Freeway-Free in CA – Exploring San Luis Obispo – Day 1-2
San Luis Obispo is was too small to be able to afford “downtown redevelopment” back in the 60’s. That’s when “forward –thinking” municipalities in California like Sunnyvale and Santa Clara ruthlessly razed their walkable, charming downtown streets and replaced them with jiffy-box shopping malls. Happy San Luis Obispo! Not only is the downtown preserved in the 1920’s like a time warp, but the influence of nearby Cal Poly ensure that the quaint store fronts will be populated with quirky, one-of-a-kind businesses designed to appeal to the college crowd, and to their wealthy retiree parents who increasingly settle here. There is an upscale shopping mall, but it is cleverly designed to blend in with the stucco-clad, tile-roofed architecture of the older parts of the street, and includes a meandering path which invites lingering.
When we set off from our B&B to explore nearby Higueroa Street, the main drag of SLO, wea walked past the funky Candy and Comix shop pictured above. Downton, here are some of the shops whose open doors invited us in:
An old warehouse converted to a gallery/boutique center
Classic car restoration palace
Don’t you want to come and explore more?
A classic cigar store complete with wooden Indian
Tapas bar with lantern glowing through waterfall wall
An organic gift shop
Allyson Johnson 