Convenience, Character, Affordable Living Give Downtown Its Appeal : Residents: Reaction to planned revitalization is mixed, with some welcoming the changes and others saying they will be forced to move away.

VENTURA —  As a boy growing up in east Ventura, Sean Michels spent most of his time downtown, hanging out with friends, skateboarding along Main Street and watching tourists shuffle by.

These days he rents a room in a weather-beaten house on Palm Street, just across from the bus station.

“So much happens,” the 22-year-old construction worker said. “I sit on the porch, and it’s like watching a little TV screen.”

Behind the thrift stores and specialty boutiques, nestled between the coffee bars and cocktail lounges, thousands of people live in the thriving hamlet of apartments and homes that hide in downtown Ventura.

It is an eclectic mix of haves and have-nots, a one-square-mile amalgam of renters, seniors, professionals and down-on-their-luck transients hustling spare change or sleeping in parks.

Residents say it is the best neighborhood Ventura County has to offer: close to the beach, within walking distance of services and quick meals, and steps away from museums, libraries and the historic San Buenaventura Mission.

“I like the convenience,” said Tari Euell, who has lived in the Mission Plaza townhomes at Main Street and Ventura Avenue for nine years. “Everything is close.”

City officials only recently have begun paying more attention to the once-thriving downtown, spending millions of dollars this summer to resurface streets, widen sidewalks and install new street lamps and stoplights.

Improvements also have been made to the Ventura Beach promenade, where more than $850,000 has been pumped into a new plaza and fountain.

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Nearby, the city’s only beachfront dining establishment opened earlier this summer. A trolley system connecting the downtown with the beaches and harbor is scheduled to start up later this year.

But some longtime residents do not welcome changes to the area.

“If I wanted to live in Santa Barbara, I would have moved to Santa Barbara,” said Candy Polhemus, who has rented a house on Poli Street for eight years.

“I don’t know where the people who planned all this live, but it ain’t downtown,” she said. “If they accomplish their goals, I won’t be able to live here.”

Others retreat to their rooftops, watching the bustle of downtown under the sun and after dark.

“I just look at the houses and think about what’s going on in those people’s lives,” said Ken Miller, a 42-year-old waiter and antique dealer who meditates by night on the rooftop patio of his Poli Street apartment house.

“You see 1,000 different people and they’re all thinking 1,000 different things,” he said. “I just wish I was higher up the hill.”

Incorporated in 1866, Ventura prospered as a farm and ranching outpost. Streets were laid out and buildings erected around the mission, founded 84 years earlier by Father Junipero Serra.

The area boomed after oil was discovered in the early part of this century, and downtown became the commercial and cultural center of Ventura County. Only in the past few decades did downtown Ventura begin losing its grip as the destination capital for county residents.

But with renewed attention from the City Council, downtown Ventura is reinventing itself.

New businesses have sprung up where there once were none. Art galleries and nightclubs now lure customers late into the evenings. Three years ago there were no coffeehouses downtown. Today there are seven.

Developers are planning a multiplex theater on Main Street where the Rendezvous Room bar now pours drinks. Down the street, other investors want to build upscale retail centers and a wine bar at the abandoned Peirano’s Market, the city’s oldest brick building.

“The things going on downtown are not by accident,” city planner Patrick Richardson said. “We’ve actually gone out to theater builders and residential builders and asked them if they were interested.

“Right now, what you’re seeing is just the beginning,” he said. “In a few years it will be more of the same--more nighttime activity, more restaurants, more shopping.”

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City officials already have allocated 900 new housing units in the downtown area, a move they hope will lure even more people to the commercial core. So far, Richardson said, there have been offers for only a few small projects. But surely, he said, others will follow.

“We’re trying to get a balance between housing, commercial and retail downtown,” Richardson said. “In the past, that was kind of lacking.”

According to the U.S. census and other data compiled by the city, just over 10,600 people live within one square mile of Main and Palm streets, where the multiplex theater is planned to open late next year.

More than 76% of the residents are renters, with an average yearly income of just over $18,000. Five miles away, rentals dip below 49% and the average income climbs to almost $24,000 a year.

Singles outnumber married couples 3 to 2 within a mile of the proposed movie house, the median age is just over 30 and the employment rate is 61%. Five miles away, married couples account for half the population, the median age is 36 and almost 64% of the people have jobs.

More downtown residents dropped out of high school than their neighbors, with fewer than two-thirds graduating. Elsewhere, more than 82% of residents completed high school.

Despite the renovations, rents are generally less downtown than elsewhere in Ventura. The average monthly cost is $516 a month for downtown housing and $658 a month throughout most of Ventura.

The housing stock includes beachfront condominiums, historic Victorians, run-of-the-mill apartments and transient hotels.

“We were looking at everything within our price range,” said Nancy Settle Vaniotis, who bought a house on Fir Street in 1983. “But for the money, we felt we got more of a house.”

Over the last dozen years, Vaniotis said, downtown has evolved to the point where she rarely has to drive on weekends.

“I can do almost everything I need to do on weekends without getting in my car,” she said. “The only thing that’s missing is a department store.”

But Cheryl Neary, who owns a Thompson Boulevard home built in 1903 right across from Plaza Park, said the neighborhood is too loud and attracts too many oddballs.

“Over the years, I’ve disliked it more and more,” said Neary, who bought in 1976. “I have to keep the door locked all the time.”

At the Ventura Inn, a 70-room subsidized housing complex at California and Main streets, David and Candy Shaw have rented a small studio for $525 a month for almost a year.

“I like the environment,” said David Shaw, a 35-year-old disabled Army veteran. “Once you get to know them, the people are pretty friendly.”

They met in a county-run mental health facility three years ago and then married.

“For the mental-health people, this place is really good,” said Candy Shaw, 39. “They keep the good ones in and the bad ones out.”

Helene Mongeau, 63, spends many of her afternoons at the Senior Recreation Center on Santa Clara Street. There, she mingles with friends, catches up on gossip and plays Scrabble.

“I can’t drive so I love being downtown,” said Mongeau, who lives in the Mission Plaza condominiums on Main Street. “Wherever I’ve lived, it’s always been downtown.

“My daughter says I live in the slums, but I like it,” she said. “She doesn’t know what she’s talking about. The only trouble I have is with barking dogs.”

Inside an office at the Henshaw Hotel at Santa Clara and California streets, owner Jack Teberg is shuffling papers. He said he has spent a lot of time and money renovating the hotel, built in 1926.

When he bought the gable-roofed hotel, its 44 rooms were filled mostly by transients and drug users who were not always prompt paying their rent.

“What we’ve done is upgrade,” he said.

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Nowadays, he screens applicants and weeds out those he thinks may not mix well with the families and working people he caters to.

“We have get-togethers for our guests, so it’s a real family feeling here,” Teberg said. “We’re just a block away from anything--stores, restaurants and of course, the ocean.”

Lisa Moore, 35, stopped at the Henshaw for a few nights two years ago. She’s still there.

“We weren’t planning to stay very long, but they’re nice people here,” said Moore, a model.

Vaniotis, the Fir Street homeowner, said she has big expectations for downtown.

“It’s been a jewel in the rough for years and years,” she said. “But now, with what the city’s doing, it will kind of revitalize itself.”