PIER CELEBRATION IS PREMATURE; BUSINESSES SHRINKING, NOT GROWING

Peggy Clifford

Mirror Editor

Part IV

   The celebration of the "new Santa Monica Pier" was at least premature. On that sunny June day in 1992, there were only ten businesses on the pier, or less than half than there had been prior to the 1983 storms. Of the ten, only the new Arcade, the remodeled Boathouse, Crown and Anchor and SM Pier Seafoods had signed leases. The other six attractions were still on month-to-month bases, and Kleinman's games and bumper cars were to be removed when the new Fun Zone opened.

   Grand American Fare seemed to have lost its enthusiasm for its proposed new restaurant in the new west end complex and its liquor license had been appealed by Santa Monica residents, as had pending licenses for both Ed Pearl's new Ash Grove in the Billiards Building and Russ Barnard's nightclub-restaurant on the old Sinbad's site.

West End Complex Flawed

   The City's new $1 million west end complex was not only 18 months behind schedule, it was deeply flawed.

   Incredibly, the north building, the site of the new restaurant, had no windows on its north and west walls, which meant that the quintessential Southern California prospect - the ocean, the coast from the pier to Malibu, the western horizon, the setting sun, the Santa Monica skyline and the mountains - could not be seen from inside the building. No one in the City could explain the lapse.

   In addition, the toilets in the women's restrooms flushed spontaneously, the handicap ramps were too narrow to accommodate most wheelchairs, the roof on the south building leaked, and the Harbor Patrol, which is responsible for security on the pier as well as ocean rescues, lacked clear views of both the pier and the ocean from its new offices.

   The afternoon the complex finally opened, a fisherman took a long look at it and said, "Took 'em so long, they probably forgot what they were doin'."

Fishermen Unhappy

   The fishermen had more specific complaints. The city had got $500,000 from the State's Wildlife Conservancy Board to construct "a fishing pier," as part of the reconstruction. Instead of building it, the City had tacked shallow fishing platforms on either side of the west end extension and wrapped a very narrow platform around the north and west sides of the west end. The fishing platforms amounted to less than 1,000 square feet out of a total of 30,000 square feet, though fishing has long been one of the Pier's primary and most popular activities. As problematic, from the fishermen’s point of view was the prohibition of overhead casting, owing to the narrowness of the platforms.

   After nearly ten years and over g1 million in pier management, administration and simple maintenance costs, the City had fewer pier attractions than ever, no new attractions up and operating, had lost four city-owned buildings, including one historic building, to its neglect, had invested $1 million in a bad joke of a building on what is arguably the most dazzling site in Southern California, and had nothing on its drawing board but three big bar-restaurants to add to the three big existing bar-restaurants, and a Fun Zone.

City Looking for a Savior

   In this light, the choice of the Old Tucson-Ogden team as Fun Zone developer three months later made perfect sense. Though they may not have known it and would certainly not have admitted it even if they had known it, the City/PRC was looking not simply for someone to build a Fun Zone, but a savior.

   Jonathan R. Bloch, 40, and Richard N. Olshansky, 35, the principals in Santa Monica Amusements Venture I (SMAVI), a joint venture of Old Tucson Theme Park and the Ogden Corporation, seemed tailor-made for the task. Bloch's father founded the Phoenix Suns in 1969. In 1987, Bloch, Olshansky, who's married to Bloch's sister, and other members of the family acquired what they described as "a significant interest" in Old Tucson, a western theme park and TV and motion picture production site. Rloch had been a partner and Olshansky an attorney with the powerhouse L.A. law firm, Wyman, Bautzer, Rothman, Kuchel and Silbert. Bloch had subsequently become Executive Vice President of Micor Ventures, Inc., a real estate development and finance company, while Olshansky was Development Director of Tishman Realty Corporation, one of the nation's oldest and largest real estate developers.

   The Ogden Corporation, headquartered in New York, had assets of over $2 billion and its 1990 sales had topped $1 billion. Ogden Entertainment Services, which owns and operates food concessions at major stadiums, race tracks, other sports arenas and convention centers around America as well as being a significant supplier of airline food, planned to operate the Fun Zone food concession.

