Congratulations to the new members of the North Park Planning Committee who were voted in at the July 19 special election. Carmen Cooley-Graham, Jim Greene, Janine Rochelle Whitaker, and Brian Saull will be seated at the August 16 NPPC meeting. And congratulations as well to NPPC’s new Subcommittee Chairs, Mark Spitzer for Urban Design and Project Review, and Steve Oechel for Public Facilities and Transportation.
Park Blvd. Workshop on Tuesday, August 9
The Park Boulevard Reconfiguration that will remove a substantial amount of street parking, including through the length of Balboa Park, to make way for bike lanes will be discussed at a special Zoom community workshop on Tuesday, August 9, from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Hosted by Councilmember Stephen Whitburn’s District 3 office and City staff, the workshop is being held “to gather additional feedback from community members.” The registration link is:
In a June 30 story headlined “New Bike Lanes Rile San Diego Residents,” the Union-Tribune reported that the proliferation of bike lanes and the subsequent loss of street parking has sparked anger among neighborhood residents and small businesses. The newest bike lane project along Park Boulevard would have an additional impact on visitors to Balboa Park, where parking is already scarce on weekends and throughout the summer. Here are excerpts:
“On a recent Wednesday afternoon ride home for lunch, daily bike commuter Collin Orozco was cycling alongside the cars in traffic, eschewing the lanes that city officials say were installed to make biking safer and more accessible. ‘I think they’re actually making things more dangerous for us,’ Orozco said. ‘Daily bike commuters are used to riding in traffic, which makes cars more aware — and careful — of us than when we’re separated, so riding like this (in the road) is much safer.’”
“It was in late March after the city slurried Park Boulevard in University Heights that business owners said they first heard of plans to use the construction as an opportunity to install a bike lane along the thoroughfare. For months afterward, frustrated business owners reached out to the city, asking for clarity on the plans and questioning why the new bike lane was needed in a business district when several other regional bikeways already exist within a few blocks on residential streets.”
“On the 30th Street bikeway in North Park, on one of the city’s more recently completed projects, an average of 314 cyclists travel down the 2.4-mile stretch that runs from Adams Avenue to Juniper Street each weekday, according to city data. … Opponents have challenged those figures, however, with some saying the counters are not accurate and had previously been seen counting one bike as two when first installed. That would make gauging whether the lanes are attracting new cyclists more difficult.”
*SoNo Neighborhood Alliance is a non-profit that informs and engages residents of North Park and Golden Hill/South Park about neighborhood quality-of-life issues that include: land use and development, traffic, green space, parking, and code compliance.
U-T Reports “Major Contention” Over Bike Lanes 
