From Eyesore To Bike Store
POSTS ARE NO LONGER BEING ACCEPTED FOR THIS REPORT.
By Chris T Wilson
Plans are approved and under way to transform a shuttered and abandoned gas station into a hub of cycling and green community transportation.
If all proceeds according to schedule, The MOB Shop, a bicycle sales and repair shop in Meiners Oaks, will relocate to the presently fenced property at the corner of West Ojai Avenue and North Ventura Street.
This past Wednesday the Ojai Planning Commission voted unanimously to approve plans that will see the dilapidated property improved, redesigned and opened for business by as early as February 2012, MOB Shop co-owner Kelly Pasco said.
Among the offerings planned for the building that has been vacant for about 16 years, will be retail sales, bicycle repairs, an electric car charging station and an extensive rental fleet of conventional and electric cycles.
Pasco, a former physical education teacher at Oak Grove School, is an avid cyclist with a bent for activism and alternative transportation. Along with visionary business partners, Greg Prinz and Tim Rhone, The MOB Shop plans to revolutionize how tourists and commuters move in and around the Ojai Valley.
Pasco says he sees this as a perfect opportunity to promote Ojai as a green tourist destination that will likely help local business in the process.
“The beauty of it is that we take this old defunct gas station and turn into a green transportation store,” Pasco said. “We want to really promote people getting around Ojai by bike and not by car. We’re adding a lot of cool bikes to our rental and electric fleet. So you can cruise up here from L.A. in your electric car, get around town on a bike while your car charges and then drive back.”
Planning Commissioner Kathleen Nolan said she likes how The MOB Shop plans coincide with the Complete Streets program being created for Ojai. Complete Streets will reconsider the bike and pedestrian master plan and circulation element to comply with state and federal regulations that require streets be designed for safer use by walkers, cyclists and vehicles, she said. Nolan praised Pasco’s input on the Complete Streets and the sustainable elements of the business plans.
“I love the fact that they are planning to install solar, capture rainwater on-site and have charging stations for electric cars,” Nolan said. “That site has a been a blight for years.”
Fellow Planning Commissioner John Mirk, who commutes twice a week by bicycle to work at Patagonia in Ventura, agreed.
“I’m really excited to see this happen,” Mirk said. “This will be a wonderful gathering place for people. The shop in Meiners Oaks has become that way and the new shop will be like that but even more so.”
Mirk and Nolan both quoted Commissioner Paul Crabtree who referred to the Planning Commission’s unanimous approval of The MOB Shop plans as a “love fest,” at the Wednesday evening meeting.
Behind-the-scenes landscape architect and contractor John Lamar has worked closely with the MOB Shop partners in creating and revising the plans to meet with city approval. He said a lot of the credit goes to the city officials who green-lighted the plans and helped it move through easily.
Lamar also said that the building, which has been closed since the mid-1990s from a leaking fuel tank, has been fully remediated and signed off for new business use.
“The county’s Department of Environmental Health has said that the building is ready for commercial use,” Lamar said. “We will continue to work closely with Environmental Health to monitor the situation.”
Lamar and Pasco both said that as the plans come together in the coming months that Lamar will become a partner in The MOB Shop as well.
MOB Shop co-owners Prinz and Rhone both said they’re pleased to see this big move coming together. Prinz has a vision to redefine how people see cycling.
“Our ultimate goal is get people out of cars onto bikes,” Prinz said. “It’s easy to accomplish everything in Ojai on a bike. For the most part the valley is flat. Our goal is to become known in the world of commuter cycling; to be the authority on commuter bicycles.”
Rhone brings years of retail sales experience to the team and an equal measure of vision and enthusiasm.
“This is a perfect spot for us to stage the revolution here and make this a real cycling town,” Rhone said. “If you compare to someplace like Portland, which grew its cycling community by 31 percent in the last five years, we’re pretty far away. But, I think given the availability of safe bike lanes and we’re about one-third of the way there.”
For now the MOB Shop team is seeking funds from community support, local banking and investors to help move the project forward. The new space in downtown Ojai will more than double retail, repair and rental space.
Currently located at 445 W. El Roblar Drive, The MOB Shop also maintains rental fleets of bicycles at the Ojai Valley Inn & Spa, Casa Ojai and Su Nido Inn.
If there “is no bad opinion and there is no wrong answer”, then why were you “truly offended” by my truthful and logical comments?
I don’t have a problem with people making anonymous comments. There is nothing wrong with that.
