Hayward Farmers Market

One of the Key Assets of downtown Hayward is our weekly Farmers Market. The one-block stretch of Main Street between A and B is blocked off every Saturday morning, come rain or shine. The official posted hours are 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM, but most of the vendors are set up and basically ready for business by about 8:00 AM, sometimes earlier.

This morning (1/28/2006) is actually the first Saturday in 2006 that I've been able to get to the market. Right now it's cold (about 50F), drizzly, and threatening to open up. Typical of a cold day in the Bay Area, where one is thinking of more inside activities than outside ones. Also, my impression of farmers markets in January is that of root vegetables: all the turnips, rutabagas and potatoes that really aren't that exciting.

Today's farmer market was a very pleasant surprise. In addition to the "vegetable guy" on the corner of B and Main, where I got celery, green & red bell peppers & yellow onions ($3.00 for all that!), there's the "smoked meats guy" (Cedar Creek Smoked Salmon out of Pt. Richmond) [http://cedarcreeksalmon.com/] where I picked up a half pint of salmon-horseradish pate for $5.00; the "cheese lady" (Spring Hills Dairy from Petaluma) [http://www.springhillcheese.com/] where I picked up a half pint of garlic quark for $5.00; and the "fish guy" where I picked up a fresh King Salmon steak, and a half pint of oysters.

There's also a new addition: a filipino food stand with pancit, lumpia and other yum yums. I probably will need to drop by in a few hours for lunch.

The Hayward Farmers Market is where I want to be every Saturday morning.

Police Close Downtown Hayward Brothel

I just returned from a week in sunny but cold Washington, DC, and am still trying to catch up with my work and personal life. So, nothing in the past couple of days has happened in Hayward, until I go back a week to the 1/21/06 Daily Review:

(I guess this means they're not going for a conditional use permit from the City Planning Commission ;-)

This is all is actually quite funny, and is a candidate for the Strangest News of the Year for Downtown Hayward Award.

http://www.insidebayarea.com/dailyreview/localnews/ci_3424489

"HAYWARD — A downtown massage parlor raided in a Thursday prostitution sting was supposed to go before the city's Planning Commission next week but never completed the required police checks.

Owners of the Lotus Flower Health Center did not have permission to run a massage business at the Second Street Plaza, but were attempting to obtain a permit, city officials said Friday....

Police officers spent recent weeks conducting an undercover investigation of the Lotus Flower, also known as the Lotus Blossom, which was on the second floor of downtown's Second Street Plaza building at the corner of B and Second streets.

Detectives said the business was operating as a brothel but masquerading as an acupressure and acupuncture center that provided customers with massages.

"There was just never any women who went to get massages," said Laura Swan, who owns a communications business across the hall from the parlor. "There was a steady stream of men that came up all day."

Google Earth Macintosh

The best news this past week was the release of Google Earth for Macintosh on Tuesday, January 10th. This is an amazing piece of software: easy to use and master, and very useful when on business or vacation. Wow!

http://earth.google.com/

Flies by Night - Gone Fishing?

Two of the most interesting and unique stores in downtown Hayward, within a couple of storefronts of each other on B Street, are the fishing supply stores: Flies by Night; and the Rod and Rack.

Flies by Night is (was) one of the downstairs tenants in the Green Shutter Hotel. A suspicious sign appeared a few months ago, something about the space being for lease -- but please don't disturb the current residents. Weird.

I was making my daily walk (consititutional?) through downtown and noticed the boxed up remnants of Flies by Night. I would guess this means that yet another downtown business has closed shop. Interestingly, the Green Shutter has been in the news with the recent closing of Ryan's Antiques, and the seismic analysis trench that was dug out next to the Hotel over the past month. Some of these stories were in the Daily Review; some from my conversations with the merchants.

I've never patronized either store, but they've definitely added to the diversity of downtown Hayward. It will be interesting to see what happens over the next year or so....

Hayward Council nixes Tattoo

The Hayward City Council, by a 4-2 vote, upheld the Planning Commission's denial for a conditional use permit for the third tattoo parlor in downtown Hayward. I watched the tail end of the public hearing on channel 15, and heard some of the last few public speakers, both for and against the tattoo parlor, and the comments of the councilmembers.

I heard the remarks of the psycho logist who commented on that she was a liberal but her constituents have stereotyped all people who get tattoos as gangbangers. She had very little credibility, in my humble opinion. It didn't smell right. Hey, business is business.

I think a couple of the council were concerned that this wasn't the right mix of business (that is, "restaurants") to complement Cinema Place. My comment still stands: beggars can't be choosers. If the business is vibrant and healthy and isn't associated wih repeated criminal activities, then bring it on, again, in my humble opinion.

