By Theodorus Hendrani
I write this letter as a voice of concern regarding the condition and situation of the Third Street Promenade. I have concerns not just as a merchant, but also as a citizen of this community.
First of all, as we all already know, we have to deal with the issue of unacceptable, antisocial behavior by this young group of people, especially on the 1300 block of Third Street. I want to underline that homelessness is not the issue, but the behavior by this group of young people is the issue. This group of young people are engaged in drugs, smoke marijuana, fight, aggressively panhandle tourists and locals alike. I personally have seen all of those activities before my own eyes. The Bayside District Corporation has already taken steps, having their task force to tackle this issue, and we are all still waiting for the results. As merchants, certainly we feel that the city has long neglected this on-going issue. How much longer do we have to wait for the city to take action, to rebuild the tarnished image of downtown Santa Monica in general, and specifically the Third Street Promenade?
Does the city need a wake up call? Do we have to wait for a wake up call similar to the Westwood incident a few years back that really deterred and scared people to go to downtown Santa Monica and the Third Street Promenade?
How much longer do us, the merchants, expect to wait for a helping hand from the City of Santa Monica?
As for right now, people already are deterred to go to downtown Santa Monica after the completion of the Transit Mall. Why would people want to go to downtown Santa Monica to shop if the City of Santa Monica makes it a hassle for them to come here? Five long blocks of Santa Monica Boulevard and Broadway is only one lane each, making the traffic always jammed on the weekends. Sure it looks nice with wider sidewalks, nice looking bus stops, etc., but what is the whole point to make the place nice if people find it difficult to come to downtown and difficult to find parking space? If the reason behind the narrow streets, one lane only in Santa Monica Boulevard and Broadway, is to discourage people to come here by their own cars and encourage them to take public transportation, let me ask you all these questions, do you take the bus to your office in City Hall? Does your wife/husband take the bus with your kids to shop or go see a movie in downtown Santa Monica? If you don’t, and if your spouse doesn’t, then you can expect other people doing the same thing you do. The Transit Mall is a success to make downtown Santa Monica look beautiful, but it has a negative effect on businesses because less people are willing to come shopping here, and have to go through the hassle of traffic and parking in downtown Santa Monica.
In addition to the existing problem, now more and more problems have arisen. The growing numbers of street performers on the Third Street Promenade slowly are adding to the problems we already have. These street performers continuously violate the Santa Monica City Code Section 6.116.30 Noise Ordinance, and they also fight against each other for a performance space. A specific incident happened and raised concern for me.
On Sept. 2, I went to have dinner at Yangtze restaurant at 8:30 p.m. As I was having dinner with my boss, there was a singer on the center stage area on the 1300 block, between the two dinosaur figures. As we both noticed, there was another performer, who had been waiting to perform. At around 10:15 p.m., the second performer started performing his talent (singing), as we both were having dinner and conversation while listening to the second performer. All of the sudden he heard very loud music coming from the speaker of the first singer who had moved in front of George’s restaurant. All of the customers in Yangtze started to mumble about this particular singer because the noise level was so high. As all of this happened, the second singer stopped singing immediately because his singing can’t be heard by the audience. I personally could not take this overly loud music from the first singer, so I decided to go over and ask him nicely to turn his speaker volume down. Surprisingly this is what I get as a response from him, “I will not turn it down, there’s no police, what are you going to do, I need to make my money.” Because of that response, I called the non-emergency police dispatch, and approximately after waiting for about 15 to 20 minutes a police officer came. At that time the first singer had already left. Surprisingly enough, when we need a police officer, we cannot get a quick response, and on the other hand we as merchants who pay the taxes to the city, enrich the downtown shopping area, often enough get unfriendly treatment by the local police officers.
To me personally, the concern is if these street performers can do their performances on the Third Street Promenade from Sunday to Thursday from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1:30 a.m. the following day (SMCC Section 6.112.050 (a) (1) and (2)), then where is the task force who is responsible to enforce this noise ordinance? The task force needs and must be in the area while performers are in the area. If the task force can only be in the area until 7 p.m. everyday, then what is the whole point to have a noise ordinance, and what is the whole point to have a task force if the task force cannot be the enforcing the ordinance?
I think the time is now for the elected officials of Santa Monica to act for the betterment of the City of Santa Monica. Give the chief of police more resources so he can do his job, and don’t tie his hands with shortage of police officers because the city made them work overtime controlling the traffic that is getting worse after the completion of the Transit Mall.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 12, 2002. Read the original PDF.