What happened to "old downtown" Hemet ? namely Harvard st.

I went down to the shoe repair shop on Florida ave an parked on Harvard st yesterday, the street was empty ? used to have all the antique & thrift stores there years ago. Now about the only shops still open is the Old Photo co, a mexican bakery , the music store an a bar?.........while I was waiting for the shoe repair guy to sew a set of leather reins I went into the old photo shop, they have lots of old pictures of hemet & southern calif. from back in the late 1800's, spent about an hour there, I have some old family photo's I'm gonna take in an have restored an copied. Pretty cool all the pics they have there. One of the owners said the street just keeps going downhill every week even with all the storefronts being redone BUT nobody is moving into them.

having had a business on the street, with the pan handlers,hookers, homeless, It drove everybody away and the city didnt do anything.We attended many city council meetings and were givin many empty promises.
The chamber of commerce used to have the harvest festial on the street which helped bring people downtown, then they moved away from that location to state and stetson in a parking lot.....I blame the city of hemet for not taking pride in the historic downtown area.
No business will ever survive harvard street..

I have to agree, the council has a full plate but something needs to be done about restoring downtown to be a vital part of this city.

Do we even have a historical society in the valley? If so maybe they should get off their tushes, and see about restoring a section at a time. Geez with so many fund raisers ... start raising funds to restore downtown. Make the people who own or rent space to comply.

I never go down to that area anymore. I have not clue what is down there. The parking is terrible.

Is Philly on the Run going to reopen? I thought they were closed temporarily only for remodeling.

Jeff wrote:

Is Philly on the Run going to reopen? I thought they were closed temporarily only for remodeling.

No they are out of business...but I am told they are opening in a different location, do not know if it is even Hemet.

Hemet old town is just sad. It used to be super cute with lots of different antique shops and thrift stores, its really to bad. The city really needs to get it re-stored and push for it to be something like Temeculas old town.

That will never happen..the city is full of its self.....

hemet guy wrote:

That will never happen..the city is full of its self.....

It won't happen in Hemet because the people that live here are idiots. You don't see shopping carts on every corner in Temecula. That's because people who live there actually work and have jobs and drive to Stater's. They don't push the cart home and leave it on the sidewalk. You don't see weeds and overgrown yards in Temecula. The People that live in Hemet are the problem and until that changes you will never get an "Old Town Temecula" in the Harvard District. I know many are low income but that doesn't mean they need to live like a slob. People need to take pride in what they have and it starts at home! Clean your yard, don't steal the cart, get your snotty nose kid to school, call when you see a crime, take pride in your community, and stop bitching!

hey reality check, not everybody has jobs like a yuppie chit like you! read the newspapers or seen anything on the internet in the last 4 years about a RECESSION maybe?

must be nice to be a trust fund baby and not know what's going on.......

Hemet is BROKE. It has in the past put it’s hand out to any programs offered by the county of riverside and the state for the sake of a quick buck. Only to squander it on something else.

In this case it was paid to produce 11,243 high density low income units. Since 2008 it has only produced 3,922, and I think everyone can see what the impact of just 4,000 units has caused. Crime, gangs, drugs, no money to keep up the infrastructure. Can you imagine what the city will be like when it’s forced to complete the remaining 7,321 units? This should be a wake up call to anyone waiting for the city to turn around for the better. Cause it ain’t.
Quotes from the P.E.:

The city adopted a General Plan amendment that sets in place standards to comply with state requirements that are, in part, tied to funding for transportation.

The council approved the moves, 3-1, with Jim Foreman dissenting and Mayor Robert Youssef absent

"Tied to funding for transportation? And this has been used to help the city how? Fixing the roads? Traffic light improvement? Maybe that’s how the stupid center medians were paid for? Who knows."


Several residents angrily addressed the council, saying the city allowing such high-density housing — 30 or more dwellings per acre — would create crime and blight.
Since 2008, Hemet has produced 3,922 of its state-mandated 11,243 high-density units.

"30 or more dwellings per acre = average 4/per dwelling =120 people/ 43,560 ft2. And they think there will be increased crime? We already see that with only ¼ of the dwellings built so far. Add another 7,300 and see what happens."

The council responded by saying the requirements were bad, but Hemet had to approve the action to reduce the high-density requirements it would receive from the state in the next round, beginning in 2014.

