Paso Robles, San Luis Obispo County -- Balloons and pennants were flying from buildings with cracked stucco. Wreaths, tributes and notices for post-traumatic stress counseling were attached to chain-link fences.
It was a block party to show that one month after the 6.5-magnitude earthquake of Dec. 22, Paso Robles lives. People by the hundreds came downtown to stare through the fences at fallen brick, as well as to eat, drink and be a community. Merchants who lost their stores had a chance to sell some of their goods retrieved by the Fire Department.
Signs of the disaster are still everywhere in this town of 26,000. The rubble that once was the 1892 Mastagni Building, where two women died in the earthquake, is still in the street. An SUV remains parked under the fallen roof that crushed it like a beer can.
But after a disaster such as the earthquake, recovery is measured in small steps. There's 3,400 feet of chain-link fence blocking off streets and buildings in Paso Robles, said Corri Perry of Fence Factory Rentals of Atascadero. On Christmas Eve, there was 4,000 feet of fence.
"I'd rather be doing some other kind of business," Perry said. "No more quakes."
Unfortunately, the aftershocks continue, including a 3.5 Tuesday night. "A sharp jolt, but no damage," said Sgt. Bob Adams of the Paso Robles Police Department.
Adams is proud of how the town is coming back. "We have our exclusionary zone down to half what it was," he said, referring to the part of downtown that's blocked off. "We green-tagged several buildings, and yesterday (Tuesday) one of our French restaurants, the Paris, reopened."
Every day there's a stream of visitors downtown, not all of whom are coming for the shops and restaurants that are left open. The wreckage of the Mastagni is a tourist attraction -- except visitors are so awestruck they don't act like tourists.
They're quiet. They examine every flower attached to the chain-link. They gaze at damaged stores frozen in time. A Santa Claus lies crushed in the window of the Rose in the Woods curio store in front of the flattened SUV.
"We came to see when things would get going again," Carter Dougherty said at Saturday's block party. He moved from Oakland to Paso Robles three months ago with his friend Sal Garcia.
Twenty-one of the 27 historic buildings in Paso Robles were damaged in the earthquake. The town had required owners to strengthen buildings with unreinforced masonry, but the deadline wasn't until 2018.
Some owners were smart enough not to wait. Next door to the Mastagni Building is a 1903 brick building housing F. McLintock's Saloon. The owners reinforced it a year ago, and the saloon is open for business.
"I climbed up on the roof, and the amount of steel they put into this building is amazing," said bartender Clint Martin. "That other building (the Mastagni) was just held up by bricks. That's the difference. It's sad. I knew one of the women who died there."
Numerous businesses in downtown Paso Robles are still closed or have relocated. At least $226 million in damage was done to homes, businesses and infrastructure in San Luis Obispo County, and much of the damage was concentrated here.
Norma Moye, executive director of the Paso Robles Main Street Association, was upbeat, especially now that the county has been declared a disaster area, making people eligible for federal aid.
"We're already receiving calls from people who want to move their businesses here," she said.
The quake is still Topic A in Paso Robles. At the Paso Robles Inn, a bartender spoke to regulars about how lucky employees were not to have been in front of the inn when brick fell from the facade.
The inn is still hopping, and on Sunday dozens of locals arrived for its famous brunch and a Dixieland jazz festival in the ballroom.
"We don't get discouraged," said Pete Herrlich, who was attending the festival. He said "we" even though he moved to Paso Robles only a year ago.
In recent years, real estate prices have skyrocketed as immigrants seeking quiet and lower real estate prices have moved in. As former Oaklander Garcia put it, "Half the people we meet here are from L.A. and the Bay Area."
"The people of Paso Robles really came out to support us," said Gary Brown, co-owner of We Olive, a store that specialized in local olives and olive oils but now is locked behind chain link.
The store had been open only four months, and now Brown has lost his lease on the damaged brick building.
The building was formerly occupied by the Pine Street Saloon, a venerable bar patronized by more than a few guys in cowboy hats. A year ago, owner Ron French moved next door to an 1887 wooden building.
"Can you believe the timing? We came through with just a few broken glasses," French said. "The engineers closed us down for a day because the building was leaning. We had to show them old photographs to prove the building had been leaning for 50 years."
Brown and his fiancee, Dee-Dee Crum, have moved their olive specialties for the time being into DiRaimondo's Italian Market.
"It's a good marriage," Brown said. It's the kind of marriage of inconvenience that's happened all over Paso Robles.
American Karate has moved in with the Paso Robles Athletic Club. Bistro Laurent has moved from its slightly damaged building to the J. Lohr winery on the outskirts of town.
"All of our customers have been very supportive," said manager Kevin McLaughlin of Bistro Laurent. "A lot of people who used to come once a week are now coming three times a week just to keep us in business."
McLaughlin noted that many of these customers were recent arrivals from major metropolitan areas on other fault lines, places such as Los Angeles and the Bay Area.
"All of these people have pulled together with their neighbors after the earthquake," he said. "They've all become sort of small-town people."
