Fourth in a series
Re “Marks Counsels Patience Until Downtown Changes Happen”
[img]2801|right|Wally Marks||no_popup[/img] With Culver City’s restaurant-loaded downtown awaiting a predicted influx of retailers, realtor Wally Marks pondered a broad question:
How deeply did the Great Recession affect the business community? Was it a hiccup from which entrepreneurs are in the process of recovering? Or was it only a speed bump that barely interrupted progress?
“It definitely was not a speed bump, and everyone was affected differently,” Mr. Marks said.
“For some people I know who work for cities, their pensions were drastically reduced. Their investments were affected. They had to work more years than they planned.
“It would be disingenuous to say for the West L.A. folks it wasn’t a hardship. I don’t know what to say further about that because everyone is in a different situation. Certain businesses have done well when there has been a disruption. But a lot of other businesses haven’t.
“For our furniture stores (in the Helms District),” said Mr. Marks, a second generation realtor, “we have been okay. Some have done better because of their advertising efforts to capitalize on it, advertising sales to get people in. Many small businesses lost their access to capital, meaning the bank had called their lines of credit or their SBA loans. Maybe we’re not as robust, and they couldn’t get them during these last six, seven, eight years. That limited their ability to reinvest in their business. That has been a hardship for retailers in general, not just West L.A. or Culver City.”
(To be continued)