But I do think it is offensive, trollish and cowardly for someone to hide behind an anonymous name for the purpose of personally attacking a person who does use his or her real name.
OVN has an obligation to delete those kinds of comments, at least according to their little notice at the top of the page. It’s sad to see they ignore their own policy.
K.S.,
I am truly offended by your insensitive comments. You are nothing but a loud bully. Have you always been a bully? Were you ever bullied? Why do you pick on innocent trolls? Have you ever seen a cave troll? I have.
Thanks for the civics lesson. You claim my opinion is of little value. That is not democratic. My opinion and the opinions of trolls are equal in value to your opinions. Every opinion, no matter what, no matter how well informed or uninformed, is equal. There is no bad opinion and there is no wrong answer.
C.C.
By the way Concerned Citizen, why are you so afraid to post your real name? Could it be you just don’t want to be attacked unfairly by the trolls?
Seriously, if you don’t have the guts to back up your opinions with your real name, then your opinions hold little value, especially when they are criticisms made against people who do post their real names.
Come out of the blogger closet, if you dare…
Concerned Citizen, the right to free speech does not include making unsubstantiated accusations against people, libel and slander, nor does it include disruptive trolling. So sad to see you fail to understand that it was my rights that have been violated.
Kevin,
I find your comments directed at trolls to be offensive. Everyone has a right to speak their mind, even trolls. What if you were an elf and I blasted elves for trying to take over this blog. How would you feel?
You should really be more sensitive toward those with differences, i.e., small strange looking and think people, and then maybe those same people will not feel the need to blast you.
Concerned Citizen
Why is their a double standard for removing offensive comments from the OVN Blog?
Cowardly children like Yoville, ‘coral on a stick’, ‘provide evidence on him’, and ‘I’m so scared’, who post libelous, slanderous lies and juvenile comments are too ashamed to post their real names and should be banned from the blog.
But Misty of the OVN says that “they are participating in free speech”. Really? How can posting libelous comments be considered “free speech”? Plus their so called “free speech” violates the terms of this paper, which appear at the top of every news story.
The truth is, they are really trolls bent on driving away all decent people from this blog.
Misty shamelessly tells me that “if you don’t like anonymous posters making offensive comments against you, then do not use your real name.” But why should I or anyone else cower and allow juvenile trolls to push us out so the lords of the flies can rule the blog?
Misty is a hypocrite, because the OVN will quickly take down any comment that is the least bit offensive to anyone who works for the OVN.
Why should Misty be able to post her real name when she writes a story, knowing full well that any criticism will be quickly removed from the blog? She enjoys the luxury of a double standard of knowing any offensive comments directed at her will be quickly removed. But offensive comments directed at any nonemployee’s comments are rarely removed, even if you call and complain several times and point out that OVN is violating their own policy.
To be fair, Misty did remove one offensive comment, but only after two weeks of unreturned phone calls and email. Her cynical explanation was the offensive comment was being removed “in the spirit of the holidays”.
How pathetic is that?
So here is the real policy of OVN Blog:
“WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO IMMEDIATELY REMOVE OFF-TOPIC POSTINGS AND EDIT THOSE WE DETERMINE TO BE OFFENSIVE TO OVN ONLY. BECAUSE WE ARE HYPOCRITES, OFFENSIVE AND TROLLISH POSTINGS TO OUR READERS IS CONSIDERED FREE SPEECH, EVEN IF THE COMMENTS ARE LIBELOUS, AND WILL NOT BE REMOVED, EXCEPT OCCASIONALLY DURING THE HOLIDAY SEASON.
I’m sorry for posting my completely made up comment.
I too am sorry for posting my delusional comment that has no basis in reality.
Sorry for posting that last comment. My imaginary friend made me do it because I forgot to take my meds, again.
Contact Ray and his imaginary friend “Kevin”. They
know the “police” and can “deal with him” (delete).
so many of these comments should be deleted
Sorry. I love bicycles too. But Ray and his dog
Kevin twice named a citizen they know nothing about
and never met. Ray and Kevin made serious
accusations against him and completely failed
to provide proof of guilt or innocence. They lied
about the “police” and never saw the man in
question handcuffed and booked into Ventura
County Jail. Ray and Kevin are LIARS! There was
no “event” and no “police”.
All of these ridiculous rants come as a result of an article about a new bike shop? Get real
Ray, Where is the “police.” Are they going to “deal
with him”? The Dream Police , they live inside of
my head. Ha,ha,ha.The Dream Police, they’re coming
to arrest me? Ha,ha,ha. Where is your dog Kevin?
