Main Street problems? See for yourself
My wife and I went down to Main Street one Sunday afternoon. When we
first got there I met one of the merchants who was complaining about
how filthy our Downtown was. I was kidding him that he must be
exaggerating.
We took off to inspect all of Main Street from the third block to
Pacific Coast Highway. What a filthy sight -- trash in the street and
all over the sidewalks, cigarette butts by the hundreds in front of
Starbucks and the Sugar Shack Cafe, sidewalks that look like they
haven’t been cleaned for ages and trash in the shrubberies. What a
shame that this great city can’t find a way to keep our downtown
clean.
You go to Laguna Beach, Dana Point, San Juan Capistrano, Seal
Beach and so on and they all make our downtown look like the worst
kept Downtown of all.
Somebody from the city has to take some action with the merchants
about this problem. Most people that I talk to Downtown mention that
they have given up on trying to get this handled.
You go to In-N-Out on Beach Boulevard and its property is
spotless. Why can’t the merchants help with the clean-up in front of
their own businesses?
We have these gorgeous resorts and not four blocks away we have
this downtown that looks awful.
So many residents have told me that they won’t go down to Downtown
because of this and other problems.
Also when are we going to close Main Street to cars? How
disgusting to be eating on the sidewalk and sucking exhaust fumes in
with your food. That Sunday there were motorcycles revving their
engines all the way down the second block and into the third block.
The merchants are under the wrong impression if they think that
this scenario is appealing to visitors. Put up barricades at the
start of the second block and at the north end of the third block and
let’s make this a pedestrian walkway for a pilot period. Everybody is
making this such a big deal that nobody wants to take the ball and
run with it. I’m sure the police chief and the fire chief can figure
out the traffic flow. They did it for the car show this weekend so
why can’t it be done for the pedestrian walk.
Just think about the possibilities that could happen if the cars
were banned. For one, how about more seating area for the outside
diners? Moving them off the sidewalk and toward the middle of the
street would free up the sidewalks so the pedestrians would buy more
products from the merchants that are worried about the street being
closed. Walkers will buy more products than drivers that just are
cruising. This makes so much sense that I cannot believe it is not
being handled.
Also maybe Councilman Dave Sullivan is right. We certainly didn’t
see many families down there. Just all the rough looking people you
can imagine. Not a very good image for the city.
We were there for about a hour and did not see one police officer
walking the street.
* BILL DEMAREST is a Huntington Beach resident. To contribute to
“Sounding Off” e-mail us at hbindy@latimes.com or fax us at (714)
965-7174.
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