I love your take on things! Maybe a check-cashing place would be nice. You can't have too many of those. And we've recently learned that trees do real well when surrounded by asphalt. At least if they blow over they won't hit anything, except maybe all those cars. Do you know who the owner is?

This is so sad Karin - I don't understand why Altadena is so afraid of change in any way shape or form. I agree w/you wholeheartedly about this and this is exactly why people also will not be moving into our community as well. They take a look around and go, wow, is this the community? All people judge things on the surface, and Altadena is no exception. Even our own residents go elsewhere to do most of their shopping and they'd be telling fibs if they said they didn't. Too bad, it really is a shame.

As previously posted on Patch, here's a direct link to the "artist rendering" of the remodeled site. http://www.loopnet.com/Attachments/7/C/6/7C6E1091-E0BF-4E87-9032-D7AE941294C0.pdf
Looks like a facade upgrade and a grass area adjacent to Altadena Dr. are also planned.....a bit more than just trees and a new sign. I'm sure the owner hopes the upgrades will attract a tenant to replace Kragen. Many of us will no doubt hope Rite Aid will take the opportunity to upgrade their crappy store.
Dan @ Patch told us the county is asking for a CUP; this could explain the remodel hold up.

I don't know who owns the land but the leasing agents are listed on the link as well.

@ Ron - we had some good fortune this year as a check cashing store actually closed!! Hopefully, the start of a trend!
@ Lisa - Altadena isn't afraid of change. If you asked most residents, I'm sure you'd find they actually want some type of retail "change". Also, the population has remained fairly steady for a cpla decades. Yes, many residents go out of town to shop, but most residents aren't moving out (nor NOT moving here) due to shopping.

Love your sarcasm. A worker at Nancy's Bakery told me there's been a remodel on the horizon for a decade...nothing like speed. This corner is as awesome as the half finished building on Altadena and Lincoln.

@ Ed, as long as I go to Steve's Pet's, that's all that matters! All I'm trying to say is, a lot of people that I speak to personally do not wish to live in Altadena and this is listed as one of the reasons, whether we want to believe it or not. You go to any other town and yes, it's a lot nicer, better shops, better quality, better variety. I know there are some hardcore old timers that live in Altadena that wouldn't change a thing, but me, change away!

You can't shop at Rite Aid there always out of what I want. When there ad comes out they don't have the sale items in stock. They know that they sale a lot of one favor of ice cream very mo. and every mo they run out. That's hard to understand why there's none of what I want and so much thats not. It's been that way for years.

How could we court Trader Joe's to come up here? I'd LOVE to shop there! Can we ask the Town Council to approach TJ's and the property owner? What's the procedure?

To be fair, the sign was damaged further by the winds a couple of weeks ago. Not that it was in great shape to begin with...but the photo accompanying this article is post-storm.

Oh, the never ending quandary of the Altadena business situation! It is sad that 3 of the largest shopping areas are either vacant or blighted. I'm referring to the unfinished vacant building on the corner of Lincoln and Altadena Dr., the blighted Rite Aid location, and the large vacant hole in the ground next to Ralphs. Add in the vacant Altadena Nursery on Lake Street -- our town looks like one on the downswing. The proposed site plan would be a HUGE improvement. Besides the trees, grass and new sign, it looks like the new facade includes an overhang over the entries that ties into a pergola type entry to the Bulgarini/Nancy's area. If it ever gets done, it will be a big improvement. IF seems to be the operative word here. Re the unfinished vacant lots, why would a developer be attracted to such an ambiguous retail area? The same goes for the vacant nursery. It could be an excellent business venue, as could the empty storefronts in the building south of Elliot. There was a hair salon there years ago, I think that prime retail spot has been vacant for at least 5 years. I have a business here in Altadena, one of my observations is that most of the retail property owners don't live here. They are interested in full spaces and tenants who pay their rents on time, not the retail climate in Altadena, or the benefits to the community. They have no vested interest other than their income and profit, not in the success of the area or whether it as a whole survives.

If we could have an anchor in this area, such as a Trader Joe's (doesn't have to be TJ's, that's just what springs to mind), rip out that asphalt parking lot and landscape with natives and even edibles, I'll bet other interesting businesses and restaurants would show some interest. And it seems this could only benefit our homegrown, existing businesses.

I wonder if the Town Council and Chamber of Commerce could join forces to query/persuade some attractive candidates.... and find out how Montrose snagged the latest TJ's.

tear it all down and put a wall-mart in ...

