CARMEL-BY-THE-SEA, Calif. -- In this pretty-as-a-postcard village, where the lush wooded foothills of the Santa Lucia fall into the Pacific, you can buy almost anything you want -- if what you want is a piece of art.
A prim watercolor of orange flowers, or inscrutable scribbles on a graph-paper collage. A melancholy bovine in thick oils, or a serene nude in black-and-white film. An oddly shaped bicycle cast in bronze, asking price $32,000. And those are just a fraction of the items featured in the storefronts along a mere half-block stretch of Delores Street, one of several boulevards here dominated by high-end art galleries.
Zantman Art Galleries is one of more than 100 galleries in the chic beachfront enclave of Carmel, whose city council has moved to restrict new ones on an "urgency" basis.
(Amy Argetsinger -- The Washington Post)
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But if it's toothpaste you want, or a Grisham novel, or some boxer shorts -- well, you might want to look elsewhere. Which is part of the reason the city council here took the extraordinary step this fall of virtually banning -- on an "urgency" basis -- the opening of any more art galleries.
A century after a group of San Francisco bohemians first unfurled their canvases here, this chic beachfront enclave is now home to more than 100 galleries. That's about one of every three retail establishments in a town of just one square mile. And while the density has landed Carmel in many of the best art magazines and fueled a tourism engine, many worry it has gotten out of control. Residents complain they don't have access to basic services, and even other tourist enterprises felt "they were lost in the forest of art galleries," Mayor Sue McCloud said.
"You try to keep a community that attracts a wide variety of people, rather than those seeking just one thing," McCloud explained. "Because sooner or later they tire of you and go somewhere else."
But the move has offended current gallery owners. Rather than welcoming the expected dent in the competition, they fear Carmel is turning its back on the industry that helped put it on the map.
"There are so many fabulous artists in the world," said Barbara Jones, co-owner of Jones & Terwilliger Galleries. "As long as they're successful in the galleries, it's a shame to have the interference."
It's a quandary of many a quaint town, held captive by the traits that make them so adorable. Day trippers fall in love with a community's unique charms, but where they flock so, too, will businesses that often cater more to the outsiders than to locals.
Over the years, Carmel has struggled with these issues more than most. In a campaign against boardwalk-style tackiness, it restricted the number of food establishments along the main promenade, Ocean Avenue, and barred stores from displaying T-shirts in their windows. A moratorium on ice cream parlors held for several months before being quashed in 1986 by then-Mayor Clint Eastwood. And 20 years ago, the city took a hard line against the proliferation of jewelry stores, setting a cap on their numbers that is still in effect today.
"For a town of roughly 4,000 people, 32 jewelry stores is enough," McCloud said. But the art explosion went unimpeded. From the early 1980s when the last official count was taken, the number of galleries grew from about 70 to the 100 or more in operation today. McCloud and city planner Brian Roseth argue that the growth of these pricey enterprises helped drive rents sky-high and chased away many of the town's more modest businesses.
"We're a highly educated town with no bookstore, except for a New Age one," Roseth said. Only two grocery stores operate in town, two gas stations, and one drugstore. Even the downtown building labeled "Carmel Dairy" turns out to sell expensive home furnishings, while the storefront with the "Fresh Produce" sign sells whimsical women's apparel.
"We don't have a shoe repair; we don't have a men's barbershop," McCloud lamented. "I don't think you can buy a sports coat in town anymore."
More pressingly, city officials had noticed their sales tax revenue plummeting. "When you buy an expensive piece of art, it's shipped out," McCloud said. "And when it's shipped out of state, you don't pay the sales tax."
So when the council prepared a new long-range plan, it decided to place new restrictions on the kind of galleries that could henceforth open in Carmel: Either a single artist had to be responsible for 80 percent of the items for sale or a working studio must be maintained. Most of the existing galleries in Carmel would not meet those standards. The council took the "urgency" measures to block the crowd of applicants seeking to get in before the plan took effect.
