Lowdown on Downtown appears upbeat
DOWNTOWN — As Mark Twain might say, the rumors of downtown’s demise have been greatly exaggerated.
While homelessness and the lack of parking once again top the list of complaints lobbed by visitors here, people continue to flock to the myriad of shops, restaurants and movie theaters regularly.
That’s according to two surveys released recently by the Bayside District Corp., a public-private partnership that helps City Hall manage and promote the downtown district.
The surveys come amid the Bayside board of directors’ consideration of a new downtown assessment district in which businesses, property owners, residents and City Hall may be called upon to pull more money together to make improvements to infrastructure and the delivery of services.
Businesses in downtown are already subject to two business assessments, generating nearly $1 million annually.
The Bayside board approved a $59,920 contract in June with Progressive Urban Management Associates (PUMA), which specializes in strategic planning for downtown organizations and the creation of business improvement districts to finance them. The firm has created and helped form business improvement districts in hundreds of revamped downtowns across America, including the French Quarter in New Orleans and Boulder, Colo. In California, PUMA has managed improvement districts in nearly 20 cities, such as Sacramento, Long Beach, Los Angeles and San Diego.
It has been nearly 20 years since the downtown management structure has been evaluated, and various interest groups are concerned about the area’s vitality in the wake of new retail developments nearby, including The Grove, The Bridge, and the recently renovated Westfield shopping center in Century City.
“People seemed to concur that downtown is healthy and vibrant, and while we are not perfect, we are still a very desirable destination,” said Kathleen Rawson, the executive director of Bayside.“The issues regarding the homeless population and the quality of life come up in all the surveys, which lets us know that we have a ways to go... but the results of the surveys are encouraging.”
More than 900 people were interviewed on the street, over the phone and during community forums over the last few months. PUMA focused intensively on hosting forums with businesses, property owners and residents from downtown and across Santa Monica, while CIC Research Inc., conducted face-to-face interviews with downtown visitors, as well as telephone surveys at a cost of roughly $20,000, Rawson said.
Among the key findings of the surveys are visitors’ general satisfaction with the variety of retail, restaurants and entertainment choices offered in downtown.Respondents also enjoyed the area’s eclectic mix of street performers and close proximity to the beach and pier.
Aside from aggressive panhandling and the difficulty in finding parking, visitors have few complaints. The alleys need some work and City Hall should direct more resources for traffic control on the weekends, when cars sit bumper-to-bumper for blocks as drivers try to make their way to downtown, the surveys said.
The most encouraging news of all seems to be the willingness of key stakeholders to increase their investment in downtown improvements, that is with the understanding that City Hall will chip in as well.
Brad Segal, president of PUMA, said community buy-in will be key in keeping downtown a competitive and vibrant district, and judging from the results of the survey, people seem ready.
More than 75 percent of the roughly 150 people who participated in forums with Segal said they would be willing to consider additional assessments, or taxes, to reduce or solve homeless issues. Sixty-six percent said they would be willing to take on additional costs to improve parking as well, with City Hall picking up the tab for updated streetscaping and other improvements to the area’s aesthetic.
“I think the surveys show that we’ve got some support to look at alternatives that we haven’t taken advantage of before,”Rawson said. “We are not sure what those alternatives will be because we are trying to come together as a community around a list of objectives... so we can be on the same page. We can’t be all things to all people, but we definitely want to take care of what we have.We don’t want a lot of deferred maintenance in the city’s living room.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 30, 2006. Read the original PDF.