Old News…But The Fire is Still Burning
The Home Depot construction may be old news by now but many are still frustrated with the result of the building plan. City planners told the Tehachapi News that this Home Depot was going to be the most beautiful Home Depot building ever built and it would have ‘victorian’ architecture. The Tehachapi News no longer has this article in their archives but trust me…it was written.
In no way does this Home Depot building look victorian (it looks more ranch like…which does fit the style of Tehachapi) but it is absolutely not beautiful. I’ve been to other mountainous towns in California and have seen beautiful Home Depot buildings. Take Placerville, Ca for instance…the Home Depot built there in 2005 has river rock pillars, exposed wood beams and the only orange on the building is the actual letters that spell ‘The Home Depot.’ As you pass The Home Depot on Highway 58 in Tehachapi, it looks like any other retail area in the Central Valley. How can this building be described by city officials as anything other than, “folks, we’re getting a Home Depot.”
Tehachapi has the opportunity to set themselves apart as a unique mountain city but only if city planners stand firm ground with these big box stores. It takes more money to build beautiful buildings and if the corporate giants like Home Depot and Wal-Mart don’t have to spend the extra bucks, they won’t. But these stores want to be in Tehachapi and they will do what it takes to be here. Even if it means building a store that compliments a natural landscape like Tehachapi’s.
Hopefully city planners won’t give way to the corporate giants because they think the corporations are doing us a favor. If they do, in the end Tehachapi will lose its value as a historical town because it will look like any other city in the Central Valley and the only difference will be our elevation. What will be special about Tehachapi that people will want to come here and visit when we no longer have the small town atmosphere because of giant white walls that plague the landscape?
