Speaking of tall ships...
Did anyone try to get anywhere using Harbor Blvd. (or any surrounding streets) last weekend? I don't think I've ever seen that many people here ever, for anything.
As I was idling on Harbor for ten minutes or so it occurred to me that this is what the developers want for us every weekend. Crowds of people from all over the county flocking to the waterfront for fun and frolic (and shopping - don't forget shopping).
Though I can't imagine that they can come up with anything to draw such crowds consistently, it's still a frightening proposition. Add the 24/7 tractor trailer movement through the harbor* and you've got one horror show of a bright future looming on the horizon.
*At least if our new mayor has his way. From his "Vision for [Greener] LA" --- I will further reduce truck pollution by calling for 24-hour gate access for loading and reduced truck idling.
Is "greener" even a word? Sounds like a job description. "I paint the VTB, I'm a greener."
As I was idling on Harbor for ten minutes or so it occurred to me that this is what the developers want for us every weekend. Crowds of people from all over the county flocking to the waterfront for fun and frolic (and shopping - don't forget shopping).
Though I can't imagine that they can come up with anything to draw such crowds consistently, it's still a frightening proposition. Add the 24/7 tractor trailer movement through the harbor* and you've got one horror show of a bright future looming on the horizon.
*At least if our new mayor has his way. From his "Vision for [Greener] LA" --- I will further reduce truck pollution by calling for 24-hour gate access for loading and reduced truck idling.
Is "greener" even a word? Sounds like a job description. "I paint the VTB, I'm a greener."
12 Comments:
Traffic was evil this weekend. POLA estimates that 200,000 people attend the bi-annual tall ships event. I'm not sure how many cars that many people bring into Pedro or how many of those are locals, but it's a lot of people. And before you say "but mom, it's over a 4 day period", remember that probably 80-90% of those people and their cars are in town only on Saturday and Sunday.
But the business owners love the Tall Ships, right? I mean all of the yahoos parked all the way up 6th and 7th and on Pacific can't help themselves as they pass through Downtown Pedro to get to the water? Well, from my experience, they sure can. I'm sure that the restaurants do great business, but Walled City didn't notice a difference in internal traffic from any other weekend, and the bar across the street didn't look any busier, either.
Pedro, being an older town, is ground zero for a parking/traffic apocalypse. We have older, narrow streets, limited parking due to the ongoing elimination of single family dwellings and their replacement by multi-unit dwellings without sufficient parking (oh, and if thing pick up, we'll be seeing houses go under left and right to make way for townhouses. I've been watching it happen all around my aunt's old house in Culver for the past 10 years.), a shocking lack of available decked parking near key businesses (Warner Grand Theatre = 1500 seats + 0 parking spaces) and a city govenment totally blind to the traffic and parking issues. Pacific, Gaffey and Harbor Blvd. are not streets that can accomodate either more traffic many efficiency measures, and they are our main streets.
Is anybody planning for this? In a wholistic way? That takes all possible development outcomes into account? No. But the city parking gurus will let you know that there is an underused lot between 9th and 8th on Pacific, in case you feel like parking and walking across 6 blocks to do your shopping downtown or on the waterfront.
The problem? San Pedro is going through a lot of changes, some overdue, some unexpected but welcome, and some unwelcome. All of this change is being overseen by a half dozen odd committees, a Port that doesn't listen well, development companies that worship the dollar on moonless nights, another half dozen city offices and agencies and the varied efforts of both organised and disorganised citizenry. Will anyone step in and wrangle this hydra? I don't see it happening.
Gee, don't you mean "St.VTB", or, "VSt.TB"?
Seriously, though, there was a fuck of a lot of traffic over the weekend. Harbor, and First street were apparently the main arteries and were about 3 or 4x normal traffic. Sucktastic!
One of the big complaints that I heard from folks at the opening at AGCC Sunday afternoon was that the bridge was down to one lane in each direction. On a Sunday in August, good thinking bridge dudes! Apparently the 110 S. was cocked up due to an accident, on top of the extra traffic, as well.
Six blocks? OMG!!!!11!!!11!!!! Don't they know that it's my Jesus-given right as an American to have ample parking near (preferably in front of) every place of business that I may care to patronize at some indeterminate point in the future? And they want me to WALK, six BLOCKS? On my FEET? Why, I would have to visit my personal physician for a full cardiovascular stress test and exam before undertaking such an act of physical exertion. It's an outrage, I tell you!
I'll walk 6 blocks, you'll walk six blocks, will everyone, no. One days when I've sat the booth in the Warner, I get complaint after complaint about the lack of parking in the district. People who park in the wrong lots get their cars towed to Long Beach. So what happens? People looking to build up audience for events in San Pedro lose audience due to the shitty parking situation. Good restaurants fail, galleries decide to shutter, etc...
Don't ever forget that there is a huge population of both local and non-local residents who believe that Pedro is a Bartertown, where gangs and bullets make the law. They aren't even going to find the extra city lots, let alone park their cars in them. They are poorly lit, there is no signage to guide visitors, there is no security. The lots are often defined by abandoned cars (once a burnt out hulk of a car sat in the middle of the 8th Street lot for several weeks), overflowing dumpsters, drunk/loitering homeless/crazies and tagging. Pacific Avenue and Downtown get struck by waves of car break-ins on a regular basis, and these lots are not attractive to visitors, shoppers or even locals.
