Broadway Road Diet Protested

About 100 residents and business owners protested the Broadway road diet during a rally July 15.

People marched around the corners of Broadway and Cherry Avenue during the two-hour event holding signs that read “Broadway Road Diet Endangers Lives,” “This Road Diet is Starving My Business,” and so on. Protesters shouted “Hey hey, ho ho, the Broadway diet has got to go.”

Unveiled in mid-April, the diet from Redondo to Alamitos Avenues slimmed Broadway down to one lane going each way with the intention of slowing traffic and making the street safer. The traffic lanes are now only 10 feet wide.

Curbside bike lanes were added and cars must now park several feet from the curb out in the street.

Protesters say the corridor now has little wiggle room and is crammed and unsafe. Cars parked in the new configuration make it hard to see oncoming traffic when pulling out of side streets and driveways.

Accidents of all kinds have gone up after the diet’s debut and the project is not ADA compliant, they contend. Parking spaces have been lost. And business is down for many shops as customers go elsewhere.

“Personally, I’ve seen the aftermath of five front-end collisions,” said protester and Long Beach resident of 29 years, Lisa Harris. “It’s just not safe.”

Protester Louise Ivers, a neighborhood resident of 43 years, said, “Broadway has become so congested because of the new road diet.”

She said fire and garbage trucks block traffic.

Ivers added, “I think the city wants everyone to ride a bicycle but I’m too old to ride one.”

Three counter-protesters attended with one, Johnny Tully, riding his bike while yelling what his sign read, “Road Diets Save Lives!” He would not disclose his organization to the Beachcomber.

A Google search later discovered Tully is chief operating officer for Pedal Movement, LLC, which according to the company website offers a variety of community and corporate bicycle services.

LBReport.com reported July 16 how the city gave the company a $1.4 million contract earlier this year to operate the Long Beach Bike program.

In addition, Tully’s parked truck was sideswiped and his side mirror damaged by a passing vehicle on Broadway across from Gallagher’s Pub & Grill July 13, according to LBReport. Yet he dismissed the incident.

The full story can be found at LBReport.com.

Danielle Cummings, a protestor and Broadway homeowner for five years, said her partner’s parked car was sideswiped last Saturday too and a deductible will cost $1,000.

“I fear for myself, my partner and even bicycles,” she said. “I don’t see how they don’t see this is dangerous.”

Cummings said she doesn’t believe minor changes will make the street safer.

“This as a whole is unsafe,” she said.

Protester Merry Colvin, owner of Merry’s on Broadway, said she always paid her rent on time in 13 years of owning the store. But after last October’s construction, and now the road diet result, customers have vanished and business is down 50 to 70 percent.

Colvin said she grossed between $6,000 and $7,000 a month just prior to construction and now it’s between $2,000 and $3,000 a month. It’s not coming back up, she said.

A recent fundraiser at Merry’s hosted by Broadway Corridor President and Second District Council candidate Robert Fox, helped Colvin get caught up on her rent and bills. But now she’s struggling with July’s rent and doesn’t know how long she can continue the store.

A GoFundMe has been set up in the meantime under search words “Save Merry’s World Bazaar.”

“It breaks my heart to look at this store like this, empty, with nobody in it,” she said from her front counter July 16, a day when she didn’t make anything. “The city that I have supported all these years did this to me and they don’t care.”

Colvin blames lost parking spaces and unsafe driving conditions for the loss of customers. Added red curbs especially eliminated parking for her area.

The former Broadway can be viewed on Google by typing in any of the street’s addresses and then clicking “see outside.” Images of a wider, open street can be found with cars parked alongside the curb and no bike lanes.

Across from Merry’s, Google reveals a 26-foot-long red curb previously at the southwest corner of Broadway and Temple Avenue. With the reconfiguration, the red now stretches to almost 106-feet long.

Red curbs, short and long, have been added up and down the corridor and several loading zones have disappeared.

The Broadway and Junipero Avenue intersection – where the iconic Park Pantry is located – has lots of added red curbing, resulting in reduced parking.

As one example, the southwest corner by the park did not have a red curb before. Today red paint coats 117-feet of the curb. And across the street, red was added but a two-hour parking sign remains, making it confusing.

“We’ve lost tons of parking, the customers can’t get to us,” said Park Pantry employee of 23 years, Cindy Sandoval.

Sandoval said business is probably down anywhere from 30 percent or more.

The street has become congested and chaotic with cars too close together, she said, adding that accidents are “much, much more frequent” after the city’s project.

“They think this is safer?” she asked. “Are they out of their mind?”

City Traffic Engineer Eric Widstrand “resigned to explore opportunities in the private sector,” according to Public Works Director Craig Beck, who added the city will go through a recruitment process to fill the position.

Meanwhile, Carl Hickman, the city’s assistant traffic engineer, has been out on Broadway assessing the situation. Hickman is looking for opportunities where red curbing could be reduced to add space for parking. In addition, Hickman found other aspects here and there that could use tweaking to improve the project.

“It’s an ongoing challenge,” he said. “We are going to make adjustments where we can.”

He said speed sensors will be placed in the coming weeks to measure how fast cars are traveling with the new configuration. Then in six months or so, it will be measured again to compare the figures.

Second District Councilwoman Jeannine Pearce, whose district includes the Broadway changes in question, posted on Facebook July 13.

“My team and I spent all week on the Broadway Corridor. We talked to businesses we hadn’t yet, we surveyed the changes and on Friday I had (City Manager) Pat West and Craig Beck join me on the corridor to see exactly how we could improve the corridor.

“Here’s what we heard this week:

“1. There were spots in front of my business removed.

“2. Business went down during construction and after, but it’s back up now.

“3. Loading zones are needed for restaurants.

“4. I watched buses not pull all the (way) in the red zone, but stop well before where the bus bench was – meaning there is space for additional parking.”

To resolve the issues, Pearce wrote red curbs at all bus stops would be reduced and the benches pushed closer to the intersection to create one or two extra spots at each intersection. The spots would become loading zones and then overnight parking.

The black “parking blocks” will be moved 18 inches to give cars more space, signage or paint would be added in certain spots for bike safety and a crosswalk added at Esperanza Avenue, she wrote.

And she would “agendize an item to change trash pick up to 4 a.m.”

However, various businesses and residents say her show up is late and they are leery of minor tuning. And Colvin said she has yet to hear back from Pearce, who stood her and other business owners up at a scheduled meeting at Gallagher’s Pub & Grill last October.

Candidate Fox, who is now challenging Pearce, said, “Putting lipstick on this pig will not change the pig.”

“Cosmetics are not what is needed,” he said. “Structural change is required for the safety of all. A 15,000-car per day corridor has been destroyed along with its businesses. Those cars now shoot through neighborhoods on Third Street, First, Second and Ocean Boulevard, impacting their quality of life. 

“We have had more accidents since this road diet than we have had in over 30 years.”

 According to Pearce’s Facebook, “This street is designed to save lives, slow traffic. We are still working to improve what the traffic engineers designed – to have it match with how we all move in (the) corridor.”

Fox, who organized the protest, said the street cannot be fixed with minor adjustments here and there.

kirt@beachcomber.news