Rocket Fizz to shutter in Palo Alto

Is there another store in existence that is without any redeeming human value than a hyper-candy store? OK, maybe a smoke shop.

I'm not a big candy person, but I always found this a fun place to visit. Sorry to see them go.

Another example of Palo Alto being over-stored.
Too much retail space is being wasted on failing concepts.

This store was a family favorite and we will be sorry to see it go. It was a delightful place, unique in the neighborhood.

It probably can't survive in a retail environment increasingly taken over by the company town push of companies taking over downtown and Cal Ave. I wonder what day gym or high end restaurant will take its place? Hopefully not another office space. Now that some businesses argued out of the retail protection, others are sure to follow, like perhaps Spot Pizza. Pretty soon, parts of Univ?

For decades now, the only way to become stable and put down roots in SV (not just PA) has been to buy. For most people, this usually involves unbelievable sacrifice and compromises beyond anything they can imagine for years, even decades. Eventually, the equation changes because prices rise in an area of high global demand; buying stabilizes costs and eventually it becomes cheaper to own. People who come in new don't understand that the stable ones have been as desperate as they are, too, the housing cost problem is neither new nor different (eap if you look at the cheap cost of borrowing now, which many analysts neglect).

Given the outlook for cities in the Bay Area into the future, it may be that the only way to have a vibrant civic life is if cities do what resudents have had to do, which is bite the bullet and buy. Palo Alto should have a business tax on non-retail businesses that builds a fund to allow the City to buy up its retail areas at Cal Ave, Univ, and Midtown. It will seem expensive when it hapoens, but decades down the line, it will allow Palo Alto the luxury of having retail businesses and services that residents need, too. Furthermore, in exchange for reduced rents, the City could require retail renters to pay traditionally low-wage workers a much higher wage, and this would allow the City to address housing for traditionally low-wage workers by equalizing their pay, without the ever-growing astronomical prospect of building subsidized projects that never solve the problem and create social rifts. If this increased wages come from this arrangement, the City can reap an ever increasing benefit for no additional cost as time passes. Decades from now, it will seem as wise as hanging on to school properties.

Some of our billionaires could do this, too, as seems to be happening in Los Altos, but it's not likely.

Such an arrangement could also mean partnerships with Stanford and affordable space again for small startups, and a chance to prevent takeovers of downtown by growing companies like Palantir, who really should move where they can grow as Facebook did. Until that happens, it's going to be incredibly hard for unique resident-serving shops like these to stay here.

Sorry to see RF go. It was one of the very few fun places for kids downtown to shop or browse at. No more toy store, no more University Art.