People don't have a right to anything. It's not about rights, it's about what people want. It is an issue, and a sorry one. I've sat down in BID meetings where parking issues were on the table, and the city's position is: "as long as a poorly located and implemented lot goes underused, we aren't even going to address the parking issue." The reason the lots go underused is that not everyone (rightly or wrongly) feels safe in them. Even if the lots were used, on a big weekend evening, the lots will overfill, anyways, and then people will have to park in the niehborhoods, which means that when Nightside Bob comes home for his 9:00 lunch, he's going to have to surf for parking on his own block, or the next one over. They don't get it. Or if they do, they are just stonewalling, because they don't have the cajones to help the community fight to get decent parking for downtown.
This has the potential to become even worse. I've done the math. If (and this can and does happen) the Warner has a big event, I have an opening, THM has an opening, the kids pack Sacred Grounds for music and it's a Saturday night so the restaurants are packed, well over 1500 people will be decending on a 4 block area. How many parking spaces are there in that area? Not enough. People end up parking far away from their destination, often in an unfamiliar neigborhood. They have a good time at the event, but the parking situation turns them off. They don't come back.
"But I don't care about people outside of Pedro. Who cares if they don't come back?" I do. Locals alone don't keep the marquee at the Warner lit. If you want to have a theatre to go to, a venue to see live music, or a decent restaurant to eat at, you better start caring how soft-skinned locals and out of towners feel about dark alleys and "walking six blocks."
This is 2005. With gas sailing past the $3/gallon mark, peak oil approaching, human beings dying in Iraq to enrich oil companies, and cities becoming unlivable, pedestrian-hostile archipelagos of vast parking lots tied together by multilane highways, people at some point are going to have to learn how to use those elongated hand-like appendages at the bottoms of their legs to do something other than push the accelerator pedals on their SUVs...whether they like it or not. Even if it just means walking to the bus stop.
You don't help soft-skinned (or lazy) locals or out-of-towners break the habit by giving them more parking lots every time they whine for them. If more people walked, biked, and bussed around town--or combined those things reasonably with driving--the streets wouldn't be deserted at night and they wouldn't seem so scary.
If only somebody would sit these people down and calmly explain to them that even if you have to walk six blocks, it's still quicker to shop in downtown Pedro than to drive to Torrance, it would be a good start.
Hell, I'd tell people to use the big Park and Ride lot down on Harbor Boulevard, which is unused at night. Maybe have those electric "trolleys" go back and forth between the P&R and, say, Sixth and Pacific on weekend nights (to begin with) instead of sitting uselessly in the parking lot of the Red Car barn, being serenaded by Saxophone Guy. More bike racks downtown and elsewhere would be a good start as well, while I'm at it.
I'm not going to solve the problems of the fossil fuel economy here. I probably have the most low milage vehicle of anyone reading this blog, my 84 Vandura is a big steel V8 beast that needs to be fed lots of gas, and often. I wish more people would get off their asses and ride their bikes or walk. I try to ride my bike around, whenever I don't have to carry my tools with me (note to self: get to work on that toolbox and screwgun mount for my bike).
This isn't a case of pampered folks whining. Face it, Downtown San Pedro was not built for the modern visitor. It just doesn't have enough parking. Look at Santa Monica. Their downtown was completely run down until the city came in and built all of that multi-story parking. Times changed, people changed, cars changed, and they changed their town to fit reality (note: we don't have to and shouldn't become the next Santa Monica). Downtown San Pedro is trapped in a limbo between the days when the ferry landing was at the bottom of sixth and today. Changes need to be made.
About mass transit in Los Angeles. I don't know how often anyone here rides the bus, but I'm big on mass transit. Buses in LA don't run at night. We don't have "Night Owl" lines in this city. You cannot, in any way considered convenient, go out to a movie and dinner and take the bus home. It's not possible. The reason why? LA is too big to have express lines run all night. To go all the way across town on the bus takes 2 hours and rarely will an express line drop you off within walking distance of your home, something that is important in the middle of the night. And using the park and ride lot on Harbor? For special events, it's a good idea. For casual visitors, it's ridiculous. People don't want to park their car 2 miles from their shopping, dining or entertianment destination. I'm not defending it, I'm just telling it like it is.
More bike racks is always a good idea.
Ah, but it is a case of pampered folks whining. That's precisely what your "modern visitor" is. He or she can't conceive of putting one leg in front of the other and then alternating for any longer than it takes to walk from the front porch to the SUV, the SUV to the Starbucks, and back. He or she also thinks that public transportation is for poor people. God knows I don't deny that this is reality; I'm just not a fan of passively accepting the shitty parts of reality, especially those parts that could be changed if people would just break out of their stupors for a minute and try something different.
Downtown San Pedro managed to thrive once, lack of parking and all. People also used to walk and take buses and streetcars in this town. Don't you think there may be just a teensy-weensy connection there? And maybe a little something to shoot for, with the appropriate nods to modernity (shuttle buses, bike parking facilities, Segway docking stations, molecular teleportation booths...)? For someone who seems to consider himself a bright-eyed visionary among the mossbacks of Pedro, some of your thinking is remarkably retrograde--you're just not looking back as far, which makes you look like a futurist by comparison. More friggin' parking, as a solution to too many cars? Seriously, dude, 1972 called and they want their notions of urban planning back.
Incidentally, I make all my Amoeba runs by bus and subway now, and recently I've been going to shows at the Wiltern and the Knitting Factory the same way, not to mention movies in Pasadena and Hollywood. Ain't nothing to it but to do it. Thing is, you have to do it. And since nobody on TV does it, one has a hard time convincing the average, erm, "modern visitor" that it's feasible, let alone desirable.
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