Love letters to WeHo’s lost businesses

There are some special interest groups and politicians who want the public to believe that business owners are hard, cold, and that we do not care about our workers or the issues that they (that we all) face in society – the common trope is that we are just greedy business owners and only interested in the bottom-line to advance our own wealth, lining our pockets with profits.

We know this to be false; this is not the experience WeHo’s small businesses are having, and we need to change the narrative. No small business could survive with that attitude. To think that business owners and managers don’t support or care about the very people who help make our business a reality is absurd. We all rise and fall together. There is no us without them. Including our community constituents.

Residents and businesses alike are struggling with the high costs of living in West Hollywood; we have already lost a slew of cherished neighborhood businesses that once served our community. If our government representatives, who were elected to serve the constituents of this city, do not take immediate action to fulfill their sworn-oath obligations, we are sincerely concerned about where that will lead our city— destined to have only high end, formula-retail corporations that can afford to open and a citizenry where many are forced to move or threatened to experience homelessness. 

Diversity is what makes a city thrive and that includes businesses. West Hollywood has always had high-end retail, but we’ve also enjoyed a healthy mix of unique, boutique, creative businesses, some family owned and/or independent.  This is what makes us unique and an international destination!

Your West Hollywood Chamber of Commerce has a strategy. My WeHo: Keep WeHo Open! 

Check out the Chamber’s Love Letters to WeHo Businesses. 

We need your support to bring this message forward. Are you happy with the direction our city council has taken? Are you concerned about losing your beloved neighborhood businesses? Are you being priced out of the very city where you eat, shop, play, and live?  

Then stand up, speak up, and take action at the Monday, April 15th City Council meeting. Take time to write or speak up.  We need your voice. Make your own Love Letter video for a WeHo business you cherished that closed or, better yet, make a Love Letter video to the WeHo residents and visitors who support your business – tell them what their loyalty and patronage means to you and the folks you employ. This is not the time to sit back and watch.

Go to https://www.wehochamber.com/myweho and Be the Change We Need!