At the January 21st meeting the City Council killed the WOW. But you knew that. Given the way the agenda item was structured and given that Nick Dunlap recused himself, its death came about with simply two negative votes, those of Mayor Jung and newbie Jaimie Valencia. (There were some questions about campaign contributions to Valencia, but that is for a different piece.) Speakers at the meeting overwhelmingly favored keeping it alive and well.
What puzzles me is who benefits from the killing of the much-appreciated WOW and by the opening of the street to vehicular traffic.
WOW was something special. It was small and it was never developed to its potential, mainly because of the uncertainty of its future. If the Council had committed to keeping it for, say, five years, it might have blossomed. Not knowing that, business owners, rightly, did not take the risk.
WOW was a baby step towards making downtown Fullerton a special place, a place for walking and congregating; a place that would attract new and interesting businesses. Perhaps not a fair comparison, but Fullerton is larger than Pasadena or Santa Barbara, yet those places have more pedestrian friendly areas and more vibrant downtowns. (For other examples of urban pedestrian-friendly area proposals, see the Studio Meanwhile prospectus in the January 21 agenda packet under Item # 8.) Historically and now, the Fullerton City Council ‘s vision to create gathering spaces and to support the cultural events to make then vibrant has been limited. With the demise of WOW we will lose a communal area and be left with another lightly trafficked street.
Again, who benefits? I like data but we do not have traffic counts for Wilshire pre-covid and pre-WOW. And while speakers pro and con made assertions about traffic and business success, data was not part of their arguments (with perhaps one faulty assumption). No difference here, but from my experience traffic on Wilshire has always been light. Who uses it? Anyone who wants to go somewhere will be on Chapman or Commonwealth. Anyone wanting parking will access it from Amerige or Malden. Even if traffic were robust, how is through traffic going to improve business for the restaurants and shops along the street? I would be surprised if opening the street will have any positive impact on businesses.
Back in the day, when it was open, I never turned west on Wilshire because delivery trucks regularly impacted traffic; and the because the diagonal parking was designed for eastbound traffic. I always accessed the area from Malden or used an Amerige parking lot.
What might help businesses is to remove the 15-minute parking restrictions on many of the diagonal parking spaces. The dry cleaners are long gone, and how many patrons of the remaining businesses do their transactions in 15 minutes?
I doubt if this is about the success of existing businesses. But what then? It has been suggested that the developer of the Fox Block, which will have walking areas, is concerned about the competition. That seems unlikely, since the areas probably would not compete but supplement and enrich each other. Look at Santa Barbara.
It has also been suggested that those behind opening the street simply want to demonstrate that they are the powers behind the Council and the rain-makers in town. Also seems unlikely — and petty.
But I admit to being confounded. What is going on?
Residents enjoyed outdoor dining and gatherings on the Walk on Wilshire. Over 65 businesses and a petition signed by 2,000 locals asked city council to keep the 200-foot WoW closed to vehicle traffic and improve it. Instead, council voted to shut it down. Only Councilmember Zahra and Mayor Protem Charles voted to keep it in place. Why?
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Categories: Community Voices, Downtown, Local News
I submit that there is no mystery to confound the mind about why reopening 200 feet of a public street made more sense than closing it for a 24 hour a day mostly empty outdoor dining space when there is a huge empty plaza available for friendly gatherings just one block to the east and outdoor dining was already available and will be available at most of the participating restaurants on Wilshire after vehicular (and unimpeded bicycle) traffic is restored to that street.
Perhaps the Fullerton Museum Center could operate a cafe on the plaza, providing a revenue stream for that institution.
I also submit that the radically different state of city finances existing between ultra wealthy Santa Barbara and perpetually nearly insolvent Fullerton renders nearly any comparison between the two cities irrelevant.
Fullerton’s downtown simply isn’t very large. It’s a few partial residential streets leading to a major thoroughfare, unlike the downtown of Pasadena (or Whittier, for that matter), and a small former industrial block and a train station. There are not a lot of good options for closing off whole streets. I think outdoor dining areas that don’t already exist are more likely to be best established in non vehicular traffic areas.