Could it be " if you ain't got the dough, it ain't gettin' built"? What do market surveys foretell of a climate conducive to development? Will attractive landscaping alone do the trick? They did the same on Payne Ave. a while back, but now the joint is a ghost town. Yeah, I know I shouldn't play curmudgeon with your place you make your life in - around here, they call it a success when a Mom and Pop that sells cases of ephedrine out the back door to the local branch of the Mexican drug cartel can stay open, or if you don't get your skull caved in for two hundred dollars of a day's receipts. A little different, maybe - the future is already here. Poor Altadena . . . Well, just keep up a staunch "not in my backyard" position, you might make it.

Maybe you might consider approaching the community market Fresco. They listen to a communities needs and wants. They took over a blighted shopping district that had witnesses one failure after another. Not so big yet that they might not want to feel in the nitche

The bottom line is - as Karin said, if they build it, we would come...so why isn't it being built? The investors obviously aren't seeing the numbers and/or they choose not to invest their money in our town....if someone only knew Donald Trump......lol

Last yr, the Chamber offered a business survey to help gauge what residents were looking for in terms of retail and current shopping habits. http://altadena.patch.com/articles/survey-results-the-shopping-habits-of-altadena-residents

TJs was a favorite choice. One reason TJs may not (want to) be here is economics. There's 1 in La Canada, 1 in Hastings Ranch, 1 down Rosemead Blvd. Why put one here? Altadena already goes to other TJs. If they build one here, it pulls from other TJs. They may not see a ROTI. Who would shop at a "Altadena TJs"? La Canada? nope. Pasadena? nope. Sierra Madre? They have one near them in Hastings.

But, if a similar style store (i.e. Fresh n Easy) were to open, they would stand to gain some of the business currently going to the 3 other TJs. There is a Fresh N Easy down Lake St though.... I heard Fresh/Easy looked at the barren area next to Ralphs but the deal fell thru.

Super King does so well in part b/c they have a grt produce selection at decent prices. Fresh bakery, Fresh meat dep't (are you listening Ralphs?!?). The location allows it to draw some shoppers from La Canada. While there are residents from other towns that shop at Altadena stores, the vast majority of customers reside here in town. I think a grocery store in the Rite Aid ctr (or Lake/Calaveras) will have to understand that they aren't near a frwy and their only shoppers will be residents. This can be of some concern for businesses when scouting site locations.

Plus, of course, there is that Bulgarini's. You'd think a retailer would want to try and get in on that action.

Ed, the distance-thing doesn't really hold water, as the TJ's in Monrose is about two or three miles from one in La Canada and another in Glendale. But point taken -- how about placing some other store that would prove competitive up here. And though we're not close to a freeway, all the more reason Altadena residents (thousands of them) would, if given the chance, choose to shop in their own neighborhood.

Doesn't Rite Aid hold any accountability for that parking lot? I contacted them back in May regarding all the trash and burned-out lights in that lot and was told by a regional manager and their customer service that they were going to fix everything and clean-up the lot, but as you all know it's still a disaster. I would think that Rite Aid holds some level of accountability for the status of the lot that their customers park in?

Scott and I would love to see a viable retail space where the blighted Rite Aid currently is. I don't think any of the independently owned business on North Lake Avenue would not be pleased with it, either. Success breeds success, so we're all for it.

That said, however, and speaking for our store, we are listening intently to our customer base and to what was said on the shopping survey Ed mentioned. One of the top requests was for bookstores and art, which we are currently stocking.

The truth is that West Altadena's shopping area (Lincoln Ave.) and its variety of Ma-and-Pop rib and chicken joints is beginning to look nicer than what is left of East Altadena's shopping, and meager 'dining' options. I've said it before but it bears repeating: East Altadena needs two or three dinner-house options. There is OPPORTUNITY here in East Altadena for a crew that can cook and run a restaurnant. In addition, the grocery shopping options in East Altadena are pitiful at best. As mentioned, the Vons on Allen Ave near Washington is a 24/7 traffic jam inside and out, and the bare-bones Ralphs on Lake Ave. / Mendocino St has no deli, no soup bar, and a limited selection of food brands / products. The Hastings Ralphs is always crowded with insufficient parking and the Albertsons on Sierra Madre and Michillinda Ave.is well, an Albertsons. When you look at the median income of 91001 (East and West) and compare that to all of the other areas where Ralphs have full service stores, e.g. Pasadena / Hastings Ranch, La Canada, La Crescenta, Tujunga and Sunland, ALL of these Ralphs locations have much nicer stores with all of the amenities you would expect in an area such as Altadena. So why hasn't Kroger bothered to upgrade the East Altadena Ralphs?? That is the $50,000 question. - cont. -

- cont. -

The space and parking IS available for a Ralphs remodel; the vacant land next door could be used for that purpose as well as addtional shops or a restaurant. As for the RiteAid on Altadena Dr., that is a blight on the neighborhood and looks like a ghetto. There is opportunity there for a restaurant and some shops, perhaps the rents are too high. At any rate it seems overdue that the Town Council sit down and have a look at this situation with the local resident's input in order to formulate a long term plan for improvements to East Altadena.

