Some ideas for the Town Center area
Hundreds of residents have responded to a request by the Town Center Blue Ribbon Committee to contribute comments about revitalizing Yorba Linda’s Old Town area.
The 24-member blue ribbon body is charged with presenting “conceptual recommendations and guiding principles” for downtown to the City Council.
Most submissions reflect residents’ longtime divisions regarding Town Center plans, with many wanting no change and others seeking cosmetic alterations or small-scale revisions or wide-ranging redevelopment.
However, along with insightful ideas, some citizens propose changing not only Old Town, but the city’s character as well.
For example, many say they “love downtown Brea” and suggest mimicking that city’s restaurants, retail businesses, movie theaters and newly built residences. One person favoring Brea-type retail adds, “Contact me if you need help with civil engineering.”
Other areas inappropriately advanced for imitation are Fullerton and Newport Fashion Island, with a Fullerton fan seeking “nightlife (with) fine dining, dancing, live music performances and some bars.”
Bars are on the minds of others, who propose “at least one bar,” “maybe a pub or two,” “independent restaurants, bars, dancing” and, in capital letters, “bars and strip clubs.”
A more elaborate idea involves an area similar to Universal City with water jets—“Oh, what fun it could be”—and another is Solvang: “If thousands…would travel hundreds of miles to view…Danish buildings, why not our…Old Town and farmland?”
For style standards, one person advocates, “Forget about the Craftsman…and try to make Yorba Linda look classy and intelligent,” not “ho-hum or homespun,” while another says, “Look at Main Street in Disneyland for inspiration.”
Probably pleasing to Assemblyman and former Mayor Mike Duvall is the comment, “One nice style is the building just north of Bank of America” with “black and white trim—an insurance office, I believe.”
Bad business suggestions include “a Wendy’s fast food,” “a pool room,” “shopping center, mall, Target or Wal-Mart” and, for the prime property at the vacant northeast corner of Yorba Linda Boulevard and Imperial Highway, “a Sonic burger.”
And “rip the whole area down” is the defeatist attitude of some, who say: “Old Town is a disgusting place and should be torn down in its entirety”; “Scrap the downtown area…the stores are disgusting…downtown is like a hick town”; and “When the existing businesses give up, bulldoze the buildings and make it into a park.”
A FINAL NOTE
The survey also elicited this disquieting comment:
“Get a bulldozer and get rid of all those old buildings on Main Street and build a new shopping center where Mimi’s is. The old people who want to preserve those old things will be dead in 10 years and young people want new things…. Out with the old and in with the new.”
The 24-member blue ribbon body is charged with presenting “conceptual recommendations and guiding principles” for downtown to the City Council.
Most submissions reflect residents’ longtime divisions regarding Town Center plans, with many wanting no change and others seeking cosmetic alterations or small-scale revisions or wide-ranging redevelopment.
However, along with insightful ideas, some citizens propose changing not only Old Town, but the city’s character as well.
For example, many say they “love downtown Brea” and suggest mimicking that city’s restaurants, retail businesses, movie theaters and newly built residences. One person favoring Brea-type retail adds, “Contact me if you need help with civil engineering.”
Other areas inappropriately advanced for imitation are Fullerton and Newport Fashion Island, with a Fullerton fan seeking “nightlife (with) fine dining, dancing, live music performances and some bars.”
Bars are on the minds of others, who propose “at least one bar,” “maybe a pub or two,” “independent restaurants, bars, dancing” and, in capital letters, “bars and strip clubs.”
A more elaborate idea involves an area similar to Universal City with water jets—“Oh, what fun it could be”—and another is Solvang: “If thousands…would travel hundreds of miles to view…Danish buildings, why not our…Old Town and farmland?”
For style standards, one person advocates, “Forget about the Craftsman…and try to make Yorba Linda look classy and intelligent,” not “ho-hum or homespun,” while another says, “Look at Main Street in Disneyland for inspiration.”
Probably pleasing to Assemblyman and former Mayor Mike Duvall is the comment, “One nice style is the building just north of Bank of America” with “black and white trim—an insurance office, I believe.”
Bad business suggestions include “a Wendy’s fast food,” “a pool room,” “shopping center, mall, Target or Wal-Mart” and, for the prime property at the vacant northeast corner of Yorba Linda Boulevard and Imperial Highway, “a Sonic burger.”
And “rip the whole area down” is the defeatist attitude of some, who say: “Old Town is a disgusting place and should be torn down in its entirety”; “Scrap the downtown area…the stores are disgusting…downtown is like a hick town”; and “When the existing businesses give up, bulldoze the buildings and make it into a park.”
A FINAL NOTE
The survey also elicited this disquieting comment:
“Get a bulldozer and get rid of all those old buildings on Main Street and build a new shopping center where Mimi’s is. The old people who want to preserve those old things will be dead in 10 years and young people want new things…. Out with the old and in with the new.”
posted by Jim Drummond at 12:00 PM
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