Lots of bicycle users are also fans of keeping WoW even though part of the bicycle blvd. Harbor used to be a one lane each way street. Would be fun to make it that way again and cut out the freeway feeling of downtown. That might not be viable but shutting down 200-feet of Wilshire is an inexpensive way to add walkable fun downtown. We live downtown and loved it even in its unfinished stage. It is worth keeping.
I agree, and it is mostly empty. I see no bikes either. And all the barriers are ugly. Why can’t Mulberry and and others have a row of tables next to the building, and around the corner in the alley that is already car free?
And first you have to analyze why Santa Barbara and Pasadena developed the way they did. SB has the ocean and is a tourist spot, Pasadena has the Rose Bowl and Norton Simon and lots of rich people from the entertainment industry. And even those downtowns are fading because of the safety issue and the struggling small biz atmosphere.
I know we all want to be cool like they are, but we aren’t. The city needs to provide safety and a pro-business climate, get out of the way, and let Fullerton come into its own.
Well OK but WoW is safe, pro-business. That was always the point.
“Out of the way…” of your car? There’s not really much reason for most people to park on Wilshire. You were much more likely to find an immediately open spot a street over before WoW.
Is the real problem that some people are too low energy to walk half a block?
Sheesh. If that’s the case need more “walks” for health reasons.
I am so sad about the Walk on Wilshire. I loved it a lot. It has been such a vibrant, beautiful place for the community to gather and just exist. Nothing else like it exists in Fullerton. It wasn’t hurting anyone and so many people loved it. I still can’t understand this senseless decision by just two council members who chose to ignore the wishes of the public they are supposed to serve. I will sincerely miss the Walk on Walk on Wilshire.
The Bushala agenda wins once again, and the people of the community lose. At this point I would be in favor of a recall for Mayor Jung, who consistently puts the priorities of the business and donor community over that of residents. Maybe there needs to be a reminder that these folks work for us.
Be careful at the undersized “roundabout” at Highland and Wilshire after traffic resumes at the end of the month. That intersection is very dangerous.
People should be careful at all the roundabouts. They’re not that complicated.
Come to think of it, I never really liked driving onto WoW even before it was WoW. Tight spots, not much parking, what there was always blocked with cars. Never really worked well, I just parked somewhere else and didn’t bother with it.
The members of District 5 have insulted Jung because he’s mayor again even though it should have been Zahra or Charles, with the other being mayor-pro-tem. The people of District 5 outright embarrassed him and managed to get the Union Pacific Trail pushed through. To punish district 5 for UPT and calling him out for becoming mayor again, the roads are not going to be fixed or repaved where there are potholes and the road has buckled. The walking paths for the kids of Maple Elementary are downright deadly. Other places that need sidewalks are being ignored too. All because Jung believes that the business people who sent him money for his campaign are happy with him. He is the mayor because the triad has started up again and anything that Dr. Charles and Zahra want for their districts are going to be blocked.
When will the lawsuits against City Hall and Mayor Jung start? And wasn’t he given Bushala money too?
I hope the people of District 5 get loud again. They have been continuously disenfranchised by this Council. Jung only supports the interests of the Bushala family and the business community and Dunlap only supports his wealthy district residents and business cronies. Fullerton needs a council that looks out for the community good, rather than just lining their pockets or looking to climb the political ladder.
Agree. And am I the only one – or are there others who see that Jung seems to be trying and perhaps succeeding in intimidating our professional city employees.
How and when?
During his first meeting with city staff after his first mayoral appointment, Jung said he wanted the city to operate like an “iron fist.” Which is kind of weird, if you think about it.
You would know this how exactly? You said it was during his first meeting with city staff. Were you there and do you have record of this meeting? Otherwise, you sound weird acting like you would know this.
Not speaking for Barbara – but one of the hazards of living in a small town is the six degrees of separation is a real thing.
Oh did you not know that a person can be both a resident and an employee of a city?