Downtown shop owners are angry over city’s broken promises
Construction along Fourth Street and Broadway isn’t just ripping up concrete, it’s tearing down sales in stores along the route, say downtown business owners.
In response, the Bayside District Corporation — the non-profit organization that partners downtown business owners and public officials — wrote a letter to the city asking for an explanation on why construction has become out of control downtown.
Bayside officials claim that the city broke its promise when officials told business owners there would be no other construction projects done while the “Transit Mall” was being built.
“When the Transit Mall construction schedule was outlined for the board, we were assured that there would be no other concurrent municipal construction projects in the downtown area,” wrote Bayside Executive Director Kathleen Rawson in a letter to City Manager Susan McCarthy. “This has not happened.”
City officials say that promise was made at a Bayside board meeting before it was decided Transit Mall construction would cease during the holidays. The delay pushed back construction along Broadway so it overlapped with the city’s street resurfacing on Fourth Street.
“I erred when I told them no two parts would be done at the same time. I didn’t see the two projects overlapping,” Assistant City Manager Gordon Anderson said. “I think what’s making things worse is all the private construction that’s going on too, but we don’t have any control over that.”
There are several areas under construction in the downtown area, including public projects on Ocean Avenue and the California incline, as well as private projects at Sixth Street and Santa Monica Boulevard; and at the intersections of Second Street and Fourth Street and Colorado Boulevard.
In 1997 the city developed a plan, now known as the Transit Mall, to make downtown Santa Monica more pedestrian friendly, while attempting to streamline traffic and create separate bus lanes on certain streets.
Work was split into nine phases, which began last April on Santa Monica Boulevard and is scheduled to end in this summer.
But downtown business owners say their business is suffering and they won’t be able to take many more months of construction.
“Don’t worry,”
“If this goes on much longer we might not be here in June.” — said Salek
“They could concentrate construction at one street at a time instead of doing all these blocks at once,” said Ken Salek, part owner of a jewelry shop on Fourth Street. “If they kept construction in one spot we probably wouldn’t lose so much business.”
According to Salek, sales have dropped by nearly 50 percent since construction on Fourth Street began last month.
“There’s two kinds of businesses in Santa Monica. First you have the small, family-owned business that serve mostly locals, and then you have the giant corporations that are here to serve tourists,” said Salek. “The city only favors doing things that are good for the corporations because they make more money from tourism.”
The Chicago for Ribs restaurant opened their doors in December, only to have the street in front of their new shop ripped up the following month.
“Sure, we’re having problems with the construction,” said Christian Trujillo, the restaurant’s general manager. “Nobody can find the store.”
Trujillo said the tight economy already makes it tough to start a new business, but the construction is making it much worse.
“Every day these construction workers park this huge bulldozer in front of the shop,” he said. “It’s never anywhere else. Just right in front of our store.”
Bayside officials also think the city has failed in directing people through construction zones. Specifically, they asked the city to add more signs that direct motorists off of the Santa Monica Freeway to the downtown, as well as deploying more traffic officers at more intersections throughout the downtown.
“Traffic and congestion are unbearable,” wrote Rawson. “The city has done very little to communicate with our drivers about what to expect and alternative routes to take.”
Anderson said the city is currently drafting a response to Rawson’s letter. He said the city has stopped construction at Colorado Boulevard and Fourth Street, which has improved traffic flow. He also said the city is planning to install more signs to help shoppers find their way to the Third Street Promenade.
“The Bayside board is genuinely frustrated,” said Anderson. “All the efforts we’re trying to do could be for not if it’s not coordinated properly.”
Transit Mall construction is slated to finish by June and resurfacing work on Fourth Street is expected to take up to 10 weeks, officials said.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on February 7, 2002. Read the original PDF.