The final Gaffey Street workshop moves ahead to the drafting stage without much strife
Ivan Adame, Editorial Intern
San Pedro residents may not get all they want in the when it comes to plans to make improvements on Gaffey Street — namely decreasing the travel time from 5th Street to the 110 Freeway and preventing the homeless from sleeping on the bus benches.
However, community members may get a safer, public transit friendly and more visually attractive corridor.
On Feb. 26, the Los Angeles Neighborhood Initiative hosted the third and final community workshop to draft the Gaffey Street Conceptual Plan. The plan aims to improve the safety, efficiency and aesthetic profile of Gaffey Street as part of Mayor Garcetti’s Great Streets Initiative.
Community members were asked to provide additional feedback on the improvements. Reducing traffic at the terminus of the 110 Freeway was still a primary concern, but both the Department of Transportation and RRM Design Group say that due to zoning, land use and funding constraints, little can be done about it in the immediate future.
Among the ideas proposed that night were installations of bulb-outs: curb extensions designed to lessen the time it would take to cross a street. These are to be built from 6th Street to 10th Street.
Other proposals include a transit plaza that would be near the Vons on 13th Street, in which vending kiosks could be used for quick shopping. Also, there are plans for all of the bus stops along Gaffey Street to be furnished with bus shelters.
“We want to make transit easy and comfortable to use,” said Tony Keith, assistant designer from the RRM Design Group.
Keith then asked the public to not let the issue of homelessness stunt progress of a greater public transportation.
“You don’t deny all of us using bus stops because we have a homeless issue,” Keith said. “You don’t solve the homeless issue necessarily, but you address the homeless issue … the goal of this is not to turn Gaffey into a better freeway, but to turn Gaffey into a better place for the community to use.”
When the public looked over the plans, feedback was recorded by writing and sticking Post-It notes on the displays. One public suggestion for bus stops was to use individual chairs or loveseats at odd angles instead of benches, saying it “prevents sleeping,” and “encourages social behavior.” Another suggestion was for no advertisements on benches.
There seemed to be a split opinion on whether or not to keep the palm trees in the area, with an equal amount of feedback written for and against keeping them.
Gale Noon, a San Pedro resident reviewing the display, was concerned about the rotting of old palm trees.
“I’m fine with getting rid of them and putting more native or more Mediterranean stuff,” Noon said.
Sue Castillo, Land Use chairwoman for the Central San Pedro Neighborhood Council, said she would like the plan to explain how public art can be incorporated into the project.
“[A good place] to put public art is bus stops,” Castillo said. “Because bus stops need to be made to feel like a cool place…. We need more people to travel by bus.”
Given the nearly-volatile public response of the past two meetings — concerning road-dieting, which the city refuted — there was little opposition to the plans on display. James Dimon, chairman of the Coastal San Pedro Neighborhood Council, said he believes this meeting was a positive step forward.
“This community needs to … stop door-stopping the [city’s efforts] to spend funds to beautify our community,” said Dimon. “The city listened to what the community wanted… the objections you heard tonight were very limited.”
However, funding to implement this project isn’t completely secure. It will be funded in fragments. Smaller elements of this project — referred to by several of the speakers that night as “low-hanging fruit”— can be funded and implemented quickly. But it may not be possible to secure funding for everything in a given year. Specific items can take from six months to anywhere between five and eight years.
As of now, the project was eligible to apply for $1.7 million via Metro’s Call for Project fund, Kate Mayerson, program director for the Los Angeles Neighborhood Initiative, said. The project members are also advocating for businesses and property owners along Gaffey Street to form a business improvement district to produce more funds.
“As long as the community keeps advocating for this project to be funded, we’re going to do this in phases; we’re going to do it in pieces,” Mayerson said. “But we’d rather start small and work up towards the big ticket items than to do nothing at all.”