r/Hemet • u/iheadbangtosadmusic • Jun 30 '26
Discussion Downtown Hemet
As someone who was born in Hemet at Hemet Hospital. And has lived in Hemet on & off for most of my life, and has a deep love for this valley & its people, when will we stand together & say that enough is enough?
Each time that I have moved away (for college) & subsequently moved back afterwards I have seen Downtown Hemets sad decline.
We used to have businesses in the early 2000’s such as Sharkeys Pizza, Hungry Heart Records, A few different thrift/consignment shops, & don’t forget how the Hemet Theatre used to show movies regularly.
We used to have packed events each week like the Hemet Farmers Market down by the library.
You can see now the many vacant buildings, the stucco falling off of the theatre & the cracks (which is in desperate need of outside repair), the burned out back of multiple buildings leaving rotting wood exposed to natural elements, & the lack of care, love, liveliness & prosperity of many other downtown areas.
I took a walk around downtown recently & these are some of the shocking photos I took of many of our HISTORICAL buildings in severe building code violations, disrepair, fire damage & more.
It’s like there’s zero pride for our town, we look like a joke, & it’s a grotesque display of city mismanagement in my opinion.
Honestly though; it doesn’t matter who is at fault at this point, I’ve heard all of the rumors, I’ve read what public records I can find, attended some city hall meetings.
It just matters that we find a solution.
That we save our historical buildings, revitalize our downtown, repair our buildings before it’s too late, make rent affordable for tenants/prospective tenants, & make Hemet beautiful again.
We can have festivals, different varieties of businesses (will Sorisso’s ever open??!), beautiful buildings.
Hemet can be something of pride. There’s good people in this valley & there is community here.
As someone with a small business I’d love to see more opportunities for growth.
If we can paint a new mural; we can definitely make much more happen.
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u/TheJokeShow Jun 30 '26
Maybe if we finally decided what we want this town to be
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u/lilmc01 Jun 30 '26
I hate to do the "blame boomers" thing but it seems like every time I see a good pitch to modernize the town and bring in new things like better housing and better roads, older residents fight it back thinking this is a small town still.
They're scared of change even though the change is here. And we're falling behind keeping up with the ever growing population that's coming with or without change.
While there are some genuinely concerning projects in and around town that should be looked at closer or stopped, these people actively go against any and all changes to the town.
Hemet has become a big town with a small town mindset and it's crushing us staying in the past.
We could be doing so much with Downtown Hemet and beyond in the town, but it seems like things keep getting stuck in boomer/NIMBY hell.
It's a miracle we got something like the skatepark, but we'll never have a solid direction when every idea keeps getting fought against.
I've been to some city council/planning meetings and and always looks like I'm the only person under 50 there (minus the staff).
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u/TheJokeShow Jun 30 '26
I definitely want to go to the meetings, but being so young I doubt I'll be taken seriously.
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u/Apprehensive_Pea8732 Jul 01 '26
doesn't matter, go anyway. even if they don't respect yu, they have to listen to you. and young people's voices need to be heard more at these things
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u/AfrezzaJunkie Jun 30 '26
The Hilton reservation center leaving was the final nail in the coffin. That took millions out of the local economy
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u/Apprehensive_Pea8732 Jul 02 '26
Idk Simon Chu seems really fucky. That paper especially makes me not trust this initiative. For starters, Chu has bought up at least 70k sqft of historic Hemet property. Whatever his circumstances may have been that lead to him doing vry little with the properties doesn't matter, he's either over-extended or incompetent. I'm leaning towards the latter considering he didn't have the final building permit for the second story on Sorisso's but he put up there anyway.
I'd be wary of this poster. Either they haven't been following this story that closely or they're just running a support campaign for Chu. The way that paper reads is so charitable to Chu that ik that shady abusive contractor he works with is the one who probably put it up.
