Opinions run 2 ways on Tejon
Tejon Street now runs two ways - and so do opinions about its new alignment.
An informal, completely unscientific poll last week on gazette.com elicited 67 votes. The results: 73 percent thought a two-way Tejon has created a mess. Twenty-seven percent like it.
A little lopsided, maybe. But then there are the opinions of the members of the Downtown Partnership, an advocacy group for downtown businesses. The executive director of the organization, Beth Kosley, said members she has talked to love the new traffic flow.
Kosley doesn't dispute some critics' contention that the city's main shopping street seems more crowded and busy - with cars and people - since the one-way signs were taken down April 7.
That's exactly the point, she said.
"Downtowners - those who have businesses or work in the offices - they love the urban feel," said Kosley. "They love the congestion, the urban excitement."
The Downtown Partnership lobbied City Council to end the 37-year tradition of driving south on a five-block stretch of Tejon, in part because it believed it would generate an urban environment in which people would get out of their cars and walk the streets - and, they hope, increase retail sales.
Kosley said it's too early to say if businesses' bottom lines have improved, although some business owners have reported more "lookers."
But she said simply allowing motorists to drive north through the heart of downtown is revealing a different perspective to a lot of people, even those who thought they knew the street well.
One business owner and partnership board member drove north on Tejon and shortly after asked Kosley, "‘How long has that Mediterranean cafe been there?'"
"Four years," Kosley told him.
She said others have reported noticing store fronts they hadn't under the old one-way traffic pattern.
Gazette.com poster "Chugiakattack" has noticed something - and it isn't good:
"The congestion is worse that it ever was, SLOOOOWWWWWWWWW, lunchtime is an absolute nightmare and takes forever just to get from Platte to Colorado. ...
"I'd really like to hear from the businesses downtown there to see if visitors are spending massive amounts of money as they have theorized. I for one avoid it altogether now as it is just freaking chaos and it has caused me to go elsewhere. ..."
Others commenting on the gazette.com said traffic can quickly back up when drivers stop to wait for parking spaces or when motorists making right turns stop for pedestrians.
One reader, "atomicelroy," said traffic engineers haven't gone far enough:
"They are going the wrong way on Tejon St. (pun intended). The street should be a mall. Then people would be more able to walk shop, eat, spend money."
Another poster, "tejonstcrawl," had a simple tip, one that traffic engineers and business owners hope people will take no matter what they think of a two-way Tejon:
"The parking garage on Kiowa is very reasonably priced, especially on weekends and after 4 p.m. Take advantage of it people."
