City Council Approves Transit Mall

Carolanne Sudderth

Mirror Staff Writer

   Tuesday night, the Santa Monica City Council mandated a radical redesign of downtown Santa Monica when it approved the preliminary design for the Transit Mall Project. 
   The project proposes that sidewalks on Broadway and Santa Monica Bouklevards be widened from 11 feet to 19 feet between Second and Fifth Street, while both streets will be reduced to one lane in each direction in order to create a transit lane for the exclusive use of buses. 
   In addition, the plan calls for new street furniture, including new bus stops, benchesand streetlights and new and more elaborate paving. 
   Seventeen people spoke at the meeting.
   Most of them favored the project. A few people suggested changes. Citing the city of Honolulu as a model, Ken Ward asked that an ordinance be passed to let bicycles as well as buses use the transit lane. 
   Several speakers spoke on behalf of the Broadway Deli, asking that the transit lane be moved to the opposite side of the street, so that buses would travel west on Santa Monica Boulevard, and east on Broadway. They suggested that unless the bus lane were moved across Broadway, the sidewalk outside the Deli would be clogged by people waiting for buses, the valet parking stand would have to be removed and the “odor of the bus during eating” would be offensive. 
   Former mayor Denny Zane’s presence in the Broadway delegation caused Councilmember Ken Genser to ask if he was “representing any parties here tonight.”
   Zane replied in the negative. “Certainly not. I’m representing myself,” he said.
   Acknowledging that he was probably politically incorrect, Karl Schober added a discouraging word. Remarking on the number of empty store fronts he recently saw on Sacramento’s pedestrian mall. “95% of goods and people come here in trucks [and automobiles]. You may think this is the greatest thing since sliced bread. I don’t happen to agree.“

   In other business, preferential parking - pros and cons - was discussed. The Council heard from residents and business people in the area that extends north from Wilshire Boulevard between 21st Street and 24th Street.
   One group of people asked the Council to establish a new preferential parking zone on California Avenue between 22nd and 23rd streets. Meanwhile, another group addressed the effects of preferential parking on 23rd and 24th Streets. Most residents spoke in favor of preferential parking, while business people argued that it was too restrictive and asked that preferential parking hours for residents be reduced. 
   Several people noted that the creation of preferential parking did not solve parking problems, it simply shifted them to other streets.