OK, I will tell you again, the back story on this property. Many years ago, Ken Balder,(then Town Council Chair), Steve Lamb, myself, and a few others met with the owner of that property, he is an older man wearing a hand tailored, expensive suit, gold cufflinks and driving brand new Bentley to match! He came over from his home in Malibu where he said he owns a very large vineyard which is his families winery. He was very insistent that he was going to bulldoze the entire lot and make it into a very large storage facility. We found out, and that he only doing short term, leases, as he was ready to finally ready to take back the property. He said he lives in a big house overlooking the Pacific ocean. He did tell us in no uncertain terms that be bought the Altadena property many years ago as an investment, he bought it cheap, he is not willing to put any improvement money into any of the stores that were currently there. There were leaks in the roofs of both the Rite Aid and The Auto Parts store, but he didn't care and was not going to pay to fix them.
He has been waiting years for his plan to turn that space into a money maker!
After playing nice, offering better alternatives for him and the community, he left saying he would think about it but was pretty set on the storage facility.
Again the reason that I tell you about this is so that you guys understand It private property! Just as the unfinished building on Lincoln & Altadena, is private property.
Good luck!

Ed, do you think your CofC would be willing to contact TJ's or similar stores? Would be interested to hear their feedback if nothing else. As to Sequoya's and Helen's comments -- Rite-Aid has always looked liked it's inches away from going out of business.

And I'm not a shill, but Websters does have a very impressive collection of work by local artists and writers, and it is almost Christmas ...

I put my comment in just as Dennis and Brian were adding theirs -- both worth reading. My question would be -- private property or not -- don't we have community standards? What about the effect of blight on nearby businesses? The County goes around measuring front-yard fences on residential property, but turns a blind eye when it comes to one of the most prominent pieces of commercial real estate in East Altadena.

So if Rite Aid doesn't fix the lighting in their parking lot (only two lights on last night on the east side of the parking lot - none on at all in front of the RIte Aid) and someone is mugged or worse, then who is responsible? The property owner or Rite Aid? I mean, it's not just ugly, it's also a safety concern.

Speaking of Altadena's new flag, I'd like to know how the representatives of those census track tract stars weigh in on this issue.

Altadena needs a couple of restaurants. Why do I have to go to Pasadena for a decent place to sit and eat a meal with the family. Although Patrons' is a great place to eat, its pretty tight on seating arrangements.

OK I'm going to say this. I have a small coffee company. For months at shows people said "if you had de caffe I'd buy", or "if you had tea I'd buy.," So I came up witha really excellent de caffe and a robust smoky tea. They didn't buy, they didn't even try. It was just a browsers lie. If someone opens two dining rooms in Altadena will we buy or do we lie? Most investors look at Altadena and don't believe we will overcome our habit of traveling to shop. How do we prove them wrong? Bills Chicken, Fair Oaks burger, Panda Express, and Patron is how we prove them wrong. Make our existing eating businesses FREAKISHLY successful and other investors will come.

@ Karen- I am sure the mangled sign and leaking roof are some kind of code violations someplace. The property owner is a well known litigant. Without any planning permission he installed his winery. He has been litigating against the Coastal Commission and other agencies forever. Doing a cost benefit analysis, the County naturally figures its best to pester little people over little issues where the cost to fight is several hundreds of times higher than the cost to be oppressed and where no one has the money to fightl And it is oppression, and nothing more or less, where the rich walk and everyone else is under the thumb.

i highly doubt a TJ ,S etc would make it here ,in this economy etc a pawn shop is about only store would make it lol

Leslie, thanks for following up w/ACONA. If the county collects the $$ from the fine, that means the money doesn't go directly towards Altadena improvements, right?

