Ode to the Moo

Gramps has been getting email about the down town demo going on to make way for the Fresh and Easy and other small shops... in the place of the Former Mrs Moo's... The Original GT Drug Store, the Cornet 5 and Dime Store, and the Hidden Beauty Shop in the back and perhaps even the little pink house where the Ginny Holms Realty Office once was located. These lots and buildings along with the old Liquor Store / Barber Shop were acquired the old fashioned way... Without the use of RDA or Government Heavy Handed Involvement. A natural and slow process over they years. The land owner has offered these places for lease to various business over the years and the terms of those leases are between the Owner and the Occupant. Any dispute in a Lease is an issue for the Civil Courts not City Hall. This Blog's focus is on the Property Rights of Citizens in Grand Terrace and the Running of Grand Terrace at the City level.

Not knowing the terms of any of the leases I will not comment on a Private Owner's right to move or terminate a lease. I will say that a termination clause is almost always a part of a lease. This is a contract law dispute for the courts, not a City Government Issue.

That all being said.

Those of us who remember:
Sitting behind the liquor store after school drinking a soda on the way home from the dip in the canal, or Azure Hills Country Club Pool, or getting a hair cut from Rex, or the Drug Store that had Facial Tissues as the GTI carried Toilet Paper but not Facial Tissue... and the little stuffed animals for Get Well Gifts that the Drug Store had. Or the adventure of spending a quarter at the 5 and dime... Then the corner was the only Stop Sign in town... yes I said SIGN... not a light. Oh how we needed a light at La Cadena and Barton much sooner than that first Signal on Barton and Mt. Vernon.

None of the original businesses on the 4 corners of Mt. Vernon and Barton are the ones that began there. None of the land owners operated the businesses occupying the space. This combined with the inflation of the "value" of property and ever increasing rents or leases has caused many business to be in the Red.

The bottom line is that until the cost of land or property ownership or lease is sufficiently lower no start up business can afford the high cost of getting started. When they are started and if they don't own their land, they may find themselves with a Land Owner who raises the rent or lease just so they have to move or leave their place of business. The clients will come to the next person paying higher rent, but providing the service nurtured by the first business. This is the risk assumed in a leased space for a business.

So Mrs. Moo's is all gone.... where is that cow now?
CVS looks to be going the same way as the first and second and third drug stores in GT... Closed for the lack of business.. sufficient to pay employees and rent.
Dr. Kenney's / Dr Baum's Office is empty... long ago house calls were part of his service to the very sick in this community...

Oranges, and Grapefruit Farms are gone. Gone are the small truck farms and back yard farms that supported 4 H projects and families in the community. Gone is the Fruit Stand that was never attractive but always a good place to stop in for some fruit and conversation.

Canal floating in town is no longer an option...

So change will come... This is a fact.... However, the purpose of this blog has always been that change should be in the hands of the PROPERTY OWNER and that the CITY should not Be in Business of Property Development or an RDA forcing Property Owners off their land or telling them what to do with or on their Property.

Even if I don't live in GT anymore... this will still be the site to alert citizens when the City violates Property Owner Rights.