Op-Ed: Thanks For The Love (And The Hate)

First off, thanks to so many of you who have reached out personally and in the store with so much love.

It’s been a month since we posted the announcement that BlockParty would close at the end of February with an uncertain re-open date.

I didn’t know the way forward, there was a laundry list of problems, and it was simply time to pull the trigger. Two of my employees were assaulted, a third one threatened, with a bonafide death threat against me. Then there’s the additional chaos of homeless individuals during the day, street vendors corralling our storefront on weekend nights, leaving my employees to clean up paper trays, garbage, and grease that gets dragged into the store and rats that follow.  

It’s an unmanageable situation and I do not want a business where my employees, or myself are not safe to open our doors to the public.

Paulo Murillo from WeHo Times was the first call. “What’s going on with your store – your sign is confusing – are you closing or not?” I replied we are closing, but still have a lease and that I didn’t have more to share at that time. If there was more to share I could have written it on these pages myself. But having a commercial lease means you’re personally on the hook for the rent, for the balance of the term, which in my case is over half a million dollars. Everything was on the table once the sign went up and the calls began coming into myself, and the landlord.

At the time, this is what I told the employees in an email: “The best way I can describe our journey for the next two months and ask for your support is to think of us as being on an airplane. I’m the pilot and there is turbulence ahead. Fasten your seat belts and have faith that we can land the plane safely. Beginning this week we will begin to liquidate the inventory with a target date to close the shop on 2/22. In the next 30 days I expect to develop the plan to go forward. It’s hard for me to be helpless and unable to protect you all from the homeless or crazy. You will all be paid through end of June, in the meantime buckle your seat belts I’m on the same plane too.”

Then came the comments on social media. Thousands of them. Half of them calling me a racist for raising the problems the street vendors create for the merchants and their employees.  None of them recognizing that 80% of my employees are minorities or persons of color.  Other comments blaming the landlord and the rent. It’s not the landlord. It’s not the rent. It’s the hardships of doing business in West Hollywood where a shopkeeper can’t open their doors to the public safely. Others babbled, ‘they are always going out of business’. The fact is we have been in business for more then 16 years straight. One time, in 2014, we could not renew our lease so we were month to month, and there was another issue in 2018 when Revolver exercised their right to our space in hopes of expanding their bar. There’s lots of curve balls in business. The fact remains BlockParty has been operating for more than 16 years straight, celebrating every event in this city, while neighbors all around us have come and gone and changed hands multiple times.

It was hard to read comments that included people dancing on my grave.   It knocked me out.    Amazon is not a problem.  It’s not the landlord or the rent. Business is down, but making a profit is not, and never has been, the motivator for the shop (or even this paper.) But it’s not worth the liability of owning a business in West Hollywood if you cannot keep your employees safe.

The last few weeks I’ve been hibernating, seeking pinholes of light for a way forward. We’ve made lots progress.

Thank you Jackie Rocco, the new City Manager who was open, accessible, understanding and pro-active. Thank you Danny Rivas, the Director of Community Safety, who pushed to re-locate a security ambassador post to the corner of Larrabee and Santa Monica after he was made aware of the issues at hand. Since that time it has made a big difference in the day-to-day safety along our street.

For the past three weekends, the City has monitored the street vendors on the weekends and moved them away from business storefronts. Many of my neighbors thanked the City, but as I was told, the program will not continue due to funding, or may only continue once or twice a month.

During BlockParty’s ‘exit’ interview with the City’s economic development department, they got an earful. ‘We are being bullied out of the city,’ I told them. ‘From the homeless and people with mental illness invading the store and harassing employees, to swarms of street vendors taking over our storefront on weekends – leaving us to have to clean up after them and deal with the rats they attract- it’s out of control.

Look at the tree below. It’s an AIDS memorial and it’s being desecrated from the hot dog vendors pouring all their grease onto the street.  We get the added bonus of the smell and the smoke and greasy footprints dragged into the store and having to do all the cleanup. 

The next day after the exit interview,  Helen Collins, the Director of Public Works came out. The Names Project Memorial got a scrubbing. The filthy, disgusting trash receptacles were cleaned for what seemed like the first time ever. I was told it will need many scrubbings. And that there would be stepped up maintenance in our high traffic area.

I learned that instead of having to clean up the mess from the vendors each morning over the weekend we can sign a waiver and the city can clean our part of the sidewalk during their rounds. And, after being denied the opportunity to obtain an encroachment permit for the front of the shop to put out a table or chairs to help keep away homeless away from our storefront, we got an approval to file an application for an encroachment permit and have more control over our frontage.

There has been lots of love and care from City staff, but only one city council member reached out with kind words of support. That would be Councilmember Danny Hang.

But, the issues run deeper. There were no spring orders placed because 4th quarter just died. 15 quarters of year over year declines. Increases in wages, insurance, rent and cost increases all around. Supply chain issues including tariffs, and a tremendous void with the loss of the Andrew Christian brand. Nationally, Andrew Christian was the top supplier of trend fashion in many gay retailers. I’ve spent the month working with the former VP of sales for Andrew Christian and something good is cooking.

I really do appreciate the landlord.  The smoke shop down the street called him to offer 50k to yank my lease after I turned down his offer for 100k to take the space.   

It’s not the landlord’s fault his tenants are struggling because West Hollywood has lousy policies for small business. He gave me a chance in 2009 when American Apparel was taking the location and through thick and thin we found our way. I laid out my thoughts and hoped we could work out the details. Then he got up from his chair and walked to the light switch and asked, “do you know the difference between cool light and warm light?” He then turned the lights on and off to show how each affects the colors on the rug on the floor. “You need warmer light to bring out the colors of the clothing” he said. A grin turned into a tear in my eye. “I’m going to send my lighting expert to help you” he said. The plane just landed.

I came home and wrote the staff. “You can unbuckle your seat belts and move around the cabin, we are coming in for a smooth landing.”

Something new is on the way. A complete overhaul with a re-calibration of the merchandise mix and store aesthetics and better security procedures. Projected re-open date right before April 1.

Thanks to the strangers who reached out from all over. Those of you who stood up for the shop mean the world to me. Thank you to the BlockParty staff for carrying the ball; there are only 9 of us. They never give up, celebrating the City and welcoming the guests from all over the world when there are few things to do in the Rainbow District during the day. Thank you to the loyal customers who support us and count on us to be a fun place where they can be themselves. Thank you to the many friends who prop me up and put up with me while I harp and harp on issues and can’t let go. Thank you to Brian Holt for keeping the community platform alive and growing on his own and allowing me room to let go. And thank you to Jimbro who has worked alongside me for 30 years, watching every plate spin in the air and helping clean up when one falls. It’s the valleys in life that helps one appreciate the views from the mountain. 

On behalf of the BlockParty staff and myself, thank you for the love.

Happy Valentine’s Day.