There was some relief from the comatose gray period when the color mauve was added-although the word sterile still comes to mind. The first real breakthrough I saw came with a series of connected buildings along the 91 Freeway just east of Corona. Each one is a different crayon color of blue, green, yellow and red. Next I began seeing individual buildings painted bright colors in west Los Angeles and the El Segundo area.
The field of architecture has styles and colors in the same manner and fashion as clothing. Shopping Center World magazine is now showing bold bright primary color schemes. Buildings are dated by their architecture and also by their paint colors; they are remodeled and repainted in an effort to attract new attention, new identity, and thus new customers. In today's business climate, it is in the best interests of any community desiring sales tax dollars to encourage upgrading.
The conflict lies in every bureaucracy's desire to control against the business owners' desire to be innovative. When all the stores look the same, when all the signs look the same, what is there to differentiate? One of our biggest grocery chains has a corporate policy to remodel each store every seven years. If they don't, they know they will lose sales to the new or remodeled kid down the street.
This same marketing principle applies to towns as well. It can be seen when sales move from city to city as new shopping areas more attuned to the times become available. Towns have to re-invent themselves just like businesses have to re-invent themselves. If they don't, they die. Many towns die because they forget how to change. In others, the bureaucracy becomes institutionalized and rigor mortis sets in. Government by definition wants to control. Free enterprise by definition wants to innovate, to change, to build new. Bureaucracies want to tell entrepreneurs how to design buildings. Design Review Boards want to tell businesses what color to paint their buildings (or re-paint, for that matter). Therein the stage is set for sales to move on down the road.
Next time you drive on Firestone past our great Redevelopment demonstration block (the south side of the street between Downey Ave. and La Reina Ave.) look at all those gray awnings and visualize if you will each awning painted a different bright color. Mentally move those silly little signs away from the street up onto the wall above the awning where they can be seen from a passing car, each sign a different color from the awning-a festival of color. A rainbow to draw the customers to the block. Then the pot of gold won't be empty like it is now.
We are starting to see some color in the city, part of our heritage from some of our new residents. The bright yellows and greens from Mexico and South America and Chinese red from Asia are starting to bring some life. Business goes up and sales tax revenues go up when people traveling through town are intrigued enough to stop and shop. Most sales these days are discretionary and if your store or town does not catch the traveler's fancy, they just go on to other stores in towns that are more forward looking.
Bureaucrats can make people paint all the stores the same color as their neighbors, but they can not make people stop and buy. And that is what the free market is all about-motivation and competition.
If Downey is going to live and grow into the next century, businesses are going to be the engine that fills the coffers to pay for those services we want. When we restrict business by unnecessary control and regulation, we are reducing our own viability. We are killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.