Jeremy and Debbie Kaplan have owned Read Books, a bookstore in Eagle Rock, since 2007. According to Jeremy Kaplan, the couple found a new location with reasonable rent at 594 W. Ave. 28 in Cypress Park. Jeremy Kaplan said the new landlords are committed to keeping small businesses sustainable.
According to the Kaplans, on a Tuesday afternoon earlier this year, they received an envelope informing them that their shop’s $1,200 monthly rent would be increasing to $2,805.
“I felt that [the landlords] were trying to intimidate me, because they handed it to me without conversation, without introducing themselves and they gave me a [30-day] notice,” Jeremy Kaplan said. “I thought it was obvious that they were trying to get rid of me.”
According to Kaplan, he and his wife did some research and saw that they were legally allowed a 90-day notice. State Bill 1103 was enacted in 2025 and revised the rules governing commercial lease agreements.
“I didn’t know anyone who’d ever even heard of this,” Kaplan said. “We just looked on the internet, did some searches and then came up with it […] even lawyers did not understand what they were saying, and whether or not we qualified for it.”
According to Jeremy Kaplan, the couple looked for a new location for six months in the neighborhoods of Highland Park and Eagle Rock, but they could not find anywhere less than seven dollars per square foot.
“We could not find a single place that was available, reasonable and not owned by either a corporate landlord who was just buying property like ours or somebody who was sitting on the property and didn’t want to rent it out,” Kaplan said. “Landlords think I need to own a physical place, but it’s simply just not worth it now at that high of a cost.”
According to Kaplan, the Costa-Keene-Seymour Commercial Property Investment Act of 1987 prohibited local governments from capping commercial rent increases or setting baseline rent stabilization for commercial storefronts and offices.
“There is no significant rent control for commercial businesses within Los Angeles. I think that’s something we need to revisit,” Kaplan said.
Kaplan said he wants the small business community to unite together and fight for their rights as tenants.
“Every day somebody sends me something about a business in some neighborhood getting closed down,” Kaplan said. “We need to get a coalition going, where people know that this is happening everywhere, so that we can all work together. I think everybody just feels so isolated.”
Kaplan said the problem is universal for all small business owners regardless of status.
“Every business is going to be affected unless you own your own property,” Kaplan said. “Because even if you have a good landlord, if they sell that property, the property is going to be bought by the corporate landlords because they can outbid everybody.”
Kenzo Martinez, co-owner of The Pop-Hop Books Co-Op on York Boulevard, said maintaining small businesses can be very difficult.
“It’s very fragile and different,” Martinez said. “The relationships that we build and cultivate with our community is different compared to going to some corporate chain, where you just go in there, make a transaction and leave.”
Michael MacDonald is president of The Eagle Rock Association (TERA), a citizen advisory board that he said is concerned about neighborhood issues, including small business eviction.
“Small businesses are at the core of what makes Eagle Rock a really special neighborhood,” MacDonald said. “It’s important for us as a community to rally together, listen to the needs of our small businesses and try and help them be sure that they’re able to serve us for many years to come.”
MacDonald said it is upsetting to see so many small businesses in Eagle Rock close and that vacant storefronts have a negative impact on remaining business.
“Storefronts that remain vacant do a disservice to the entire community,” MacDonald said. “It makes it less friendly to walk around, less activities to do, less things to see and get. So it kind of spirals.”
Jeremy Kaplan said the longer storefronts sit empty, the more impossible the pattern becomes to ignore — and the sooner people rise up against it. Jeremy Kaplan said he is working with council offices and assembly members to host workshops and hand out brochures to different small business all over LA to inform them about Senate Bill 1103.
“Thankfully, we’ve seen that Read Books has been able to relocate to a nearby neighborhood,” MacDonald said. “But that hasn’t been the solution for all of the businesses that have closed.”
Contact Marco Zapien at mzapien@oxy.edu
