GETTING THERE: Is 2-way Tejon a terror or a treat?

It's been just over a month since the Great Tejon Switchover, the much-hyped change from one-way traffic to two-way on downtown's main shopping street.

The Downtown Partnership, a coalition of business owners, asked for the change to a two-way Tejon Street. The group wanted to create a more urban environment that would get people out of their cars, walking the street and spending money.

City traffic engineers didn't object, saying the two-way street would create a more understandable traffic flow, especially for visitors. After the City Council signed off on the switch, motorists on April 7 began driving both ways - sometimes in fits and starts - between Bijou Street and Vermijo Avenue.

So ... what do readers think of the new traffic pattern?

Has it brought you great joy? Are you walking and shopping more downtown?

Has the two-way created more traffic, more delays, greater parking problems? Does the new traffic flow make you pine for the old days?

Or, is it all much ado about nothing? Do you care? Does the change make you more or less likely to visit downtown?

Leave us a note in the comments below and let us know.

Or, if you have specific questions or problems, leave a note and Getting There will follow up with the Downtown Partnership and traffic engineers.

Dang. Daddy needs a billboard!

On Tuesday, the City Council is expected to learn the power of advertising - at least according to the advertiser.

The background: The city needs to acquire a commercial property on the southeast corner of the intersection of Woodmen Road and Academy Boulevard for a massive interchange to be built there.

On the property is a billboard owned by Lamar Advertising Co. The city appraised the value of the billboard and offered the company $121,000.

Nope, said Lamar: The big sign in the sky is worth ... wait for it ... $483,000!

City staffers, in a memo to council, said Lamar later submitted (on a golden tablet?) information supporting that breathtaking price, and it's possible a settlement can be reached.

It'll be interesting to see Lamar's math. Perhaps it's time to sell off that drooping 401K fund and invest in billboards.

That isn't the only potential costly snag on acquiring the property.

The owners of the property who lease space for the billboard also rejected a city purchase offer - and want the matter to go to court.

City staffers, who have been negotiating unsuccessfully with the owners' lawyers, reluctantly agree. They will ask the council to allow them to file an eminent domain lawsuit to gain ownership of the property that once housed a NAPA auto parts store.

The property owner, Anderson Mahon Enterprises, flatly rejected a city appraisal that values the property at $950,000.

Attorneys said the owners haven't done their own appraisal yet but wouldn't sell the property for even $1.5 million.

This is the first snag in the city's effort to buy properties to widen Woodmen Road. So far, the city has reached negotiated settlements for 15 of the 69 properties needed for the project that begins later this year.

Tell me your commuter tales: 636-0197 or bill.mckeown@gazette.com.