Old Town Report (11/03/16 Issue)

– Courtesy photo

By Pam Fitzpatrick

Gee whiz…..just a few more days until this election is over, and I can hardly wait. The national mood – no matter which side you are on – is not good, and it’s amazing how that “not good” translates to not good for business. Let’s face it; fear isn’t good for much of anything. On the brighter side, the political grumpiness has not extended itself to our (usually) friendly Old Town visitors who are just looking for some peace (and maybe a glass of wine). I’ve only seen one outward act of political stupidity here. We had two “shrines” dedicated to the candidates: one had a trash enclosure adorned with their likeness, graffiti-style, and another’s likeness was spray-painted on that infamous unfinished building in the 300 block. The art is gone – pretty easy to remove – I just hope the fear will be as easy to erase.

Halloween was last Monday, and if you needed some stress relief, that Old Town event would have done it. The kids – the families – the dogs and cats! And has anybody else noticed that the costumes are far less gory these days? One of my Halloween helpers was dressed as Velma (from “Scooby-Doo,” of course!), and – get this – our City Manager, Oliver Chi, was his own version of “My Little Pony.” I’m actually glad I didn’t see that one….

Need some more stress relief? This Saturday we have two special events in Old Town. The O2Breathe Walk & Health Fair will be in Library Park in the morning, and in the afternoon we will celebrate “Tina & Cleo Day” with face painting, balloons, music and cake, all in the 400 block. Tina, our resident cat lady, will have a scrapbook for everyone to sign and we’ll take pictures for Tina to keep in that scrapbook, so be sure to sign it for her.

Businesswise, I saw a post on Facebook last week asking about a couple of locations in town, so pardon me for repeating, if I’ve already told you: the Copper Still Grill is planning on opening where Sam’s Kabob Room was (600 block) and Frost My Cake will be the new bakery in town where Monrovia Bakery was for years (500 block). Notice the newly painted storefront at Frost My Cake? Just waiting for the sign! And, sadly, we will be losing Yelena Bridal after all. The store was in escrow for a short time and I thought we had a new owner, but escrows will go as escrows will go, and the deal fell through. I see a sign in their window with huge discounts on their entire inventory – it says, “Retirement Sale” again. I’m sad – what a loss. Wish I knew what might go into that space. I heard the possibility of another spa, but nothing definite.

There’s some exciting news about possible new filming in Old Town during January. We don’t generally allow filming during November and December, for obvious reasons, so January here we come. Disney is seriously thinking of filming parts of their new kid’s movie, “Magic Camp,” mid to late January. They still have to go through all of the approval process, but it looks promising. This Thursday we have a small photo shoot in town as well.

My sister just called me and said our “Small Business Saturday” package has arrived from American Express. The Saturday after Thanksgiving (the day after Black Friday), the Monrovia Chamber and the merchants do a co-op event to promote this day , and it’s really growing in popularity, so watch for the Chamber table at Lemon and Colorado on Saturday, Nov. 26.

Are you excited for our Holiday Events and New Year’s Eve on Myrtle yet?? Watch for news on our Facebook page and on www.oldtownmonroviaca.com.

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