City Council Gives Green Light to Transit Mall

By Jorge Casuso

The City Council Tuesday night ignored a plea to reverse the direction of its downtown Transit Mall Project and pushed full-throttle ahead with a unanimous vote.

The transit mall - which was approved in concept in 1997 - is an effort to add order to the chaos created by cars, cabs, trucks, buses, bicyclists, passengers and pedestrians all sharing the same space. It also hopes to create a bustling downtown center that will be the heart of the city.

"The main benefit is to our residents," said Councilman Paul Rosenstein, who oversaw the process. "It will become our center, our living room, the psychological center of our community."

"I think we've taken a very positive step to making our downtown like some of the great European cities," said Councilman Michael Feinstein. "We are reclaiming more of the city by having wider sidewalks, and that's a win-win for everybody."

The plan will widen sidewalks to encourage pedestrian use and outdoor dining, replace existing trees with larger ones, and add lights, street furniture and five transit shelters to the downtown area. The plan also will carve out transit priority lanes for buses on the south side of Santa Monica Blvd. and the north side of Broadway from Ocean Ave. to Fifth Street..

The circulation plan was opposed by the Broadway Deli, which will lose its valet parking and loading zones on the north side of Broadway. The popular eatery hired a law firm and a traffic consultant, who urged that the city reverse its plan to the opposite sides of the street.

"The corner of Broadway and the Promenade is a place people know they can discharge passengers and commercial loads," said Marvin Zeidler, who owns the Broadway Deli. The south side of the street, Zeildler said, has less pedestrians and would be a better place to route the buses.

But neither Seidler's pleas, nor those of former Mayor Dennis Zane, got the council to shift gears. City officials countered that having buses run on the same side of the street as cars entering and exiting the Santa Monica Place parking lot would create more gridlock.

"It really comes down to the Fourth and Broadway conflict being worse than the Fourth and Santa Monica conflict," Feinstein said.

"I'm convinced by the experts that this will work," said Councilman Robert Holbrook. "It's a wonderful opportunity."

Councilman Kevin McKeown added an amendment to wire the affected streets on both sides so that the city can change the flow of traffic or the electronic kiosks without major work.

"I just want to make sure ten years later, we don't look back and we've locked ourselves in," McKeown said.

The council also directed staff to develop a plan for loading and dropping off passengers and goods in the downtown area.

The project covers Santa Monica Blvd. from Ocean Ave. to Seventh Street and Broadway from Ocean Avenue to Fifth Street.