TELL CITY PLANNERS: No Residential Development Without Walker's Cafe

Dear Friends of Walker’s Cafe,

The City Planning Hearing originally scheduled for last week was canceled. While we wait for a new date, we remain extremely worried about the developer's plans for the site. If the current plans are approved as proposed, we will never see Walker's Cafe open again. 

THE TIME IS NOW to ask the City for the two crucial conditions that would allow Walker's to survive. 

What that means: 
1) A smaller footprint for the house so the cafe has enough space. 
2) An official guarantee that the cafe will be reopened (called a “Q condition” in planning jargon).

Without those conditions, Walker’s Cafe will never reopen.

Please join us in the email campaign to ask the City to do the right thing. 

DIRECT LINK TO EMAIL THE CITY PLANNER HERE (feel free to customize the email template).

Or copy and paste the template below. (Please make sure to use that subject line with the long string of numbers and letters, so that the email is added to the planning case file!) 

To: monica.taimoori@lacity.org, councilmember.mcosker@lacity.org, Pamela.Thornton@lacity.org
Re: Walker’s Cafe – ZA-2023-7218-CDP-CU-CUB-MEL-HCA

Dear Ms. Taimoori, dear Councilmember,

My name is [ADD NAME] and I have been a resident of [San Pedro OR Los Angeles – PLEASE SPECIFY] for [X] years.

I am a loyal supporter of the currently shuttered legacy business Walker’s Cafe (HCM #1267), expressing my serious concern about the development planned at 700 W. Paseo del Mar, San Pedro 90731, directly behind the landmarked cafe.

Walker’s Cafe is the oldest surviving restaurant in San Pedro and one of the oldest in all of Los Angeles. Founded in 1946 by a Navy veteran and his wife, it’s a vital piece of San Pedro’s military history and social fabric. It was a community hub for nearly eighty years, featured in iconic LA movies like CHINATOWN, and drew fans from all over the world. It obtained landmark designation in 2022 as a result of a grassroots campaign with over three thousand supporters.

Since purchasing the property in March 2022, Prospect Group has been alarmingly unwilling to hear the community’s concerns and prioritize reopening the cafe, even refusing to meet with potential new operators. Over time, it has become clear that Prospect Group’s first and foremost priority is to build a large house on the parcel rather than reopen an iconic legacy business. The cafe is being literally and figuratively painted into a corner.

Our priority, as a community, is not with any residential development of the site, but with Walker’s Cafe resuming operations. To protect the future of this landmarked community spot, we ask the Zoning Administrator to, at minimum, impose the following crucial conditions to any approval of the project:
1) A substantially reduced footprint for the house in the back so the cafe has enough space to operate.
2) As the Zoning Administrator, you are able to impose so-called Q conditions. For this site, we ask that you set the key condition that an operational restaurant or coffee shop must be maintained at the location. This will ensure that, no matter what else happens with the parcel, generations to come will be able to enjoy a cup of coffee and a bite to eat at this iconic establishment.

Thank you for your consideration.