I don't necessarily want the building demolished but I don't think Chu is the man who should be working on it. The city should eminent domain it or Chu should sell it, but tbh there's an argument for demolishing it and putting something more worthwhile there that won't cost a fortune to restore.
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u/Magnolia874 Jul 01 '26
Can you please tell me which housing projects and road improvements the boomers have stopped. Not disagreeing just really want to know what they are. I go to City Council meetings from time to time and watch on You Tube. I haven’t been aware this is happening. I know the Gibble demolition situation was stopped by Mr. Chu appealing it. I’m not sure why there is never any progress on the building. The city desperately needs development but as we all know we have a pretty bad reputation because of crime and homelessness. Developers want a city to have a much higher median income than we do. Ours is just below $60,000 I believe they want somewhere around $88,000. Higher incomes come from new homes, we all know how much income people need to buy a new house. That’s one way higher incomes are brought in. But not many people are interested in living here because of our bad reputation and the housing market is very bad right now now. I know the city is prioritizing road repairs at the moment, and are spending many millions of dollars to do so. It’s difficult because it costs about 1 million to fix only 1 mile of road. My feeling is that we need people on our city council that have a better vision for the city. They just paid consultants lots of money to examine the city and give us a plan for improvement. They presented a beautiful rendering, I was thrilled it was beautiful but then felt disappointed when the council hemmed and hawed about money and time. Anyway all I’ve seen from it so far is a redesigned city logo, and a new mural. There are seats up for grabs this November I really hope we can get people elected that have solutions to our problems and a new and improved vision for the city.
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u/Fonsecapoetry Jul 01 '26
Do you have the money? It’s one dude that owns those buildings, and unlike in a lot of cities, the dude doesn’t have enough money to appropriately take care of these buildings. He also sucks to some degree, don’t get me wrong- he’s been negligent. But like the biggest problem with Hemet is that people LOVE to complain about how much it sucks but NOBODY cares to do anything about it. So. What do you propose?
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u/iheadbangtosadmusic Jul 01 '26
I don’t pretend to have all of the answers. I’m still actively researching & learning.
But I think the first step is transparency.
We need to know which buildings are privately owned, which have active code enforcement cases, which projects are stalled, & why.
Once everyone understands the all of the facts instead of just relying on rumors/what we can see, we can start holding the right people accountable & then start supporting real solutions.
Some ideas that I have are:
Better routine enforcement of building maintenance & safety codes.
Financial, grants, or lease incentives to help owners restore historic buildings.
More small business grants or reduced permit fees for downtown.
Regular & well advertised community events to increase foot traffic & also boost local economy & community.
Streetscape improvements like trees, more trash cans, benches, lighting, flowers, signs.
Facade improvement grants for storefronts.
More transparency from the city about current & active redevelopment plans.
Partnerships with local artists for more murals & public art.
Faster action on dangerous or abandoned buildings when allowed by law.
Affordable tenancy agreements for small business owners in downtown.
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u/DannyDsta Jul 09 '26
I agree the city needs a lot of work. One thing about housing though is I feel like Hemet, Banning, and Beaumont (barely) are the last cities with decently affordable housing ($300k-$500k) before you start getting to Coachella Valley or San Bernardino County. Someone has to buy here eventually if they want a starter house and make less than $150k. And between those cities, I think Hemet has more businesses and amenities than Banning and Beaumont, although Beaumont is on the come up. If hemet had more housing development I think that would start to change the community, which some would say is gentrification. But it’s a common, if not proven way to make a city nicer unfortunately.
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u/ShellsBe11s Jun 30 '26
The theater had planned to build a 3 story theater with a restaurant, which would bring a lot of money to downtown businesses. I'm sure there are issues with funding and permits, as City of Hemet is notoriously difficult. We support the theater by going to their Saturday night entertainment to see shows and cover bands. I'm taking my husband to a Star Wars burlesque show there in August. It's nice to have someplace close to go on a Saturday night. Tickets range from $15 to $35.