City Capitulates

   The SMAVI Fun Zone proposal was contained in a thick black bound book. Rendered in soft pastel shades, the illustrations were appealing, but the numbers were probably more appealing to the PRC board. SMAVI estimated that, in its first year, it would attract 2.6 million riders, 1.6 million game players and 1 million food buyers to gross over $9 million. When asked why the PRC board had voted unanimously to give Bloch and Olshansky the Fun Zone, PRC Executive Director John Gilchrist said, "They had a better vision of what the pier should be."

   The SMAVI revenue projections may have been unrealistic and the means of achieving them problematic, but the City had been grappling with declining revenues and increased revenue demands in the city as a whole as well as exploding costs on the Pier and the men from Old Tucson were promising to generate twice as much revenue as any of the other bidders.

   The City had reached a critical point on the Pier. After spending nearly a decade and over $30 million, including capital improvements, it appeared to be further from completion than it'd ever been. It could either struggle on, with no clear end in sight and, as bad, no clear idea of what to do nezt, or it could turn the pier over to a pair of bright, young, rich developers and let them have their way with it. And that is what it did.

More Workshops Are Scheduled

   Still, ten years after the community had established Guidelines for the restoration of the Pier and six months after the City Council ignored residents' objections to its Pier development plan and less than a month after it had quietly put the pier's future. in the hands of the new Fun Zone developers, it scheduled a series of workshops to solicit residents' views on pier development.

   The first of three workshops was held on a bright Saturday morning in October in the main room of the north building on the west end of the pier. Workshop leader Jim Burns, who had led the 1982 workshops, and his team of architecture students tacked up wide strips of butcher paper on the northwest wall where windows should have been.

   Tables and chairs had been set up around the unfinished room. Each table had a number. As people entered, they were asked to sign in to the "Take Part Workshop," put on name tags, draw numbers from a bowl and take seats at the tables with corresponding numbers. There were large site plans of the pier, fat colored pens, small bottles of glue, handfuls of tinsel, random photos cut from magazines, scissors and other "design-your-pier" materials on each table, reminding more than one person of kindergarten.

   Gilchrist, Assistant PRC Director Susan Maysels, Mayor Ken Genser, several members of the PRC board, two members of the Planning Commission, most of the pier lessees and perhaps 40 residents settled in at their assigned tables.

   White-haired, soft-spoken, plump, in a button down shirt, Burns looked enough like Gilchrist to be his brother. He seemed bent on inducing a kind of deja vu in the participants, ignoring the fact that if the 1982 workshops' Guidelines had been followed, this 1992 workshop would have been unnecessary.

Teams Tackle Design

   Burns outlined the process. First, everyone would take a 45-minute walk around the pier, stopping at specified places to study certain details. Following the walk, everyone would gather for a group photo, after which people would draw or write their "wishes" for the pier on the sheets of butcher paper and then go to their tables to work with their "team" on their design for the central area of the pier. At the end of the four-hour session, each team would show its design to the group. In the second workshop, the designs would be refined, and, at the third workshop, the residents' plans for the pier would be displayed.

   After the walk, from which the mayor and the planning commissioners did not return, the group photo and the making of the "wish list," participants got down to work.

Woman Pitches Pipe Organ and Pizzeria

   A large woman wandered from table to table, looking for a team willing to include a small pizzeria with a large pipe organ in its plans. She had a pizzeria/pipe organ for sale in Long Beach, she said, and it would be a knock-out on the Pier. Failing to persuade anyone into including it, she made a model out of a box and transparent straws, placed it on the site plan at table five and stepped back to admire it.

   Someone said, "It's too big."

   The woman said, "It's just a model."

   About noon, Burns asked the teams to show their designs. The drawings had nothing in common. There was unanimity on only one point: the pier breakwater should be rebuilt, so that boats could return to the pier. But, of course, it had nothing to do with the midriff of the pier, so the discussion was irrelevant. None of the designs included a pizzeria with a pipe organ.

   Burns thanked everyone for coming and for contributing so generously to the design process.

Second Workshop Held

   The second workshop was held in the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium on the evening of October 29. Once again, Burns tried to re-invoke the past with a slide show of the 1982 workshops. As he praised Maysels as a devoted practitioner of the process, she videotaped him.

   Following Burns' summary of the previous session, people gathered at tables to refine their plans. After a while, someone said, "We’re not meeting on the pier tonight because people are afraid to go to the pier at night. That's what we should be talking about. Doesn't matter what we put on the pier if people're afraid to go there."

