Residents rage against runaway bike lane project

More than 100 West Hollywood residents filled the community room at Plummer Park on Thursday night to vent their anger at city plans to remove street parking along Vista and Gardner avenues, part of the wider Willoughby, Vista/Gardner, and Kings Street Design Concept Plan.

Their ire was largely directed at City Council and particularly at Vice Mayor Chelsea Lee Byers, who was in attendance. Residents repeatedly brought up a comment the vice mayor made earlier in the year regarding the project — that she would “happily inconvenience motorists for the safety of cyclists” — and more than one called for her resignation.

WeHo Long Range Planning Manager Francisco Contreras described the project as a “sketch,” still years in the making and able to be changed.

“It’s not a done deal,” Contreras said. “The concept plan is really just a sketch—an idea. What we’re going to do now is develop that idea and incorporate some of the comments from both the City Council and the ones we’ve heard here today. We’re going to try really hard to find a compromise. Maybe we won’t lose any parking; maybe we lose some parking; maybe we don’t lose all of it. Some of that exploration is going to be part of the next phase of the project as we start to develop that sketch into real plans. And that process alone is going to take at least a year—just turning the sketch into some more refined designs will take at least a year. Once we actually have a refined design instead of just a sketch, that’s when we engage with our public safety team because they can’t respond to a sketch. When we show them a line, they say, ‘I can’t tell you anything—I don’t have enough information or details.’ Once we have more of a refined sketch and plans with actual measurements, that’s when we go to our public safety team, fire, and emergency personnel and say, ‘Look, here’s what we’re thinking.’ For example, if the roadway was 60 feet and we’re thinking about turning that into 40 feet, how does that impact response times? At this early stage, we just don’t have enough information for them to respond to.”

The following are notable quotes from various attendees at the meeting:

“I’m not surprised that no one really knew about this. It’s the same City Council that decided to tear down a synagogue during COVID when no one knew about it. They don’t care about our wants and needs—they have a plan, and we’re not part of that plan. They treat us like children, instead of improving what’s there. They treat us like they’re the parents and know what’s best for us instead of treating us like adult.”

“I think all kinds of people can get around by modes outside of the single-occupant vehicle, and that’s one of our goals on a local and regional level. I know a lot of folks personally, and I’ve heard a lot of people say in this meeting that they would love to ride a bike to get around and love to use public transit, and this is how we become that city. The transition is hard—I don’t want to undermine that—it’s difficult.”

“We were a bit surprised when Mayor Erickson, Vice Mayor Byers, and Councilmember Shyne voted for Option 1A, which would impact residents way more than Option 1, as 1A clearly states there would be a loss of residential parking—particularly for residents who live in older buildings with no off-street parking at all. We are, however, angry that if this goes through, 60 spaces will be lost as there are 51 driveways between Norton and Gardner, all of which are perpendicular to the plan. That makes a total of 60 residents whose lives will be upended and disrupted daily.”

“I drive Uber at night and on weekends. My issue is, like, I pick up people—like last night, I picked up a couple from Norton, and they didn’t even know they’re going to take away our parking spots.”

“What I am disturbed by is that instead of creating a compromise between drivers and bicyclists, we have at least three new members of the City Council who seem to want to create division in this city instead of bringing us together, which is not who we are and not what we’re meant to be. Those three council members, however… What I’d also like to say is that you have to consider that if you take streets that are too narrow and make them into bike lanes, you’re going to have accidents, and that’s going to ruin the lives of both the motorists and the bicyclists.”

“Some people are using West Hollywood to advance their own careers, and they don’t consider the needs of the residents of West Hollywood. I’m all for bikes and alternative modes of transportation, but we have to incentivize those first and get people to take them before we get rid of parking spaces.”

“People are saying they don’t want it, they’re saying it’s not going to work for so many reasons. Legitimate concerns are being brought up, but there are no responses. It’s called a Q&A—we’re making comments, but there are no answers to any of these things. What are the solutions to the safety issues? What are the solutions for folks walking to their cars and not finding parking, or for emergency vehicles? It seems like a sort of waste of time to bring the community in and say, ‘Let us know your concerns,’ and then we leave here not knowing any more than when we arrived.”

“ I can hardly even walk these days, so I’m very car-dependent. I am incredibly fortunate I can park in my own driveway, but I really care about the community. And this whole plan came before outreach to the community. I don’t care how many years ago there was outreach — these people were left out of the conversation.”

“People like myself chose to live in this beautiful city for its charm and prime location. Inconveniencing motorists creates a domino effect not only for residents of West Hollywood but also for the greater Los Angeles area. This is not something to be proud of — a legacy of becoming a city that has abused taxpayers’ dollars for political gain and exposure is not what our community signed up for.”

“As someone who has been taken to the hospital multiple times in an ambulance and lives next to a nursing home where people are constantly being taken to the hospital, I think you should really look into this instead of just rolling your eyes. Like I said before, that kind of reflects more on you and how you care about the people you represent.”

“We don’t need bike lanes; we certainly don’t need them here. People have made perfect points that bikes can easily go down the sides of the street without having to have a bike lane. There’s never been a problem. It seems like there’s a problem that you are trying to solve that doesn’t exist.”