The Kibbitzer

Signs of a Past Time

Last June, the city council adopted a two-year economic Development Action Plan to “enhance the customer experience for residents in a way that visitors will enjoy too.” They then hired yet another consultant, Graphic Solutions, to develop a comprehensive wayfinding sign program to “inform and direct visitors and residents to their desired destinations, amenities and features.” A pilot program was presented to the Planning Commission on April 5 with the intent of approving and sending to City Council to ratify. Which they did unanimously, even though not a single detail of that pilot program was fleshed out.

First, let’s be real: residents don’t need signs to direct them. Calling this a resident program is like calling Trump’s healthcare or tax reform a benefit for the poor. It’s a euphemism to appease the many residents who object to allocating their tax money for more tourists.

Judging from public testimony, this program was conceived to primarily benefit merchants in the HIP District, who are active in the Chamber and visitor’s bureau, and who complain that pedestrians rarely venture south on Coast Highway past Legion Street because of what one merchant called the “two blocks of death.”

As a merchant in the HIP district, I want more foot traffic, too. But as long as Americans remain addicted to cars and sugar, I don’t care if we advertise the HIP district on billboards downtown, and give away time shares in Baja, they ain’t coming.

What the sign program really accomplishes is more sign clutter, with a hodgepodge of disparate graphic noise crammed into each one. Graphic Solutions proposed five different color schemes to highlight different zones, as well as historic images, and maps that delineate what you will find in each area. I can hear the tourists now: “The beach is nice, but have you checked out community services?”

And what about costs? This wasn’t discussed at all, and it’s not listed in the staff report. But one muckraking citizen told me he was informed by a longtime Planning Commissioner that it would cost between $250-750,000. What? Does that include costs to maintain and modify them every time there is a store opening or closing? Come on. What we need is a wayfaring app. It’s on these things called mobile phones that people are so obsessed with they generally don’t see signs.

But what galled me the most is that in over two hours of testimony the word bicycle was not mentioned once. It points again to how myopic we are in solving our mobility issues. Several years ago Transition Laguna, a citizen’s group whose mission is community resiliency in an uncertain energy future (full disclosure – I’m on the board), worked with the city to develop a comprehensive bike signage program to divert cyclists off Coast Highway and onto our lovely back roads. We sat in a meeting with fire, police, city staff and several council members, and unveiled a comprehensive map that showed where every single sign should go (and not one more) to create a contiguous and intuitive route from Crescent Bay to Nyes Place. Much as they tried to poke holes, it was so bullet-proof that we needed just one meeting and the will of public officials to get it done.

While no quantitative study has been done, there is no question that more packs of cyclists are going off Coast Highway and using the bike route. And perhaps the most telling statistic is we have suffered no more bike fatalities. Cost to the city for our consultation? A pat on the back. But this was only a first step to converting more people to the pleasures of riding. We still need infrastructure; places to rent and park our bikes.

Back in that June meeting, Council member Bob Whalen said, “I think we should involve groups like Transition Laguna that have some expertise beyond the city. I think we’ll get a better product in the end.” Instead all we heard were crickets.

Had we been consulted, we would have helped the HIP district (and everywhere else) by advocating the money be spent removing obstructions from our narrow sidewalks, installing parklets along Coast Highway, bike corrals, and perhaps a bike share system (which is often funded with private money). Make it easy, attractive and inclusive to get around on bikes by including electric, recumbent, and adaptive bikes for people with disabilities, as Portland is now doing. And give people public places to sit and hang out. That’s how to make the HIP District actually hip. And talk about resident serving!

Still romanticizing some elegant signage? Put one master map and signpost at the intersection of Forest and Coast Highway, the de-facto pedestrian mecca. And clean up the blight while you’re at it. To help the HIP’sters, put one at Legion that simply and elegantly points south and says, “More shops and dining – next two miles.”

The agenda item for the wayfaring sign program was scheduled for the April 18 Council meeting, but was removed. Here’s hoping there’s still time to prevail on the city to realize that if their stated goals with the signs are to, “enhance urban design; reinforce community identity; enhance the visitor and resident experience; reduce driver, pedestrian and bicycle frustration; and improve traffic flow and safety,” no amount of lipstick will replace actual civic improvements that make it easy to travel about town without a car, and attractive to linger.

Billy Fried hosts “Laguna Talks” on Thursday at 8 p.m. on KX 93.5 and can be reached at [email protected].