By Jorge Casuso

January 19 -- It was a time to start afresh and wrap up old business, a time to pass new bans and approve policies that will shape the Downtown for years to come.

In 2006, the homeless remained a burning issue, smoking was banned on the Third Street Promenade and a six-year debate over how to keep restaurants on the popular strip was finally put to rest.

A restroom pilot program that included attendants was put in place in two public parking structures, Second and Fourth streets got a face-lift of sorts and visitors were able to log on to the internet on the street.

Homeless

Downtown was the most popular home for the homeless, according to an analysis a countywide census by City officials.

More than half – or 645 of Santa Monica's 1,192 homeless individuals counted in a one-night tally in 2005 – were in shelters and on the streets of four census tracts nearest the ocean. Of those, 418 were found in and around the Downtown, where there is easy access to parks, free meals, homeless services and plenty of visitors to panhandle.

While City officials implemented several strategies to help get Santa Monica’s homeless off the streets, Bayside merchants and officials took steps of their own -- lobbying for a program to place attendants in bathrooms at two public parking structures and placing the homeless once again at the top of their list of concerns.

Bayside officials also praised an agrremeent announced in August to move indoors the largest groups that for more than a decade have used public land to hand out food to the homeless.

Smoking Ban

Watch where you light up this year. Starting Thanksgiving Day, a new law kicked into effect that expanded Santa Monica’s far-reaching smoking ban to include all outdoor dining areas, farmers markets and the Third Street Promenade.

Approved by the City Council in October, the law also stamped out smoking in outdoor waiting areas – such as ATMs, bus stops and movie lines – and areas around public buildings that are within 20 feet of entrances, exits or windows that can open.

Under the ban, smoking is only allowed on the Promenade at least 20 feet from the nearest business entrance on each cross street from Broadway to Wilshire Boulevard. Violators face fines of $250.

Bayside officials had opposed he ban, arguing that the law was addressing a problem hat didn't exist. They also argued that the law unfairly signaled out the Promenade.

After the ban went into effect, City officials began educating local businesses, providing table-top information at restaurants and offering posters online that can be easily downloaded.

P.U.M.A. Evaluates Bayside

In August, property owners, businesses, residents and Downtown officials began reevaluating how the heart of the city is being run, what improvements should be made and how they will be paid for.

Guided by the prominent consulting firm Progressive Urban Management Associates (PUMA), Bayside stakeholders will determine where additional funds should be allocated and if the improvements needed will be paid for with special assessments or tax districts funded by property owners, businesses and residents.

Downtown officials will also explore whether the Bayside’s management structure needs to be overhauled. Currently, the City Council appoints all eleven members to the Bayside Board, which decides how City funds are spent and makes policy recommendations to the council.

By next Spring, Bayside officials should have a new management plan and a set of strategies to steer the district over the next ten to fifteen years. The proposal – which will include initiatives to promote special events, manage parking, make physical improvements and attract and grow new businesses – will require the approval of the stakeholders and, ultimately, the council.

Restaurant/Retail Mix

2006 finally saw the City reach the end of a six-year effort to craft a policy to stem the exodus of eateries from the Promenade and strike a healthy balance between restaurants and retail on the popular walk street.

Under the ordinance approved in July, existing restaurants would retain at least half the frontage of the building with a guaranteed minimum of 16 feet. Restaurants would maintain the same outdoor floor area, which can be set it back as much as 20 feet after a hearing before the Architectural Review Board (ARB). The ordinance also establishes a minimum restaurant depth of 75 feet from the property line.

The ordinance replaced a stop-gap measure approved by the council in February that controlled restaurant-to-retail conversion by requiring a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) if a landlord wanted to replace a restaurant with a retail tenant.

Bathroom Attendants

One month after suspending a highly touted pilot program that paid for improvements and salaries for attendants in two of the six Downtown parking structures, City officials agreed to try it again on a smaller scale.

In late November, after intense lobbying from business leaders and Downtown officials, the City Council agreed to pitch in what may become more than $300,000 a year to keep Downtown bathroom attendants at their posts and local merchants happy.

City officials, who had decided the four-month, $320,000 pilot program was too costly, scaled back the overall price tag by no longer paying to keep trash-strewn alleys clean and by cutting the number of hours attendants are on duty.

With figures showing that nearly 62,000 people used the bathrooms over the summer – or an average of 42 people an hour – City and Bayside officials are hoping the program will bring return shoppers and dollars to the nearby Promenade and surrounding streets.

City WiFi
Visitors to the Downtown no longer have to find a place to plug in their laptops. Beginning last year, those surfing their computers on the Promenade using free city wi-fi got a customized Bayside splash page that features information the viewer can use to navigate around the area.

The new service allows local merchants to showcase their goods and services and gives visitors a handy way to get around. It also allows them to log onto the Bayside’s web site, which gets nearly 20,000 unique visitors each month.

In addition, the City last year launched a highly touted system that allows viewers using city wi-fi in other hot spots across Santa Monica to quickly view available parking spaces in the Downtown structures, as well as in public lots around the coastal area.