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Volume 8 Issue 215
Santa Monica Daily Press WHERE’S THE BEEF? SEE PAGE 12
We have you covered
THE IT’S GETTING HOT IN HERE ISSUE
City Hall proposes new plan for Expo maintenance yard BY MELODY HANATANI Daily Press Staff Writer
DOWNTOWN More than four months after
five local hotels — Casa del Mar, Shutters on the Beach, Sheraton Delfina, Loews Santa Monica and the Doubletree — agreed to pay approximately $231,000 a year toward the operation of the Tide Ride as part of a development agreement with City Hall. The amount pays about 27 percent of the yearly operational costs for the shuttle with the Big Blue Bus picking up the remainder. Through community outreach meetings and a survey, the transit agency learned that businesses and residents believe the line is currently not serving their needs, pointing to the route configuration and limited hours of operation as reasons. Officials said that the Tide Ride will need to be redeveloped to benefit the needs of hotels and tourists while a new Mini Blue route will be
the City Council rebuked a proposal to place a rail maintenance yard within earshot of residences, officials will return tonight with a different set of plans to create a sound buffer mixed-use development between the facility and homes. The Exposition Construction Authority is proposing to build a maintenance yard to service the Westside portion of the light rail, which goes from Culver City to Santa Monica, at the old Verizon site on Exposition Boulevard, a plan that’s received opposition from residents because the property faces homes in the Pico Neighborhood. City staff has spent the past few months looking at different locations with the Exposition Construction Authority and has identified an alternative that would involve moving the noisier operations to the other side of Stewart Street, placing it right next to the city yards and farther away from homes, while the storage tracks and train washing facility would be located on the east side of Stewart Street. Doing so would still involve using part of the site owned by Verizon, which sits east of Stewart Street, but the yard would instead by separated from homes on the south side of Exposition Boulevard by a mixed-use development that will include residences and perhaps some neighborhood-serving retail. City Hall owns the property — 1800 Stewart St. — where some of the louder operations would take place. A representative from the Exposition Construction Authority could not be reached for comment. The alternative plans have not however allayed concerns from residents about noise and health impacts from the maintenance facility. The Pico Neighborhood Association is planning on sending a letter to the council opposing the plans, stating that it’s disappointed that residents were not given an opportunity to participate in the process of finding new locations.
SEE CONSENT PAGE 9
SEE EXPO PAGE 8
Maya Sugarman news@smdp.com
CASH GRAB: Hoping to save money while the struggling Tide Ride undergoes a makeover, Big Blue Bus officials are proposing to eliminate weekday service on the lowest performing line in the public transit system. The City Council tonight will be asked to limit the Tide to weekend hours starting Sept. 8, saving the agency about $444,000.
Tide to only run on weekends Editor’s note: This story is part of an ongoing series that tracks the city’s expenditures appearing on upcoming Santa Monica City Council consent agendas. Consent agenda items are routinely passed by the City Council with little or no discussion from elected officials or the public. However, many of the items have been part of public discussion in the past.
BY MELODY HANATANI Daily Press Staff Writer
CITY HALL Hoping to save money while the struggling Tide Ride undergoes a makeover, Big Blue Bus officials are proposing to eliminate weekday service on the lowest performing line in the public transit system. The City Council tonight will be asked to limit the Tide to weekend hours starting Sept. 8, saving the agency about $444,000 as it spends the next year redesigning a line that averages just 12 passengers an hour, a
significant drop off from the 50 passengers an hour that the system as a whole averages. The issue will be on the table as part of the council’s consent agenda, which also includes a $3.5 million spending package. The Big Blue Bus originally considered eliminating the service altogether but changed its mind after the proposal received opposition from residents and businesses along Main Street where the route is located. The agency decided to evaluate its lines after learning that operating revenues this year would be about 8.4 percent lower than last, a result of the elimination of State Transit Assistance Funds and recessionary impacts to county transit subsidies. Ridership overall has also increased on the system. The Tide was originally developed in 1993 as a way to serve the growing tourism sector and offset traffic impacts. In 1995,
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