Businesses just off the Promenade hope downtown’s $15M facelift will pay off
On the day set aside to celebrate the widening of downtown Santa Monica to areas outside the Third Street Promenade, it appeared the expansion will take some coaxing.
Monica Hanley realized early on it will be an uphill job. Hanley, a city employee volunteering for the day’s transmit mall celebration, stood at attention Saturday, ready to help anyone unfamiliar with Santa Monica navigate its new downtown. She handed out fliers and Big Blue Bus lapel pins outside a bus stop on Fourth Street between Wilshire and Arizona.
She informed passersby of the new Parisian-inspired bus shelters and benches. She extolled the virtues of the improved sidewalks and the ease at which pedestrians can now move about the entire downtown.
The flow was still largely heading towards the Promenade’s three-block pedestrian mall.
“I know I’m only one block away but I feel like I’m a world apart,” she said.
Some officials said it might take some time before people become willing to explore areas off the Promenade.
The transit mall is a six-square-block area featuring Ocean Avenue, Broadway Avenue, Seventh Street and Santa Monica Boulevard.
“We will just start to see the benefits now,” said John Warfel, a Bayside District board member. “The people have to first realize it’s here. They have to see the sculptures and walk down the sidewalks before it really sinks in.”
On Saturday, the city celebrated the completion of its new $15 million downtown transit mall, which essentially borrowed the most successful elements of the Promenade and extended them to nearby streets. It also created dedicated bus lanes, installed information kiosks and enlarged the sidewalks.
The facelift is intended not only to reinvigorate the downtown, but also act as a pressure release valve for the Promenade, which often becomes jammed with pedestrians during the weekends.
Many of the improvements are meant to encourage more people to walk, bike or take the bus downtown.
The completion of improvements couldn’t come soon enough for some businesses on the target streets. The transit mall took nearly three years for city officials and residents to plan. Downtown establishments struggled through nearly a year of solid construction in front of their stores. In addition to the transit mall project, the city was simultaneously replacing an old sewer line downtown.
Businesses owners ranged from irate to perplexed over the construction in front of their shops and at the difficult traffic patterns and congestion it generated. On Saturday many were just happy to have the construction over. Many others said they now feel optimistic about the future.
“For six months we had to really suffer — we had no traffic in the store,” said Mavis Johnson, manager of American Art & Jewelry. “It was really bad.”
Johnson’s establishment is located at Second Street and Broadway, where some of the worst construction took place. Now, traffic moves smoothly in front of her store and more than a few pedestrians had wandered in.
“We keep hoping it’s only going to get better,” Johnson said. “I think everybody is keeping their fingers crossed.”
“We keep hoping it’s only going to get better. I think everybody is keeping their fingers crossed.” — — MAVIS JOHNSON American Art & Jewelry Manager
Business was more brisk across the street. Jurassic owner Jeff Marshall said his store has never done better. He said during the city’s planning process for the transit mall he was concerned the construction could hurt his business.
“But I ended up doing very well,” he said. “I think all the construction actually drew more attention to the shop.”
For Marshall the sacrifice of the construction was worth the payoff.
“Just look at all those people walking around right now,” he said, gesturing to a group of pedestrians strolling by his store-front window. “What a beautiful treatment the city gave this area.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 24, 2002. Read the original PDF.