The only people who pretend Trader Joes would do well here are Trader Joes, and thats not quite true. They KNOW it would do well and they would have to close LaCanada and they have a psychological aversion to that that sane people can not understand.The majority of the LaCanada stores business comes from here. More or less to them that is our store, and why not the shopping center was afterall built with Lincoln Avenue redevelopment money that was diverted to there...(Long long story from long ago)
But again, the answer to this problem is to stop whining about what we dont have and go loyally shop what we do have to the point that investors look and say "Thats a gold mine, I want some" SO Go EAT AT PATRON, or Fair Oaks burger, Shop at one of the two supermarkets that have INVESTED in our Community. Want a full service super with a bakery and a meat counter and a fish counter? Go to Baja Fresh, they are here, they made the investment, and their Altadena store is their flag ship, or go to King Ranch. Once the majors see a sustained rise in the profits of those stores, they will come to town and attempt to put them under. The ONLY TIME Ralph's was ever interested in improving their store was when they thought HOWS would come and take market share from them. Take it form them now. refuse to shop in a store that will not come to your community and honor the ones that have come here,

Sorry thats the only people who pretend TJ would NOT do well here....

Well, I've long said that they should put a trader joe's on the corner of Lake/Altadena or Altadena/Lincoln, likewise something yummy such as a Peet's, I'm totally with you guys there. Where I'm not with you is on the trashing the Rite Aid and Ralph's. I frequent both and I appreciate both, they're friendly and cater to the working class folks (I'm not one of the million dollar home owners, obviously). Yes, it's ugly but I'm not such an elitist that I wouldn't shop there because it's not aesthetically pleasing. I guess my point is you can't have it both ways, you either shop locally and maybe some day your spent dollar will make a difference and 'better' retailers will start moving in or you drive to Pasadena because it's prettier. That being said, our local retailers could stand some friendly competition, friendly being the key word (I'm looking at you Steve's Pets as you can only get away with poor customer service is because you're the only place in town to buy dog food).

Kelly- I think the only reason people complain about Ralphs and RIte Aid is because they have other stores in other neighborhoods where they do a much better job. You can't say that about Steve's Pet. And sure, some of our local retailers are not perfect. Is the coffee at the Coffee Gallery as good as Pete's? No, DO I shop there anyhow? Yes. Why- because every single dollar I spend there is one Pasadena won't get to discourage people from locating in my community and because if capital sees that Altadena businesses of not so great quality (such as Patron, mediocre at best) are freakishly successful, they will COME HERE. If they see our businesses are not so great and not making much money, they won't. Capital follows trends, it doesn't start them.And I buy even at awful Ralphs, because why would I want to support a store in LaCanada in a development that was financed with money LA County re appropriated from the Lincoln Development (Long story, but it did happen)?

i to shop at ralphs alot . good prices , saves gas not driving other stores .im not to keen on shopping at these ie international food stores , imported foods . no usda etc inspections and i like to [ try ] keep money in usa to support our farmers .

Laura- Not ALL capital is stupid. Bobs Big Boy wanted a company owned store here, because they gross 15% more in African-American neighborhoods, but our DEVELOPER killed that...

Laura- I can't say who is there today, but a decade ago the guy who managed real estate holdings for Trader Joes told me straight up "That neighborhood is "Too Dark." I didn't understand what he meant, but he was kind enough to clarify in rather pointed language. In N Out was happy to come but Shackleford raised all holy hell and he didnt want to smell In N Out in addition to Jack in the Box and he along with the Arroyo Windsor Neighborhood Association killed that, along with most eating uses for the old Rose Bowl motel site (one BTW that is IDEAL.......

Here's a lovely article from Washington state that exemplifies the angst the author feels about the current penchant for on-line shopping (think Amazon, etc.) and it's worth a read: http://www.tnr.com/article/washington-diarist/magazine/97260/outcome-experience A quote to go along with the article, highlighting the difference between "search", which is the on-line experience, and "browsing", which is the Main St. experience:

"Browsing is the opposite of "search." Search is precise, browsing is imprecise. When you search, you find what you were looking for; when you browse, you find what you were not looking for. Search corrects your knowledge, browsing corrects your ignorance. Search narrows, browsing enlarges. It does so by means of accidents, of unexpected adjacencies and improbable associations. On Amazon, by contrast, there are no accidents. Its adjacencies are expected and its associations are probable, because it is programmed for precedents. It takes you to where you have already been—to what you have already bought or thought of buying, and to similar things. It sells similarities. After all, serendipity is a poor business model. But serendipity is how the spirit is renewed; and a record store, like a bookstore, is nothing less than an institution of spiritual renewal." One could correlate that to any independent shop, boutique or grocery as well.