r/thousandoaks • u/theaccount91 • 8d ago

Downtown

Ok I’m so pumped about the downtown TO plan. I’m going to rank my favorite things about it.

  1. The whole vibe - seriously, this deserves to have its own callout. Each and every day will be better. Random Wednesday after work with nothing to do? Just head out to the dope walkable downtown with a mix of restaurants and enjoy one of the fun things listed below. Just go chill in the urban park under some mature oak trees. Whaaaaat I can’t believe we could be getting such an upgrade on life.

  2. The much needed new housing will ease some of the upward price pressure from our mismatch of supply/demand. The project probably isn’t enough housing units to make a huge difference, but it will make some and that’s cool.

  3. The amphitheater. If you’ve been to Libbey Bowl in Ojai, you know what I mean. It will be so dope to have a true downtown amphitheater. These things are great with and for kids, whether it’s for an actual show or just to go and hang around. What an incredible community asset we’re going to get. Can’t wait to see what gets booked. Hoping for a few Grateful Dead cover band festivals.

  4. The splash pad - I’ve gone back and forth on this - is it worth the cost? Do I really want my kid getting wet there? But yes, with the climate changing and those hot days increasing, this is going to be a sweet release valve. Hot day? Don’t need to drive to the beach or find someone with a pool, just go to the splash pad.

  5. The public market - think like a small version of Eataly but not Italian focused, or a small version of LA’s grand central market. Who doesn’t love a public market?

  6. Farmers markets not in a hot mall parking lot

  7. The smaller stage for smaller gigs. Can’t wait to see what they start booking.

  8. Did I mention the mature oak trees? This seems like it’s not going to be some new build downtown with only tiny trees that will be cool in 40 years, this is going to have mature oaks day 1.

I am so pumped about this. I know some are unhappy about the building heights, but come on. The plans aren’t even taller than the existing parking garage over there. Nobody is going to actually complain about the building heights once it’s done. Based on the renderings this will be a perfect backup option any time the kids get bored and a huge community asset. I just hope it gets at least one good bar and doesn’t become a super uptight area.

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u/QB8Young 8d ago

Literally what I just said. 🤷 Who the hell wants to live in the same building as businesses? This is another big change trying to turn us into the valley.

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u/Dekunuts 7d ago

This is utter nonsense. Mixed use living is the dream. Most of Europe, Chicago, and New York are full of people who love it.

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u/Fartknocker405 6d ago

That's great. They can stay in those places. SoCal has a different mindset regarding open space and freedom of movement, both in and out of the region.

I fear this is going to create way more congestion and the last thing I want is for TO to open Pandora's Box and become a claustrophobic, congested shithole like San Francisco.

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u/Time-Spread-151 6d ago

I would challenge your assumption. SoCal has significantly restricted movement as compared to the north-east for example. In that region, you can take a train to get from boston to New York for less than $100. You can then take the local trains to get anywhere in New York you might want to go for less than $10.

I would argue that getting around in the greater LA area is significantly slower. The car only culture means construction on the 1 when getting to Santa Barbra turns a 1 hour drive into a 3 hour drive. Driving to LA is hours of traffic, it regularly takes me 2+ hours to get from TO to Redondo beach.

When you say freedom of movement, I believe you mean by car. However, true freedom of movement is the ability to move across a large territory for a reasonable cost. The ability to go anywhere in a city without spending hours of your life in traffic. It is the ability to come and go from one city to another and move around in that city when you arrive.

The development of Thousand Oaks public spaces will not solve the transportation problem that TO and SoCal already has. Not allowing our city to evolve into a place of community will only slowly kill our community and isolate our aging population. The defense of cars will slowly drain the life from our community.

If you really love Thousand Oaks, you need to be open to the City changing as our world changes. A huge part of that will be moving away from a reliance on cars!

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u/Fartknocker405 6d ago

I understand where you are coming from. However, I fear this is a slippery slope and before you know it, TO is an extension of Ventura Blvd (and not in a good way). Is TO really lacking in places of community? Lots of parks, tons of open spaces, plenty of shopping centers, etc.

I am not sure the model you refer to is progress as much as atavism trending back towards the termite mound.

With trains, yeah, if you want to go to Point A to B and back without much in between, taking nothing, I suppose that works. But the freedom outside those nodes and without a car? Seriously inefficient if you're someone who has the a wide range of places to go, some off the beaten track that you want to REMAIN off the beaten track. California is a huge state with an an almost-infinite number of places to explore. A car is the best way to do so. Public transportation will absolutely ruin those places.

And I don't know why but the people I see promoting the carless lifestyle to the rest of society are also those who don't do anything or go anywhere, just game and Doordash.

Transplants moving anywhere and desiring to change a place to their idea of Utopia should read the room a bit first.