The lame duck mayor didn't make much sense, again, in my opinion. She was intimating that the City Council could stop Starbucks-on-every-corner if they wanted. What is she talking about?

I felt more comfortable with councilmember Quirk's and Halliday's opinions (the two votes against the motion to uphold the Planning Commission). Halliday was especially critical of the "discrimination" (or was it "discrminatory"?) opinion/views of the council majority.

Halliday's summary was: the price of business is getting the right permits. If you don't get the right permits, you don't get the business. Hopefully the (thwarted tattoo parlor) business person can rebound from this slap in the face and make money elsewhere. What the council told them, essentially, is: you're nice people but we don't need your kind of business 'roun here.

In terms of "diversity" the leading business in downtown Hayward is: "for lease." So much for diversity.

Too Much Tattoo? Hayward's Tattoo Parlor Wars

The Hayward City Council will take up the Tattoo Parlor issue at this Tuesday's
(1/10/06) Council meeting. The applicant is seeking a conditional use permit to open the city's sixth tattoo store, on Foothill Boulevard between A and B Streets. (This would be the City's third downtown tattoo establishment, after Russell City Tattoo at Mission & B Streets; and Pinpoint Tattoo on Second Street between A and B.)

One condition of the conditional use permit would be for the tattoo parlor to minimize loitering. The loitering issue appears to be the chief criticism for this type of business.

Two letters in opposition are included in the council's packet: one from a neighboring psychologist/business who writes "The approval of a tatoo [sic] establishment would make this neighborhood unbearable for businsesses that are trying to make Hayward a better city for all." Another letter is from a local residential landlord: "I ask that City Staff deny the request as this use is not in keeping with trying to develop a positive and vibrant downtown. In addition, Hayward already hosts several tattoo & piercing studios as well as medial [sic] marijuana clinics that in my opinion are counter-productive to the efforts made to attract retail-oriented businesses to our downtown core."

These other businesses sound a bit elitist, if you ask me.

The Planning Commission denied the conditional use permit, suggesting that "downtown Hayward needs more diversity."

And in support of the the Council approving the conditional use permit is the prospective landlord, who writes: "My reasons for supporting [the applicant] are two-fold. First, I believe that tattoos and piercing has become very mainstream in the under 30 age crowd. While I had been worried about 'attracting the wrong crowd,' I don't view things the same way now because tattoos and piercing are so prevalent in college age kids, as well as people younger and older. Second, I see [the applicant] as highly responsible and dedicated to creating a first class facility. We are planning to submit facade improvements for the building later this year. As a landlord I am committed to improving with the area. I think [the applicant] is sincere in wanting to be a positive business in downtown and I am optimistic he will do so."

In my opinion, the City of Hayward should be welcoming new businesses to locate downtown. Can downtown support three tattoo parlors? I don't know. The applicant is willing and able to test the market, so let them come. This "business against business" attitude is not healthy, and smacks of elitism.

In terms of attracting downtown retailers / businesses, the City of Hayward should remember that "beggars can't be choosers." The vacancy rates in downtown along B Street are staggering, and the City needs to open up to get more "diversity" in downtown Hayward....

Hayward's online Geographic Information System

The City of Hayward has a very useful, online geographic information system (GIS) of interest to residents and businesses. The web site is here: http://gis.hayward-ca.gov/

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is an essential tool for city planning departments, and provides non-experts with access to the same sets of data as used by the professional planners.

An exceptional ability of the Hayward online GIS is the ability to show aerial photography for various years. Hayward has year-by-year data between 1999 and 2004. The color aerials for 2004 are amazingly sharp, and well worth checking out.

Hayward Restaurant Review Sites on the Web

Are you looking for a web site that has comprehensive restaurant listings and reviews of restaurants, say, for Hayward? Hey, so am I! The fact of the matter is - is that they don't exist. Do depend on your friends, neighbors, family and co-workers "word of mouth" for restaurant recommendations, but also check out these foodie sites:

Number one on my foodie web sites is chowhound.com. This is a very active webboard with many folks posting questions, comments, restaurant reviews, "downhill alerts" and all else related to food and dining. Check out the San Francisco board.

Professional and trustworthy restaurant reviews can be found at the East Bay Express, a weekly free newspaper found throughout the East Bay. Follow the home page to select about 16 restaurants in Hayward.

