Where’s the vision in Mesa Verde?

It is simply amazing to me that there has not been at least one

visible entrepreneur who looked at the Mesa Verde Center and saw a

golden opportunity.

After all, sitting in the shopping center are a skating rink, a

multiplex movie house and a bowling alley. With the addition of a

couple of other relatively strategic venues on site, this combination

has the makings of one of the county’s hottest family attractions.

My suggestions would include a skateboard park, which riders would

pay for the privilege to use, much the same way they pay for batting

cages or a bowling lane. Another idea, which I’ve floated in this

space is to use one of the screens in the theater to show only family

films. These films do not have to be new -- there are countless older

movies that this generation has not seen on the big screen that would

draw crowds.

There is a huge audience begging for almost any kind of movie

families can watch together on the big screen, even if it’s 30 years

old or older.

I have nothing against Kohl’s, the department store that is slated

to go into the center, and I don’t own stock in any of its rivals.

But I question the need and the wisdom for yet another store of this

type in the city limits.

Costa Mesa is home not only to one of the nation’s premiere

shopping malls, but to many places offering department store items. I

question whether we need another outlet to buy more stuff we probably

don’t need.

But there is another concern, one that economists might

appreciate. I have no doubt that one of the carrots dangled in front

of the city muckety-mucks is the increased tax revenue generated from

adding a Kohl’s store. But, without getting too lofty, there is a

counter theory that a store such as Kohl’s does not add anything to

the city’s coffers. Over time, it may even reduce the amount of tax

dollars we receive.

That’s because the store will not suddenly create demand for their

products on top of whatever else will be available, it will merely

draw customers away from existing retail stores.

In the long run, other businesses will suffer. And the city’s

business-friendly reputation will suffer, for it is hard to justify

to a business prospect why a location should be established in the

city when there is a good chance that the decision-makers will open a

competitor just minutes away.

Case in point: There is a Target store within walking distance

from the proposed Kohl’s. We need a Kohl’s like we need another oil

change place.

I am all for free enterprise and take a libertarian view of

competition, but at some point, someone has to step in and act in the

best interests of our kids. And it’s not as though a family fun

center would be a drain. There are plenty of tax dollars to be had

from the right family development, which would draw residents from

neighboring cities.

But all of these business and financial reasons are secondary to

the lack of vision of our leaders (save Mayor Karen Robinson), whose

short-term thinking may drastically alter the quality of life in this

wonderful city. The change won’t be because we’ve added a Kohl’s but

because we’ve wasted the opportunity to be one of Southern

California’s family-friendliest communities. Once the bowling alley,

movie theater and skating rink are gone, they are gone forever.

That there are homes just behind the center should not play a

large part in the fate of this center. Anyone who moved into that

area a year or so ago knew darn well that their neighbor was a

shopping center, and while I don’t think we should allow

skateboarding at midnight every night, it is, after all, a shopping

center and it will have activity.

So, where are you, Mr. or Ms. visionary entrepreneur? Why haven’t

you seen what so many in this community see; that if you invest in

families in Costa Mesa you will reap big rewards?

And where are the city leaders who need to realize that their

first consideration for any major changes or additions to our town

should be the quality of life, and that a city’s quality of life and

the quality of its citizens are inseparable?

Open a Kohl’s if you want. But don’t wonder a few years from now

why your tax base didn’t go up, why you can’t attract other

businesses and why parents are getting so frustrated that they just

don’t care to live here anymore.

* STEVE SMITH is a Costa Mesa resident and freelance writer.

Readers may leave a message for him on the Daily Pilot hotline at

(949) 642-6086.