by Max Hauser
Many residents recall the hopeful “downtown grocery store project” a few years ago. Acknowledging mainstream general retail as a missing element downtown, the city sought a retail tenant, possibly a grocery, for the new parking structure at the California-Bryant corner. The strongest and ultimately successful bid however came from Long’s Drugs, now CVS.
The prospect of a general downtown grocery had wide appeal, a unifying goal in the neighborhood. Julie Lovins organized a committee to study options, hoping to attract a small quality grocer to the Bryant site. Even after CVS opened instead, bringing other useful services and some groceries, discussions toward a general market continued.
In October, providentially, independently, and largely unaware of that history, veteran grocery retailers Ann and Juan Origel acquired the Mountain View Market (MVM) at 340 Castro, after selecting it as the perfect location to create an “aesthetically pleasing, full-service, high quality” independent grocery, specifically tailored to community needs. It appears that we may get our long-sought downtown grocery, custom-made. Achieving that will require community participation, both in offering input to the owners, and of course shopping there. CLICK HERE to read more.
by David Lewis, Chair, OMVNA
January was the month for a new event, the brainchild of Deb Keller and Carter Coleman–OMNVA New Year’s Eve parties. They organized it and got the use of many houses, even one with baby-sitting for our residents with kids. Those who signed up for the event went from house to house celebrating the New Year with old neighbors and friends and meeting new ones while their children had a New Year’s party as well.
April 5 brought a mixer at Scratch. Max Houser, Manny Ramirez, and Glenda Crespo organized the event. Over 30 OMVNA residents came to see this new, hot, Mountain View restaurant so convenient to OMVNA.
CLICK HERE to read more.
by Robert Cox, Vice Chair, OMVNA
“They found a skull on the property,” Vice Mayor Mike Kasperzak whispered to me, as he broke the latest news about the re-development of the Abate’s Industrial Square on the southwest corner of West Evelyn and Calderon Avenues. “What will Scott have to deal with next? Re-development on the site has been halted pending an investigation!”
CLICK HERE to read more.
by the Editor & Assistant Editor
Our fall was enlivened by an entertaining OMVNATalk discussion that some of you may have missed. Proximity to Halloween may have had some connection to ‘Spidergate’. We thought we would add our little bit.
First, the authors would note that until they moved here, they had never seen so many spiders. Do we have the perfect climate and ecosystem here for these sometimes too friendly 8-legged creatures? Our first week here the editor, visiting a disused shed in the back yard, returned completely entangled in the spider webs that are so difficult to remove because of the amazing strength of spider silk. Some of us welcome our spiders; others don’t appreciate their bug-controlling efforts. Black widows (see below) eat cockroaches and flies in large quantities, thus saving your home from these pests, analogous to the Thai practice of having cobras in your garden to control the rat population. If you don’t appreciate the spider webs around your house and yard, you can try to eliminate them, but you may have little luck, as spiders have evolved to be great producers of spider webs (except for those like wolf spiders and jumping spiders who’ve adapted to other hunting techniques). CLICK HERE to read more.
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