Front Page  »  

Is San Luis Obispo’s downtown losing its allure?

January 27, 2022

By KAREN VELIE

For years, travel writers have produced glowing reviews of San Luis Obispo’s downtown, at times referred to as the best downtown in the country. But that was before reduced parking, roadway reconfigurations and store closures.

A recent San Francisco Chronicle article titled, “Anything’s better than empty: This store in a struggling California downtown is managing to thrive,” paints a picture of a decaying downtown where businesses struggle to stay open. The article touts the ability of Boo Boo Records to thrive while the downtown decays.

“Over the past decade, businesses in San Luis Obispo have struggled to stay afloat, resulting in long-time local retailers and restaurants — many beloved for generations — shuttering, one after the next,” according to the San Francisco Chronicle article. “The onset of industrial decay is set off by nearby Bishop Peak, towering and green — courtesy of the late-December rain.”

The CEO of Downtown SLO, Bettina Swigger, disagrees with the article noting that 28 new businesses opened in the downtown in 2021.

“The downtown is vibrant,” Swigger said. “I do not agree with the article, that the downtown is in decline.”


Loading...
Related:


49 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

For too many years, the myopic vision from Cal Poly (city and regional planning, architecture departments) has dominated the City of San Luis Obispo. It is now a sterile and “unbearable sameness” in architecture and urban planning. It has lost its character and charm. The City needs influences from outside of Cal Poly.


36

I avoid the downtown area as much as possible

parking it’s to damn expensive.The parklets cause driving hazards for car or bike,the streets downtown are just to narrow for them.

The downtown quit being a locals destination and more of a tourist trap years ago and tourist dollars are good for business and that’s what they care about.


21

Downtown SLO is vibrant she says. Must be smoking the same stuff Heidi is. It’s more like a 50% empty town dominated by creepy homeless people walking around talking to themselves. A true reflection of the state of affairs in California.


45

Ouch, the SF Chronicle, and they got it right.


29

A bum in every doorway. No thanks. I feel bad for the business owners but downtown is disgusting


39

Downtown Slo turned the corner when the earthquake retrofitting went into full gear and property owners raised rents all over and the small businesses were pushed away. We used to have more book stores, small stores etc. Now we have corporate chain stores and tourist crap.


As for Paso and every other city, crap stores follow popularity (just like big box stores) it ‘s already happening.


Lets not forget the city councils/departments don’t get to control what business open or close (a few exceptions), they only get involved with change of use.


28

What a ridiculous article in SFChronicle. Anyone here actually read it? Might be 250 words, talking about all the “industrial decay” around Booboo’s. The photo that leads the CCN article shows a new business….actually under construction (which has been open now for over a year). Hmmm..what else…Lets see..Booboo’s neighbors Blue, and Phoenix, both local businesses have been in business for forever. On the other side of Mike’s shop an overpriced, oversized coffee shop closed and was quickly replaced by another longtime tenant on the block — HumanKind — with a substantial expansion of from their previous store. The rest of the street is filled with a pretty vibrant mix of local and national tenants, and has become one of the prettiest streets in town. Is Downtown without problems? Of course not. Retail has been in a down cycle nationally, and SLO is certainly feeling that pressure. But we’ve seen a net influx of new businesses downtown in the past 2 years, which is a hell of a lot more than you can say for San Francisco or Santa Barbara.


-20

Barry, You’ve got to admit that the number of homeless people downtown has vastly increased over the past decades and it has affected the vibe overall. Downtown no longer has the same vibrancy and there are more shuttered shops than usual. Yes, there have been homeless people in SLO forever but the number has exponentially increased over the past decade. While we used to frequent downtown shops on a regular basis, the ‘downtown experience’ is now downright uncomfortable at times. Many people I know (including my family) avoid it, if possible.


28

This article, as well as the Chronicle article, is completely misguided. Small businesses historically have extremely high fail rates.


Businesses come and go. Less bike lanes and “free” parking is not going to save Ross Dress For Less anywhere in the US.


-25

?? Ross?? They moved out of downtown and seem to be doing well out in the mall area. Didn’t leave because doing poorly, but because they wanted out of downtown. Hmn.


33

The crumbling of Downtown Slo has been in effect for years, this is not new news to anyone who owns a business, or frequents downtown regularity.


3 undeniable factors:


Rental market:


First & foremost, hyper inflated lease agreements that don’t support anywhere near volume of business San Luis Obispo brings. Developers following their business plan to recoup investments on said properties, out of touch SLO family property owners working together in coercion to elevate prices.


Business Variety:


There is an absolutely MINIMAL attractive variety of business downtown. It’s all poorly executed attempts at the same concept, with a different low budget sign on the door. The standard of business operating is at an all time low.


Tourism:


State funded marketing dollars are not being invested at pointing tourism downtown. There is nothing of substance to point to. Our tourism agencies are pushing campaigns to surrounding areas, natural sightseeing habitats, neighboring cities, etc. When there is no asset to highlight as a point of interest to an outside market, it’s readjusted to more applicable points of interest.


The lowest hanging fruit is the Cal Poly/COVID restrictions of the past 2 years.


With remote learning put into effect, naturally students move home/elsewhere. This DRAMATICALLY reduced the 18-24 y.o. demographic that 90% of these businesses that have built their entire business plan on, and thus, lost the consistent revenue that is required to pay the $15,000/mo. rent. on their terrible execution at their “bead shop”.


Homelessness is has always been here. It’s bad, we all know that. It doesn’t destroy the experience, it’s the upside down ratio of homelessness/patrons that makes it feel like Skid Row at times.


Recap:

Ridiculous overhead -> Poor business concepts -> No tourism marketing -> Covid/Cal Poly vacancies = For Rent Signs.


51

And don’t forget the corporate landlords, like Jamestown, who’d rather keep storefronts empty than rent them for what they’re worth. That outfit has been responsible for so many long-term vacancies they have alone ruined good parts of downtown. “The San Luis Obispo Collection” sounds like something — looks like empty storefronts.


29
1 2 3 4