[conspire] Michael Paoli @ CABAL Saturday ... & crimpers (telephone handset, line cord, & Ethernet)

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Paul Zander (paulz at ieee.org):

> The trend in redevelopment is 3 or 4 or 7 stories with residences
> above and so-called retail on the ground floor.  Unfortunately
> "retail" has become a synonym for over-fancy, over-priced restaurant. 
> A TruValue hardware or even a Radio Shack is never in the mix.

It's a combination of the real estate bubble and rent-seeking behaviour
from investors who''re trying to grab the Yuppie dollar while it's in
motion.  And also Proposition 13 (long discussion omitted here).

One of the reasons for the phenomenon of Silicon Valley was the
availability of fairly inexpensive land during the buildout phase, such
that you got businesses on land and buildings long ago paid for and not 
trying for a gold rush.  In my little town, some of the worst losses in
recent years have been family-owned businesses in operation for many
decades that suddenly closed because the next generation (if any) wasn't
willing to continue, and so the valuable and low-taxed real estate
suddenly got bought by speculators, existing buildings bulldozed, and
everything turned into high-priced four-story Yuppie bait (as you
describe).   This process continues.

> I can count at least 3 bicycle shops that have closed the past couple
> of years.

When I moved back to the South Bay in 2000, I was astonished to see that
only a single bicycle shop remained on University Avenue, Palo Alto.
There used to be six or seven of them.  But that is in part demographics
and only partly rent trends.

> A bit of good news:  HSC has sold its remaining inventory to Excess
> Solutions on  South 7th St in San Jose.

Thank you!  I've been trying to find out what if anything would be
replacing HSC and Weird Stuff Warehouse.  That's the first answer I've
gotten.