The Rock and Roll Emporium, which uses the acronym RARE to refer to itself from time to time is participating in Surf City Nights.
Surf City Nights in which two blocks between Walnut and Orange Avenues are closed to road traffic each Tuesday and for several weekend events.
While some retail owners haven't fully embraced a permanent promenade - and the council has not decided on its next step - the once-skeptical business owners say they are sold on Surf City Nights as a weekly event, and is still considering whether it should be expanded.
As the sun dipped into the Pacific on a recent evening, merchants lugged their T-shirts and dresses outside near farmers market booths overflowing with organic strawberries and eggplant.
City-approved street entertainers dotted the street. One young girl belted Whitney Houston ballads. Kids whooshed down a bouncy slide and twirled balloon monkeys, and the Rock and Roll Emporium promoted "stud muffin" tank tops for dogs. Teenagers passed by on inline skates while surfers crossed PCH, pausing to see how Main Street looked all gussied up with its festival atmosphere. |
For more than a century, Huntington Beach's golden sand has been seen as a moneymaker. The town was initially named Pacific City, with investors hoping it would blossom into California's own Atlantic City. The community did flourish - but from oil, not high rollers. As Huntington Beach thrived, so did Main Street. The 1920s oil spurt more than doubled the city's population in a month, according to local historians. The town's main drag, whose grocers' and clothiers' shops were full of new customers, saw its rowdiest imbibers dragged to a nearby holding tank, now boarded up.
By the 1960s, the city was bulging after annexation helped add about 100,000 residents. Amid the sprawl, "people look to Main Street to figure out what the city's all about," said historian and author Chris Epting. There was a kick-back vibe, cheap apartments packed with surfers and numerous working-class watering holes.
Amid all this, officials were regularly discussing making over Main Street. In the city's Conference and Visitors Bureau surveys, downtown repeatedly ranks with its beaches and pier at the top of visitor to-do lists. A strong centerpiece could tempt tourists to linger, officials believed, and perhaps kicking out cars would help. |
