As the November City Council election nears, Mayor John Erickson and his running mate, Danny Hang, want to talk about the minimum wage. Candidate Larry Block seems focused on empty store fronts. But the issue that has provoked the heretofore silent majority of West Hollywood residents are the plans for the “Re-Design” of Fountain Avenue. Voters are both astounded and outraged by the plans being forced upon our community without meaningful public input.
On Monday, the City Council will likely vote to accept a grant from the California Air Resources Control Board that will provide funding for a number of transportation related projects, including a $5 million dollar grant for the Fountain “Re-Design”. Mayor Erickson is calling this grant “free money”. I call it arrogant and irresponsible as the City has made not done a traffic study to show the impact of the plan on Santa Monica and Sunset Boulevards. Nor has the City requested that the Fire Department or the Sheriff provide feedback on how reducing Fountain to one lane will impact response times.
In case you have living under a rock, the Fountian “Re-Design” involves installing “protected” bike lanes along the curb, with parking, where possible, on the left of the bike lanes, while sidewalks will be widened. To accommodate these goals, Fountain will be reduced to one lane in either direction.
While those of us who live near Fountain agree that traffic should be slowed and the sidewalks in certain areas be widened to accommodate people with disabilities. But this half-baked proposal is being moved forward on Monday will remove (by the City’s count), 250 parking spaces and wreak havoc on traffic patterns.
More importantly, Mayor Erickson is hoping that by accepting the grant, the City can thwart public opposition to the plan and indeed, end the conversation.
At a public meeting on August 22nd, City Staff indicated that the plans for Fountain were simply an informal “sketch” and that nothing was laid in stone. The grant application tells a completely different story; it makes it appear that the City has already adopted the “Re-Design Plan”. Indeed, the Grant calls for community outreach, to “educate the public about the benefits of the project” and those efforts will be assisted by Bike LA, which is hardly an unbiased party. Furthermore, the Grant indicates that “outreach” will be to “residents and stake holders” and will include on-line outreach. This means that the Bicycle Coalition and Streets for All will be able to skewer whatever conversations take place. While staff is telling us there is time for public input, the Grant indicates that the plan is already a done deal. Furthermore, the Grant mandates the City to break ground 15 months from the acceptance of the Grant. That means early 2026.
We should remember that this is the same process the City used to manipulate the numbers for the 2022 community survey. The on-line survey was open to anyone who wanted to log on, including non-residents members of the Bike Coalition. Unsurprisingly it reflected that 62% of the on-line survey participants favored “protected bike lanes”, which would require Fountian to be reduced to one lane in either direction.
It is clear there is overwhelming opposition to this proposal by residents who will be impacted by the “Re-Design” Plan. But our voices have been systematically excluded by a process that was manipulated to appease the City Council majority.
To my knowledge only two candidates for City Council, John Erickson and Danny Hang, have come out in support of the “Re-Design”. While that is not explicit on their websites, it was explicated stated in their endorsement by Streets For All, a pro-bike advocacy lobby. Indeed Hang, in his response to their questionnaire, even supported creating “exclusive bus lanes” on Santa Monica Boulevard during rush hour.
I am not aware of any of the other City Council candidates supporting the Fountain “Re-Design”. At the August 22nd public meeting in Plummer Park, candidates George Nickle, Zekiah Wright and Jordan Cockeram spoke out passionately against the “Re-Design”.
Accepting this grant before the election and before meaningful public participation will only create more problems for the City. Aside from alienating residents, the next City Council can vote to rescind the Grant request. We need to vote for folks who will do exactly that.
But in the meantime, please let your voice be heard on this issue. It is Item E(1) on Monday’s City Council agenda and if you cannot be there in person, you can comment online.
Steve Martin
Pleased that this project is moving forward. As a resident who either walks or bikes daily in the city (I don’t own a car) I’m glad some effort is finally being made to accommodate all forms of transit equally. Decades of prioritizing non-resident car owners has to come to an end. That a formal council member would publicly blame a pedestrian for their injuries is shocking and dehumanizing. We should not be platform voices that are so cavalier about harm that could befall residents.
Fountain is a very dangerous street, with the traffic accident data to back that up. Cars often reach speeds of 50mph. If a car hits a pedestrian at 50mph there’s a 75% likelihood that person will die. If the car is going 32mph that likelihood is reduced to 25%. That is a massive life-saving difference! This project would make huge leaps towards making it the safe residential street that it was before LA county widened it to 2 lanes. The vast majority of Fountain Ave from Silverlake to La Cienaga is one lane in each direction, it works! Let’s make… Read more »
If you are hit by a car traveling 50 mph then you are probably jay walking and not in a cross walk. Darwin’s theory still has relevance.
Most of Fountain east of Highland, where the street is one lane, does not have the same sorts of density as WeHo on the side streets.
Where do the bikes go when they get to Fountain and La Cienega?
They would continue on the Santa Monica painted bike lane which currently terminates near La Cienaga (Kings). It would provide a continuous east-west bike route across West Hollywood.
There is no bike lane on Santa Monica west of La Cienega nor ON La Cienega. So that makes zero cents. West Hollywood continues to Doheny., so this not truly an east/west solution to a made up need.
It is imperative that this idiotic move by the vile, greedy, completely incompetent current city council be stopped in its tracks. Reducing Fountain to one lane in each direction is asking for a civic traffic nightmare that would be very difficult to reverse and cause immeasurable harm. It is time that citizens are aware of all of this, and rise up in large numbers to demand an end to this, with increasing escalating actions up to and including severe civil disobedience and actions that the city of West Hollywood has never seen in its history, and all city council members… Read more »
I always thought cities were for people and not cars…
Why would Erickson give a damn about that actual residents want? This is a stepping stone to him. If re-elected I doubt he’d serve past his second term- he’d run for Supervisor or State Senator or Sultan; whatever his inflated sense of self worth tell him is the next step. He will just add $5 million in “free money” and the “daring” redesign of Fountain to his list of accomplishments..
Once again, THANK YOU STEVE MARTIN for bringing this to the community’s attention. I could easily take up a lot of space commenting, but honestly your article hit every detail on the head. TOTAL LACK OF OUTREACH TOTAL LACK OF INPUT This “plan” also includes the LOSS OF PARKING on Gardner St. that the city NEVER INFORMED THE RESIDENTS ABOUT! I recently spoke at a council meeting regarding the August 22nd city held meeting, about the spin both staff and Vice Mayor Chelsea Byers put on the project. They stated exactly what you said in your article, that there was… Read more »
“Free Money” from Sacramento nearly destroyed Plummer Park.
Totally agree with your outrage, Steve. Fountain is a key avenue to get thru our busy city. Even Bette Davis said so. When asked about the best way to make it in Hollywood she responded “Take Fountain”. This is an idiotic use of free money. This is a car city, not a bike city. Hundreds of thousands of drivers will be impacted. Stop it!
They should just rip out all the sidewalks in West Hollywood and make every single road a 12 lane freeway.
Excellent assessment Steve. But sadly I feel it’s falling on deaf ears at this point. We need to unite against this idiotic project!
Steve, where do we send our online comments? I know it was provided in another article a few days ago but please make it easy for me by either giving it to me again or post a link to that article where the instructions are. Thanks so much!
Would there not be a way to have an actual vote on this? I can’t for one second imagine that constituents want this. It’s the most foolish idea. It’s too frustrating to see our CC have control in directing us towards foolishness. How is this City in the hands of Erickson and anti Semite Byers! How! My head is exploding with frustration. When is David Wilson leaving? We need a complete over haul at City Hall. What a mess.