Is he another fictional character from your LSD trip?
“Those men inside my brain.” Is your dog Kevin and
the “police” coming to arrest me? Ha,ha,ha. They spy
on me,I try to hide, they won’t let me alone. Are
you a “police” too? Did you enjoy the “flyers?”
Where are they? Do the little men (police) inside
your brain have them? Ha,ha,ha,ha,ha,ha.
Kevin and Ray, Where is your “security” company?
Why do you make false allegations and can’t back
it up with an incident report from one of your
rent-a-cop, $8.00 hr., minimum wage guards? You are
making “threatening” and need the “meds.”
Both of you are criminals and need “police.”
The “police” were “called” and you were in charge
of “security?” Where is the arrest record? Maybe
you were in his backyard and he didn’t like it?
It’s not nice to invade (Nature’s Image) and
destroy Mother Nature. It is pretty clear that
Kevin and Ray are wimps and liars (Democrats).
They have never offered any “evidence” and there
is no “police”. We know the police because we
actually grew up here. Kevin and Ray should take
their money back to ActBlue headquarters in
downtown L.A. and stay there.
What was the “event” and the “flyers”? Do you have
“evidence”?
provide evidence on him, you You never announced your support for Pesticide Free Ojai Valley
for their efforts in preventing the spraying of carcinogenic herbicides on our
community. Why? Are you invested with Monsanto and
hate working people who live next to the Ventura
River? The accusation sword swings both ways shrill troll.
“provide evidence on him” it’s your style buddy and the words you use and how you use them. Why not just say “I’m not Jeffrey?” if it isn’t you? Why don’t YOU provide evidence? And no, I’ve had personal contact with “him”, his pseudo threatening flyers disrupting an event that featured Supervisor Bennett that I was running security on where the police had to be called in to deal with “him” (Jeffrey). It is YOU who have become the mouthpiece, so loud no one else can be heard–because you are right no matter what.
And to repeat, Kevin and I do not support Monsanto, we just think you are “shrill.”
Ray, Where is the evidence buddy? Twice you have
named a person without providing how you met him
or know him. Did a newspaper reporter tell you
that was him or did you see him on a computer? I
think the fair minded people of Ojai would like
to know how you named him twice with no evidence.
You have completely and thoroughly discredited
yourself. Twice you have tried and failed. You
and Kevin never denounced Monsanto Orange County
for spraying carcinogenic herbicides on our
community. Why? Are you invested with them and
hate working people who live next to the Ventura
River? Third time is the charm.
coral on a stick,
You are completely deluded and a coward for not posting your real name. Apparently you too are ashamed of your own comment.
I am not a Democrat or a Republican, I do not support Monsanto, and I am not from West Hollywood. Please get back on your meds ASAP.
For the record “Ray” is not “Yoville.” Ray knows how to spell.
To Coral on a Stick/Jeff Kettlesen–sorry Bud, only an Ojai accent and sensibility having been born at Ojai Hospital. And, just because we don’t like how you say things don’t mean that we support Monsanto–that’s what’s called “black and white thinking” and is therefore shallow and essentially uninteresting at best.
Yoville, I think you have me confused with someone else on the bear issue…I have never said to fear or get rid of bears. Respect them and live harmoniously with them has been my position and what all our literature with the Ojai Wildlife League states.
And since you continue to produce misinformation about alcohol as a fuel, I can’t let it go by…
The CO2 that it emits is balanced out by the crops (or bullrushes used for water purification, or grass clippings, etc. etc.) use of co2 thus it is carbon neutral. The remaining material after the alcohol (starch) is taken out is excellent fertilizer, as well as animal food as it contains all the minerals, proteins, etc. SMALL Scale alcohol production in which diversified crop waste is used rather than mono crops like corn, makes alcohol a cheap and sustainable fuel that is perfect for small farmers. The amount of agricultural waste that goes on is staggering and it could all be put to good use for fuel production. Just look at all the oranges on the ground in Ojai.
As for the cars, it is bio diesel that corrodes the seals in a car, not alcohol. Most cars can run on up to 50% alcohol without any modification. The transition to alcohol must be done one gallon at a time, otherwise the filters will become too clogged up from all the chemical waste products from gas that has accumulated in the engine and gets cleaned out by the alcohol. Race cars have been run on alcohol because it gives more power. Surely a guy like you must know this. And anybody can install a little computer gadget in their car so it can run totally on alcohol. No other changes are required. Check out a new Ford flex fuel engine and tell me if you see any changes, besides the added computer. You won’t.