Council
Explores Closing Exercise Stairs |
By Jorge Casuso
December 5 – The City Council began taking steps
Tuesday to address the excessive use of a notorious stairway that
has turned an exclusive leafy street on the far north side of Santa
Monica into an outdoor gym.
During a study session, the council directed staff to work with Los Angeles
City officials, and perhaps the California Coastal Commission, to explore ways
to restrict access to the stairs just north of the city border that once gave
Santa Monica students access to a canyon school.
The discussion took place after a crackdown by park rangers failed to stop
exercising on the leafy median near 4th Street and Adelaide Drive in defiance
of a 1970 ordinance prohibiting the use of medians for anything other than walking
or running.
“We do have enforcement out there at this time,” said Council member
Kevin McKeown, “but whether it’s even going to turn out to be an
effective way for the problems you’re seeing I can’t guarantee.
“There’s no question something is happening here that a quiet neighborhood
is not designed for,” he added.
McKeown suggested making the area “less welcoming for inappropriate uses.”
He suggested using the area for a community garden or landscaping it so that
“it’s not as inviting as it has become.”
Council member Robert Holbrook said he was concerned that those exercising
turn into “zombies” and become oblivious to the traffic moving around
them.
“We need to so something to solve this problem,” Holbrook said.
“It is a real problem and it is a dangerous situation.
“There is a complete disregard that you’re in the street,”
Holbrook said.
Residents of the area complained that as many as 1,500 people exercise on the
street, adding noise, traffic and litter to a neighborhood lined with multi-million-dollar
mansions.
A park ranger has been stationed in the area in the past six months, resulting
in eight $158 citations and hundreds of warnings, according to City officials.
Outside of enforcing the existing ordinance, there are likely few legal remedies
to the problem, said City Attorney Marsha Moutrie.
A 1970 anti-loitering law, for example, has been deemed unconstitutional, “so
that’s not a good way to deal with it,” Moutrie said.
“This is not a good solution,” Moutrie said. “The law was
adopted for different purposes.”
The stretch of median “is regularly used for exercising, stretching,
group fitness classes and pick-up gyms,” according to Lee Swain, the City’s
director of Public Works, who is in charge of city streets.
“Recently there has been a noticeable increase in organized group exercise
activities including ‘pickup gyms,’” Swain wrote.
Staff has worked with neighboring residents to temporarily tackle the problem,
conducted a survey of residents within a 1,000-foot radius to gauge community
concerns and held a community neighborhood meeting.
A second community meeting has been scheduled for Thursday, January 8 to present
any decisions for further action on the part of the City.
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