Joxer Daly’s Pub is a local landmark on Washington Boulevard in Culver City. The owner, Mehaul O’Leary, brought the pub concept from his native Ireland, and is proud of the vibrant and community-centered business he has built. 

Joxer Daly's Pub in Culver City

O’Leary began dreaming of coming to the U.S. after reading a description of the American government on a box of Cornflakes as a young boy, he said. But it wasn’t until he graduated from the University College Dublin and encountered an 18 percent unemployment rate when he made the move to America.

O’Leary opened Joxer Daly’s on December 27, 1999. Since then, the pub has become a local fixture. “It’s a community gathering place,” says O’Leary, “a place where people can come together, listen to good music, chat, watch a ball game.”

O’Leary said that business has not been bad at all. He has lost some customers, whether that be because of job relocation or their lack of extra spending money, but as a matter of figures, O’Leary has seen no decline in numbers.

Though certain regulars stopped coming, O’Leary began to see a new group of customers frequenting his pub.

“I got a replacement customer base made up of the people who used to go to high end restaurants, and now can’t afford it,” O’Leary said.

Culver City’s newly renovated downtown boasts a selection of high-end cafes and restaurants. Many of these restaurants have been suffering because people simply can’t afford them. However, these customers are only slightly less wealthy. They still have the desire and the ability to dine out, they just have to choose more affordable establishments, ergo Joxer Daly’s new client base.

Culver’s small businesses face landlords who demand increasingly high rent, forcing many businesses to foreclose. This is largely because the value of real estate in downtown Culver City has shot up due to its recent renovation.

Culver City is one of the recipients of the redevelopment money that is currently the topic of raging debate. While some California cities have squandered these funds, Culver City has done an admirable job in using the money to create jobs and growth, O’Leary said.

“We have been using redevelopment money to create incentives that bring in small businesses,” said O’Leary, who is also a member of the Culver City council.

A large portion of these funds went into designing Culver City’s brand-spanking new downtown and parking structures. But these renovations are the reason the landlords are able to charge such a high rent, and why businesses are struggling to pay it.

O’Leary gave the illustration of a business that moves into a brand new office space. This first business will have to bear the burden of the costs that come with renovation, installing lighting and heating, getting the building up to code, and decorating. When the first business moves out, the second business comes in and, theoretically, has only to change the sign above the door.

This is what is happening in downtown Culver City, O'Leary said. Small businesses are coming in and setting up a fancy shop, but then they buckle under the astronomical costs associated with pioneering in a hip, new part of town. “The first round of closures is due to what I call the ‘greed factor’,” O’Leary said. “[It’s] not because the economy is bad, but because Culver is new.”

He said the landlords will have to come down eventually, and when they do, the second round of businesses will already have nice spaces to move into.

When asked about what the next couple years will hold for small businesses in Culver City, O’Leary does not foresee any darkening horizons. But this outlook might say more about the Irishman than it does about the economic situation. O’Leary came to America with only 700 dollars in his pocket, and even then, his future was far from bleak.

Reach Contributor Jordan Lee here.