Wednesday, September 12, 2007

CM PRESS # 209


WESTSIDE BUSINESS CULTURE NAMES OFFICERS

There's a piece in the Daily Pilot today about a relatively new group calling itself Westside Business Culture, that is trying to help revitalize the Westside.

According to the Pilot, the organization has been around since earlier this year but has now taken the next organizational step by appointing its official leaders.

Steve Jones
, co-owner of home developer 1.7 Ocean, was named president. Dan Bradley, owner of the Detroit Bar and Memphis Cafe, became vice president. Pete Zehnder, who is Jones' partner, is chairman. Frank Gutierrez, owner of Mesa Framing, is the treasurer, and Julie Thompson-Dobkin, co-owner of Costa Mesa based wine producer Thomkin Cellars, is the secretary.

The CM PRESS is certain that Improvers wish the new organization well and that they will support the Westside Business Culture organization's efforts to bring in more of an arts/cafe society on the Westside.

On a cautionary note, many Improvers hope that the new organization will narrowly focus its attention on retail businesses--bars, restaurants, cafes, art galleries and the like--and even on improving the housing stock, but will not let the organization be co-opted by mostly out of town interests that don't want to see meaningful changes on the Westside.

If the Westside evolves in the right way, it can become an eclectic fun place to visit and be a major destination location for all of Southern California. Hopefully, this group will help hasten that day.
# # #
Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

 http://frankspeech.com/