   Before the third workshop, at which Burns planned to present "Your Pier Design" to participants, SMRR incumbent Council members Genser and judy Abdo won new terms and longtime SMRR loyalist Paul Rosenstein took Zane's seat. All three had served on the PRC board.

Unveiling of "Your Pier Plan"

   About 40 people gathered in the merry-go-round on a cool, damp November evening for the unveiling of "Your Pier Plan." Maysels' videotape of the October 27 pier walk was showing on a monitor. Jim Burns called the meeting to order and everyone collected in front of a blank screen.

   Maysels operated the slide carousel. Burns narrated. Once again, he began with slides from the 1982 Task Force workshops, before moving on to "Your Pier Plan." As he talked, an illustrated summary of the plan was distributed. It was entirely contained on one 8 x14" salmon pink xeroxed sheet.

   According to the summary, "The future of the central portion of the Santa Monica Pier was the subject of intense public participation in the Fall of 1992. In two energetic TAKE PART planning sessions, people made a wide range of recommendations on what should happen to the focus area of their pier..."

Deja Vu All Over Again

   "...the central portion has the potential of becoming a lively mixed-use precinct offering entertainment, shopping, food and drink and cultural opportunities to people...Participants created a series of open space ideas for the Pier, mostly centered on a large, open plaza with the flexibility to be used for celebrations, performances, marketplaces and many additional events. In addition, a network of smaller, open spaces between shops, cafes and galleries was suggested to beguile people strolling on the Pier -- this was called a 'village street.' Views and access to the Pier edges were considered an important part of open space design...

   "Lodging of cars is an important form-giver to what the Pier will be like in the future. Some people wish to keep as many parking spaces as possible on the Pier, while other desire parking to be moved elsewhere...Santa Monicans sense the need of a commodious mixed-use building on their Pier, which can be used for community events, basketball, and celebrations as well as bringing in revenue in the form of rentals for concerts, meetings, performances, and other occasions...

   "People insisted that their Pier should not become a ‘theme' environment such as has appeared in other places on the California coast. The existing and past qualities and images of the Pier should determine the nature of what is to come. Activities and uses should include family events, foods for all appetites and pocketbooks, arts and crafts and produce marketplaces, carts and stalls as well as enclosed structures, and a great sense of fun and pleasure in the design of lighting, banners, pavilions, plazas and pedestrianways."

   The sketches on the salmon pink summary were no more explicit than the text.

People Speak Again, Officials Don't Listen Again

   In 1973, the Friends of Santa Monica Pier devised, printed and circulated a plan for the restoration of the Pier. In 1982, the Pier Task Force workshops elaborated on the 1973 plan, producing the Guidelines, as precise and lucid a blueprint for pier restoration as could be conjured. In 1992, though the workshops' conclusions were not as inspired, lucid or complete as the 1973 and 1982 versions, they reiterated their sentiments with remarkable fidelity.

   For the third time, the people of Santa Monica stated emphatically that they wanted the Pier to simply be a pier, but City Hall needed a gold mine. In 1982, the City spent $540,000 on Pier operations. In Fiscal Year 1991-1992, it spent over $2 million. And the end was not in sight.

Here and Now

   Pacific Park (aka The Fun Zone) opened several years ago. Last winter, it asked for and got extended hours because because it was operating at a loss. The Crown and Anchor Pub went bankrupt Russ Barnard leased its space and opened Rusty’s Sea Ranch. He has yet to begin work on his 699-seat restaurant and nightclub on the old Sinbad’s site. The Ash Grove opened and closed quickly. Both Gilchrist and Maysels have left the Pier and Santa Monica.

   In 1982, in a City survey, the Pier ranked second only to the beach in popularity among residents. Last year, only five per cent of Pier visitors were residents.

   The Pier deficit last year more than doubled to a record-setting $880,000. Recently, the PRC announced that it had sold the first "Pier sponsorship" to Pepsi. For $50,000 a year for three years,

   Pepsi, in effect, owns the soft drink franchise on the Pier.

   The PRC board and the City are currently negotiating a new "service agreement."

Note: I spent much of the '80s and early '90s on the Pier, producing events and doing promotion for, variously, the City, the PRC and the Santa Monica Pier Lessees' Association, as well as assembling an archive and shooting a film.

PC.