One of the best private sites is maintained by Margarita Lacabe. She includes some fairly detailed critiques of many local restaurants, focusing on East Bay communities: http://www.marga.org/food/rest/

Jeff and Terry's Bay Area Reviews (JATBAR) has one entry for Hayward (Val's Burgers) but is a good resource for restaurants for Fremont and the South Bay: http://www.jatbar.com/.
JATBAR is a very cool site. Another site similar to jatbar (much simpler) is adampaul.com's site, which needs some updating (e.g., Zorn's Restaurant at Mission / A Street is now closed.)

And there are several wannabe sites that have sporadic, paltry and brief restaurant reviewers by site visitors, but none have really taken off. Typically you may find one to three reviews by site visitors, though these sites do tend to have a good coverage of the restaurants. Think of these as web yellow page directories:

• bayflavor.com
• sanfrancisco.tribe.net
• chefmoz.org
• yelp.com
• eastbay.citysearch.com
  

Perhaps one of these days I'll launch my own "Hayward Restaurant Reviews" site, but I'm probably not the best food critic. I do intend to patronize the local restaurants within walking distance of my new home. I will favor some over others, but that's fair.

You Can Get Anything You Want, at Alice's Restaurant

This past Monday's Daily Review includes a nice human interest story on Alice Nguyen's new restaurant, Le Paradis, at the corner of D Street & Mission. Here's the link, but it'll expire in 14 days: http://www.insidebayarea.com/search/ci_3364556

Alice and her family left Vietnam about 35 years ago and emigrated to France. She moved to Hayward in the 1980s and opened her Main Street bakery in 1986.

Here's some snippets from the article:

After making many friends downtown and cultivating a growing number of loyal customers, said she was also growing restless with her Main Street bakery, which was narrowly wedged in a building between A and B streets.
She had been eyeing the old thrift stop for years. She eventually bought it, gutted the building and obtained loans from City Hall and has spent more than $200,000 to renovate the structure and build a kitchen and restroom.

She has also been working to ward off some customers from the neighboring Palace card club that occupy her parking lot.

"My mom is so nice. She won't speak up and say something, so mostly I'm doing the yelling," Nathalie Nguyen said.

The only thing the family didn't get to do was place an Eiffel Tower replica that would tower over the building — the city wouldn't allow it.

Alice Nguyen said her favorite addition is the elaborate courtyard she has built along D Street across from the public library. In the summer, it will be used for bistro-style seating.

She hired a Vietnamese chef, Tony Tran, who cooks most of the lunch and dinner dishes. For about a month, after she opened the restaurant quietly, people have been coming in, she said.

"We can keep customers and build customers at the same time," she said. "They know we have a restaurant, now. They come back for lunchtime. And if they need a cake, they come back, too."

Tough Times in Fruitvale's Transit Village

This week's cover story in the East Bay Express is about the commercial hiccups at the Fruitvale Village adjacent to Fruitvale BART (Oakland). Long article. Some cattiness from the current director of the Unity Council about some of the "irresponsible business owners" but mostly it's an interesting article about the challenges of having successful retail in a transit-oriented development.

Link: http://www.eastbayexpress.com/Issues/2006-01-04/news/feature.html

Can the Multiplex Save Downtown Hayward?

Cinema Place. This 12-screen multiplex theatre complex has been on the drawing boards for years, and we're now starting to see progress. The site, facing B Street at Foothill Boulevard, is the former Albertsons grocery store, and owned by the Hayward Redevelopment Agency. Groundbreaking ceremonies were held last month, and the old Albertsons store has been razed (or "deconstructed" in redevelopment agency parlance.)

The developer is Blake Hunt Ventures, a mixed use real estate firm based in Danville [http://www.blakehuntventures.com/cinemaplace.htm] More back stories on the Cinema Place project are available on the Blake Hunt web site, at: [http://www.blakehuntventures.com/news.htm].

The original plans for Cinema Place included the 12-screen multiplex theater with a major anchor tenant (Cost Plus). Things (The Economy) have changed, and Blake Hunt down-scoped the project to exclude Cost Plus, but retain the 12-screen theater and about 19,000 square feet in retail space. The retail space would range in size from 1,100 to 5,800 square feet. The largest retail space (5,800 sq.ft.) would be the upstairs tenant, most likely a (chain?) restaurant. Construction would likely start in mid-2006, with completion by Fall 2007.

The theme "Can the Multiplex Save Downtown Hayward?" is something I will be looking at in the months to come. The Multiplex as a centerpiece, anchor attraction to bring customers to downtown areas is something that appears to be working in other areas, like downtown San Mateo and the Jack London Square area in Oakland, so why not Hayward?

What kind of retail businesses will migrate to downtown Hayward to complement Cinema Place?

Can other retail businesses ride the coattails of Cinema Place?

Can the existing retail businesses hang on until Cinema Place opens?

Can retail rents stay in check over the next 18 months?