SAN LEANDRO, CA – The corner of Davis and E14th Street has seen better days. A few years ago, the old CVS nee Long’s Drugs building sat vacant while the smaller shops on the side shut their doors one by one. It’s hard to tell when exactly the Sizzlers on the opposite corner shut its door for customers as nobody would risk COVID for what they served, but the place was vacant for a good while.
But much has changed on one of San Leandro’s most prominent Downtown corners. The IHOP regularly has lines going out the door, the construction on Centro Callan is rapidly moving ahead after shaking off all unquestionably valid environmental concerns, and even Western General Bank’s windows have been nicely boarded up for a while. City management took note of this as well and has fortunately forced the Union Bank to leave its premises to keep the required level of vacancy required for a floundering downtown.
A spokesperson for the city explains: “We can’t have all this activity happening on all four corners of this intersection. We need to have some windows people can break without causing too much trouble, or a porch where someone down on their luck can stay for the night. So we had to have Union Bank leave their current site, but we welcome them back on the other side of the street when construction on Centro Callan is complete.” There was no word on when the city would move to oust the flower store on the parking garage site, but speculation has it the city considers the garage itself to satisfy their vacancy demand for this block.