In our town, we usually let businesses decide how best to make use of our increasingly scarce land resources. Want to build up a retail shop on a parcel of land? As long as the zoning is good (and sometimes even when it's not), you can simply buy it, submit the permits, and build. The same is true of leasing, a contract between a business and a property owner. Whether we as a community need it or not, you can usually build it or lease it out in the SCV.
Most of the time this works out pretty well. Developers build shops in places they think people will congregate and shop at. So every little neighborhood gets its standard strip mall, usually named after a canyon feature (Rock Cliff Sunlight Plaza, Wolf Meadow Pine, Canyon Acres Ranch etc), and everyone nearby soon patronizes the local dry cleaners, nail salon, dance studio, and what-have-you.
But ocassionally the freedom of the free market results in some rather goofy configurations. Consider my neighborhood for instance. Within walking distance to my house I have the following:
Pharmacies:There are three, full-size, chain pharmacies located on three out of the four corners of Lyons & Orchard Village. Rite Aid, CVS & the new Wallgreens. This would be absolutely great if I was in the market for some sweet, subsidized Medicare Part D prescription drugs (indeed, I think that's why pharmacies are sprouting up everywhere) but sadly, I'm not. Nor am I in the market for Depends diapers, cough syrup, or tabloid magazines. But it's comforting to know that if I'm ever in the market for those things, I'll have an abundance of choice right on my doorstep. As it stands, Rite Aid wins out because they still have the old Thrifty's Ice Cream Bar.
Pizza Places:What's it say about Newhall that local restauranteers continue to build out Pizza Making Infrastructure on the Lyons corridor as if we were the arsenal of marinara in some kind of global Pizza War? I dare say we probably have more pizza dough per capita than any negibhorhood in the SCV: Pizza Hut at Lyons & Apple, Dominos at Orchard & Lyons, Guidos on Lyons, and Round Table at Lyons and Orchard. The competition is so fierce the pizza makers have hired sign twirlers to advertise their $5 pizzas, as if they were gas stations vying for motorist dollars. I love pizza, but surely I can't be responsible for all this pizza consumption, can I?
Auto Parts stores:And last but not least,we now have two auto parts stores on opposite sides of Orchard Village Road at Lyons Avenue. The very old west side parts store recently became an O'Reilly Auto Parts store, and everyone I know in myneighborhoodlet out mournful sighs when they learned that Auto Zone was moving into the old Blockbuster space. I did my best Valley Girl voice and said "Seriously?!?" when I saw the orange and red logo hung on the generic stucco strip mall facade.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. A dozen auto parts stores and six pharmacies within spitting distance of your home is still better than the vacant storefronts of 2007-2010. And maybe my neighborhood is just goofy because it's at the nexus of Old Town Newhall and Master Plan Valencia.
But I have to look no further than my own neighborhood to poke holes in the claim that the free market is the mostefficientway to allocate capital and create wealth: On the former claim, it's not particularefficientto cluster three pharmacies and a dozen pizza places within a stones-throw of each other when so many other parts of town lack things people need and 2) Donald Trump creates wealth too, it doesn't mean you'd want to live next to the guy.
PS: For fans of the Lyons Corridor and its many retail shops, I'm sad to report that Dave's Meats, one of those tenants in the bowling alley shopping lot, is closing up shop after 27 years. He follows Caston's and many other local retailers who have closed up shop along Newhall's straight-as-an-arrow, always east/west corridor. I didn't shop there much, mostly because he looked at me funny when I asked for grass-fed beef, but by all accounts he was a great butcher. I think his shop is being replaced by a Sharkey's Baja Mex restaurant
On Depends, Air Filters & Pizza Dough
Most of the time this works out pretty well. Developers build shops in places they think people will congregate and shop at. So every little neighborhood gets its standard strip mall, usually named after a canyon feature (Rock Cliff Sunlight Plaza, Wolf Meadow Pine, Canyon Acres Ranch etc), and everyone nearby soon patronizes the local dry cleaners, nail salon, dance studio, and what-have-you.
But ocassionally the freedom of the free market results in some rather goofy configurations. Consider my neighborhood for instance. Within walking distance to my house I have the following:
Pharmacies:There are three, full-size, chain pharmacies located on three out of the four corners of Lyons & Orchard Village. Rite Aid, CVS & the new Wallgreens. This would be absolutely great if I was in the market for some sweet, subsidized Medicare Part D prescription drugs (indeed, I think that's why pharmacies are sprouting up everywhere) but sadly, I'm not. Nor am I in the market for Depends diapers, cough syrup, or tabloid magazines. But it's comforting to know that if I'm ever in the market for those things, I'll have an abundance of choice right on my doorstep. As it stands, Rite Aid wins out because they still have the old Thrifty's Ice Cream Bar.
Pizza Places:What's it say about Newhall that local restauranteers continue to build out Pizza Making Infrastructure on the Lyons corridor as if we were the arsenal of marinara in some kind of global Pizza War? I dare say we probably have more pizza dough per capita than any negibhorhood in the SCV: Pizza Hut at Lyons & Apple, Dominos at Orchard & Lyons, Guidos on Lyons, and Round Table at Lyons and Orchard. The competition is so fierce the pizza makers have hired sign twirlers to advertise their $5 pizzas, as if they were gas stations vying for motorist dollars. I love pizza, but surely I can't be responsible for all this pizza consumption, can I?
Auto Parts stores:And last but not least,we now have two auto parts stores on opposite sides of Orchard Village Road at Lyons Avenue. The very old west side parts store recently became an O'Reilly Auto Parts store, and everyone I know in myneighborhoodlet out mournful sighs when they learned that Auto Zone was moving into the old Blockbuster space. I did my best Valley Girl voice and said "Seriously?!?" when I saw the orange and red logo hung on the generic stucco strip mall facade.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. A dozen auto parts stores and six pharmacies within spitting distance of your home is still better than the vacant storefronts of 2007-2010. And maybe my neighborhood is just goofy because it's at the nexus of Old Town Newhall and Master Plan Valencia.
But I have to look no further than my own neighborhood to poke holes in the claim that the free market is the mostefficientway to allocate capital and create wealth: On the former claim, it's not particularefficientto cluster three pharmacies and a dozen pizza places within a stones-throw of each other when so many other parts of town lack things people need and 2) Donald Trump creates wealth too, it doesn't mean you'd want to live next to the guy.
PS: For fans of the Lyons Corridor and its many retail shops, I'm sad to report that Dave's Meats, one of those tenants in the bowling alley shopping lot, is closing up shop after 27 years. He follows Caston's and many other local retailers who have closed up shop along Newhall's straight-as-an-arrow, always east/west corridor. I didn't shop there much, mostly because he looked at me funny when I asked for grass-fed beef, but by all accounts he was a great butcher. I think his shop is being replaced by a Sharkey's Baja Mex restaurant