"Really? So our city leaders already know we got a bad deal? So we’re already one foot in the grave before the next round in 2014. Nice negotiating fucktards. What a fricken joke the one’s running this city are."

It’s not the council that wants to cram this city full with 100,000 people, Councilman Larry Smith said. Our hands are tied.

(The state) has us right where they want us. I don’t like this hit; I feel stuck by these mandates.

"It’s not the council? Well who in the fuck made the deal with the county. Who in the fuck already accepted the $$$ and spent it on other things?"

So there you have it. This combined with all the other mishandlings of the city funds leaves the city with
Nothing, not one fucken dime.
So, quit asking the city to buy Ramona Bowl tickets to keep it afloat. Quit asking fot the city to fix up downtown. Quit asking the city for shit. Because, that’s all it has left is shit.
My dad used to say “dogs don’t shit in their own beds. Well, the dogs running the city sure do.

Thank you, Bottom Line. Wish I could add more, but you said it all. Its sad, Hell, its a crime, but you said it all, and its true.

Thank you

Hemet High, Class of '85. You shoulda been here, back then. It was a wonderful little town, it really was.

REALITY CHECK SNOB wrote:

hey reality check, not everybody has jobs like a yuppie chit like you! read the newspapers or seen anything on the internet in the last 4 years about a RECESSION maybe?
must be nice to be a trust fund baby and not know what's going on.......

Snob:

You proved my point beautifully. You blame the recession for the way you live. You are an apatheic idiot. Next time you go cash in your food stamps please push the cart back to the store when you are done. If you are not working I'm sorry but you have extra time on your hands to weed your yard. Get to it.

rick wrote:

Thank you, Bottom Line. Wish I could add more, but you said it all. Its sad, Hell, its a crime, but you said it all, and its true.
Thank you
Hemet High, Class of '85. You shoulda been here, back then. It was a wonderful little town, it really was.

couldn't agree more,I too graduated from hemet high class of 85'It was a nice town back then,Its sad to see where it's going now,huh Rick

Thank You! I get so tired of these losers blaming their troubles on the "recession" The first people to get laid off in bad times are the poor performers. These lazy people get laid off then attack the top performers for making a decent living. If you can't get a job because you are a bottom feeder, collect bottles, do something-stop bitching.

Reality Check wrote:

<quoted text>
Snob:
You proved my point beautifully. You blame the recession for the way you live. You are an apatheic idiot. Next time you go cash in your food stamps please push the cart back to the store when you are done. If you are not working I'm sorry but you have extra time on your hands to weed your yard. Get to it.

Hemet is BROKE. It has in the past put it’s hand out to any programs offered by the county of riverside and the state for the sake of a quick buck. Only to squander it on something else.

This leads one to ask WHERE is the money from the sale of the refuse dept going? Has it already been spent? If so, what was it spent on? There was an up-front payment that was apparently used to fix the budget for now.......did it really? And what is the plan for the remainder of the yearly 20-year payout from CR&R?

I wonder how much went to payoffs for the elite council and city manager of Hemet?

Anyone?

Oh, BTW, I agree with the folks saying "clean up your dang yard"! Pride starts at HOME, folks! Set a good example, maybe others will follow, and make Hemet not such an eyesore....maybe we can run the section 8 EBT crowd out of town by making it so damn CLEAN that they feel out-of-place!!!

Love the remark "maybe we can run the section 8 EBT crowd out of town by making it so damn CLEAN that they feel out of place!!!. Those of us who are trapped in this S-hole can now rest reassured that once our elected geniuses actually start fixing what they've royally fucked up., everything will be hunky dory again., in approximately 30 years. The reality is those of us hard working, honest taxpayers who built up Hemet are now at an age where we won't be around in 30 years to see the fruits of the recovery., assuming there ever is one. My recommendation: Don't bet on a dead horse. Pack your belongings and plan on getting out while you still can. Take it from someone who speaks from experience. Even if you can't get the F out now., it feels real good "planning" on getting out asap. In the meanwhile, avoid the panhandlers by doing all of your shopping in places that remain civilized like Murrietta and Tenecula. No lowlifes or Wal mart shopping carts littering their streets like this S-hole Hemet has.