New direction at the Chamber

The Chamber has gone through a lot of leadership since 2001, when I first started being involved with it. After the messy end of previous chamber CEO Elizabeth Brazil's term, there seemed to finally be a push for the Chamber to get its act together. Now local mover and shaker Camilla Townsend has been handed the reigns and a lot is going to be expected of her. With 1st Thursday in a state of total disarray, the downtown core packed with empty storefronts and over a dozen dueling development projects that might either save or doom San Pedro, she gets to step right into the fire.

I really liked this statement regarding the conduct of some of the Downtown property owners from her More San Pedro interview in the most recent issue -

I'm concerned about it. I think the [property owners] are jumping the gun. Especially on 7th Street, where I've known several artists who have left because owners were raising the rent. [Property owners] held on this long, why not hold on until all the new people move in and the artists ghave the chance to make some money and can afford the higher rent? From what I understand a lot [of the property owners] don't care if their storefront is empty, but I don't like empty places. Why leave it empty? It just looks bad. I wish something could be done about that.

Well, CEO Townsend, we're hoping that you can do some thing about it, because no one else seems to be able to. I think we all know that the business community in San Pedro needs a lot of help - what can the Chamber do to make things better?