Let’s hope Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is correct when he says we may be coming out of this deep depression. But, even if he is correct, it’s going to be a long slog to full recovery. This is a tough time for many Americans who have seen their life savings cut in half by the stock market crash, lost their jobs, and have seen the equity in their homes plunge to where many homeowners are under water with their mortgages.
We see it all around us here in Ladera Ranch with myriad home foreclosures and short sales. I look at items for sale on LaderaLife.com and I worry that some of our friends and neighbors are selling their furniture at bargain prices just to keep from losing their homes. LARMAC has announced that HOA delinquencies are at an alarming all-time high. It breaks my heart knowing that so many in our community are in real pain.
One group that has been particularly hard hit are the merchants in our four shopping plazas – Mercantile East and West, Bridgepark Plaza, and The Terrace Shops – mostly comprised of independent family-owned businesses. With the personal computer and other electronic equipment and resources available these days, probably many residents in Ladera Ranch have some sort home-based business and we can assume they are just as affected by this depression as everyone else.
In that regard, I’d like to encourage all Ladera Ranch residents to make every effort to do their shopping in our community. These are mostly family businesses that are run by our friends and neighbors who have made a huge investment in our community. They are also the very people who step up when the community is raising money for this event or that charity.
To further this effort, the Ladera Times is launching a "Shop Ladera" campaign. To get things rolling, we’re creating a database of all Ladera Ranch storefront and home-based businesses. To be listed in the database, which can be accessed on www.LaderaTimes.com, a business must meet one of two criteria:
-- Have a storefront or home-based business in Ladera Ranch, or It’s free to register your business in the database; simply click on "Shop Ladera."
-- Live in Ladera Ranch and have a business elsewhere.
(Logo designed by Alex Dehesa, Ladera Times Creative Director.)