

“I came in here thinking that the windows were a good thing, but after listening to the residents, I’ve changed my mind,” said McKeown.

As for the 4th Street market, which was also built in 1929, the Council didn't need much convincing, but 22 people testified just in case it planned to defy staff recommendations and allow the demolition of the store the owners had planned to sell before changing their minds.

While some praised the store at 2225 4th Street for its outstanding wine selection and affordable chocolate ice cream, others spoke of some things that had no price.

They talked about how the owners trust customers enough to let them buy things with IOUs and how customers trust the owners enough to leave their house keys with them when going out of town. One neighbor said it best.

“It really makes our neighborhood feel like our neighborhood.”