Chamber President Benton Speaks to Optimists
Bob Benton, who succeeded Arnie Wishnick as Chamber of Commerce president last summer, spoke at the February 5 Optimist Club meeting at the Palisades Presbyterian Church.
Chamber President Bob Benton addressed the Palisades Optimist Club.
He spoke about the “old” village—the area south of Sunset between Monument and Via de la Paz–and the “new” village, Caruso’s Palisades Village, but emphasized, “They are both our town.” He noted that “one side of the street is young and savvy, and the other side is not so young, not so saavy, but has roots.”
The current thinking for branding the Chamber is using the expression “Our Town,” which would include both sides of Sunset.
Benton told the Optimists that the Chamber remodel was done without using any Chamber funds (thanks to a $20,000 donation from Caruso plus pro bono work by Chamber members).
“We’ve created a new board and we provide value for our members,” he said.
One contentious issue in town last December came when the Chamber replaced its venerable Holiday Ho!Ho!Ho! with the Holiday Stroll. Benton admitted that announcing the decision wasn’t handled as smoothly as it might have been, but that Ho!Ho!Ho! helped only a couple of businesses in town and never benefited the Chamber financially.
The Holiday Stroll made the Chamber money (each participating merchant had to pay $250), Benton said, and also beautified the sidewalks with miniature Christmas trees that were placed in front of the participating businesses.
One Chamber member had told Circling the News that she appreciated how the Fancy Feet dancers and Gerry Blanck’s martial arts students had performed in the Regal Cleaners parking lot during the stroll, because it brought more families into town.
“The Holiday Stroll will be bigger next year,” Benton promised.
He said the “Dancing with the Stars” Chamber installation gala was a success with co-mayors Billy and Janice Crystal and Joe Mantegna as judges. Local architect Richard Blumenberg was installed as the new board chair, succeeding realtor Susan Payne.
Upcoming events include the Chamber’s speaker series on February 28, which will feature Pepperdine’s Associate Vice President of Integrated Marketing Communications Matt Midura. The talk will take place in the Bay Theater from 8 to 9:30 a.m. This will be the first of four speakers planned this year.
Benton said that Caruso was going to announce on Tuesday this week that there will be special tickets to the Genesis Open and that people purchasing them will be able to park in the Palisades Village lot and be taken by limousine to the Riviera.
Benton was asked if service clubs should join the Chamber, since the emphasis is now on business. That’s a fair question, he replied, but did not give a definitive answer.
He was asked if Chamber Mixers were going to continue. “We’re trying to upgrade them,” he said, explaining that as a merchant (Bentons Sports Shop) he had hosted them, but it was always the same small group of people showing up. “We’re charging for them now and we’re asking for the hosts to upgrade them.” He said that several businesses have already lined up to host them.
One Optimist inquired whether businesses in Caruso’s Palisades Village had joined the Chamber.
“Caruso bought them a three-month package and I’m trying to market to them now,” Benton said, noting that Caruso prefers his own marketing methods to a Chamber of Commerce. Benton said that Marissa Hermer (Draycott) and Peter Garland (Porta Via) have joined the Chamber board.
Benton was asked how the businesses were doing at Caruso’s Village. “I don’t know,” he said, but “the restaurants are killing it.” He explained that any time a mall opens it takes a while for the stores to establish themselves and pointed to the Palisades Drive Center just north of Sunset. “How many different stores have we seen go in there?”
“There are going to be stores that are not going to survive,” Benton acknowledged, referring to Palisades Village.
He was asked how the old businesses in town were doing. “Haven’t seen much change, yet,” Benton said.
“Is there a chance of getting a hardware store?” one person asked.
Benton replied, “Not a chance. There is about as much chance as getting a sporting goods store,” the business he owned for more than 30 years.
One Optimist said, “Amazon put Katie [Village Books] out of business and now they’re in town.”
“Amazon is not a classic book store,” Benton replied. “They don’t have to make money from books.”
One Optimist said that he had been told that some of the stores in Caruso’s Village were trying it on a trial basis.
Benton said he didn’t know, but there was a possibility that pop-up stores could be coming this summer.
Thanks for the report on Bob Benton and the direction the Chamber is taking. However, I would rethink categorizing South of Sunset as not so young and not so savvy. There are new stores that I consider young and savvy. What about Estate Coffee, The Sew Chateau, and 90272 (the dance store in Ted Makie’s now very hip mid-century modern building), all on Via. Swarthmore has Shoppe Amber and isarose. There is an amazing energy South of Sunset. I would love to see South of Sunset called “old town”.
Perhaps the Chamber could help with directional signage? I think the merchants would welcome that. We could call everything the Village as we always have, which would include both sides of Sunset; the new mall and “old town”
I will say the Holiday Stroll was a lovely addition to Village Traditions and look forward to 2019. The decorated trees were perfect and the streets festive. It will be interesting to seeing how the Chamber evolves with the forward thinking direction they are going. I am sure we will see many more innovative ideas put in place.
Excellent suggestions Marge! And (foot stamping!) we’ve GOTTA keep Ho! Ho! H0! That’s one of our Palisades true Traditions!!!!
Thank you for bringing this to our attention, Sue. Of course one thing we can count on in life is change. Clearly what has happened over the past couple of years is significant change with the Chamber. Some of it good. Some of it not so much, in my opinion as a former long time board member of the Chamber. Back in the day (but really not so long ago), our emphasis was being INCLUSIVE of everyone in the community…residents, community organizations, service groups. We had an annual directory that was inclusive of all aspects of the community, including emergency contact info and preparedness, HOAs, etc. It is my understanding that the Chamber changes include elimination of much of this information from the new publication. The ‘directory’ will be more of a twice a year magazine. Serving the business community only? Another change includes increasing dues of resident membership from $75 to $300 and also increasing the dues of non profits and service organizations. The ‘hidden’ message is that the Chamber is ok with making membership costs so high that it will be prohibitive for residents and many non profits to continue their memberships. All of this appears to be a fait accompli and part of their ‘business only’ direction. It has been rumored that many of the changes are mirroring other Chambers (communities that are nothing like the Palisades). I have not had direct conversations with the Chamber board but am confident much of this information is true simply by reviewing what’s on the Chamber website. Personally, as an active 20 year resident of the Palisades, I do not know why the Chamber has chosen to go in this direction. Why they believe that this EXCLUSIVITY of the Chamber will help business in the Palisades is a mystery to me. Many of the new businesses on the South side of Sunset seem very community oriented. And yes, there are new, young, savvy businesses on the South side of Sunset. I wonder how they feel about be characterized as ‘not so young, not so savvy’? Has Mr. Benton taken a walk down Via recently?
Yes Sandy you are so right. In life there are constant changes. Nothing ever stays the same. We must also know that we all have choices. Let us all live together in harmony with our own choices.
I don’t understand why the Chamber is willingly giving up the existing brand of “the Village” to Caruso. Caruso’s development is a mall. Call it for what it is. It’s The Mall. The remaining business neighborhood is the Village.