This one will probably be pretty lengthy and I will cut it into 2 parts. I want to thank everyone from the bottom of my heart for all the love and support throughout the past 10 years. It has honestly been a crazy ride with so many ups and downs that I wonder how it got this far. What started out as taking on the task of helping an old friend turned into something that completely consumed my life. At one point in my life I was obsessed with being the best Street Fighter player and dethroning the champ at the time, Tomo Ohira. I did everything I could and spent countless hours just grinding and grinding until the mountain was finally climbed. My ego would not let me quit and with a ton of work and determination........ (and the fact Tomo went on to pursue women and partying heavily), I was able to take over the top spot and stay there for some time. So like everyone else, I have my flaws and being hardheaded just happens to be the worst one. I don't quit, I never give up, and I honestly feel that with patience, hard work, and determination anything is possible! Call me crazy, call me insane, call me stupid all you want, but one thing you can't call me is a quitter......... And in that, I take a lot of pride and always do what I can to achieve what I set out to.
Now, back to the story and getting off my own jock for a bit...... So taking the task of running Super Arcade in Walnut, CA was a job that I was up for and since I stepped out of the community a bit. I figured why not rekindle the love of the game and get back while the scene was starting to flourish with the resurgence of Street Fighting in its 4th installment. I was actually playing this game a bit there's a lot of behind the scene stories to share at a later date (yes these stories are to pet my own ego and are about destroying the so called best players in this game at the time at an unknown location). Ok, so once again off my own nuts and back to the story. Super Arcade changed ownership and I was asked to take it over and figure out how to make the place popular. Well...... the emergence of a partnership between myself and long time friend Alex Valle (this is the dude that took over my spot as best player in the US while I got baited by females and puberty hitting..... and this is when I knew exactly how Tomo felt lol). So yeah, Wednesday Night Fights was brought to Super Arcade and caught more traction and provided an actual "arcade" environment for the new age of players. Needless to say, we caught magic in a bottle and ran with it for years. But during that time, the arcade itself wasn't doing so well, and the owner decided to pull the plug. This is when I had to make an executive decision to either let it go, or take it over and risk my own financial freedom to save what we built here...... I don't like rehashing on the past too much as dwelling on bad times will not get you anywhere, but basically I was taken for a few bucks and had to run a couple raffles to get the place back on its feet. So thankful the community trusted in us and we continued to run events until ultimately the landlord became greedy and tried to jack up the rent and figured I would gladly agree........ nope...... We had just run a successful kickstarter campaign and I was not gonna just sit there and let the boat sink slowly. So once again a huge decision had to be made and moving was the best option.
I found a city that wasn't extremely developed yet and the cost of everything was much more affordable. There was new development being shown and the location itself was 8 miles away from our original spot. What could go wrong? The rent was about 70% of the previous location while being almost double its size, and with a lower overhead i could make sure the new place was a success...... Some of you already know the story and I still can't believe in this day and age a city can be run by a bunch of a corrupt clowns backed up by a bunch of monkeys and lemmings who are only looking to line their pocket. Incase you can't read between the lines...... F*ck Azusa. There are so many stories that come out about small business' being put through the ringer, and even once they are allowed to open they still get constantly harassed and forced to "fix" things until they basically can't afford it and just close. With the internet and how word travels so fast, it's amazing that this type of crap still exists. Had I not come forward and reported things to the Pasadena Star News and Channel 5 who knows what the hell would've been.......... I mean, once they got involved, many items on my checklist required by the building division just became so easy to get checked off while previously it was like pulling teeth even though I was following all their directions to a T..... I joke around and say I wish they asked me for money under the table when I first arrived, but it's not really a joke. I would've gladly handed someone 20k or whatever they wanted to save myself 2 years of torture and nonsense. Now don't get it twisted, there are some legit nice people and hard workers in this city, but...... the people in charge are mostly pieces of sh*t and who are only here to give you a hard time. Regardless, before I go off too hard and somehow wind up dead in the parking lot one night, I will tell you this. Do not attempt to open a business in this city. Do not support this city, do not fall into the same trap I did with these imbeciles, and do not let them dictate your life. What turned out to be a potential 30-40k building improvement cost me over 300k and completely ruined my life. Oh yeah, and somehow this city won an award for "most friendly city for small business" HAHAHAH! I can't make this stuff up and literally threw up a little in my mouth when I saw it first posted........
So things starts bringing me to the reasoning behind closing and just all the frustrations stemming from the inner works of things. The bottom line is I cannot trust this town. I have 2 kids I need to provide for and I am not getting any younger so my options are becoming more and more limited in terms of employment. Even if the shop was raking it in, I can't sit here and worry that the carpet can be yanked from under me at any given moment. Not too long ago we were subject to a "random" inspection at 9:30pm on a Friday night and issued some warnings......... I was asked to update a few things and spend more money to bring some other stuff "up to code." And not receiving a formal ticket or write up was considered them doing me a favor...... thank you? I guess? From what I hear this is very common in all cities that surround Los Angeles. Well, in that case, put me back in the matrix please and give me a check that I can cash without having to worry about being hounded at random hours worrying if my business will get shut down. Not even going back into how hard it was just to get the doors open, but let's just talk about signage issues. So I paid the local spray paint artists (nice way to say taggers) to spray my logo on the parking lot wall just as a nice sign for customers to notice us. I received a ticket for this and was told I needed a permit even though the owner of the building already gave me full authorization to do so. No problem, I'll gladly pay you city a few hundred bucks to support the cause and comply. Problem now is, they wanted me to completely remove the sign, pay the permit, then put the sign back up......... uh? I agree to pay for the permit, let me leave the sign up, get the permit, and we both go on our way. Nope....... So I am expected to take down the sign I paid these kids to paint, pay the permit, then pay the kids to put it back up? No Thank You Azusa! Not to mention I received a couple fines for having some graffiti on the back walls. The whole thing just leaves a bad taste in your mouth and I gave up on it. We also have a "box sign" that was grandfathered in from the building being here almost 100 years, but the city refused to let us put any signage into it and rather leave it empty and ugly. The landlord approached them and she was asked if she could remove the box sign. Of course it wasn't mandatory, so she said no lol and that explains why there is an empty box of metal just hanging in front of the shops awning. So all in all, it has been a very unpleasant experience here in this lovely city and in all efforts to just run an honest business have been really annoying and difficult due to what I chalk up as ignorance of an older generation. The younger people in the city love us and have always supported but they don't have enough power as of yet and everyone here will probably suffer until the corrupt group just rolls over and dies.....
Part 2 coming soon. I promise :)
