Watch Waste on Wilshire Wither
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Yes, Friends, the so-called Walk on Wilshire is coming back to the City Council this Tuesday. For the fourth or fifth time this annoying street closure is being reconsidered. I really don’t know how often this mess has been rehashed. But I do know that City staff has turned this temporary remedy for COVID relief into a stupid, near permanent boondoggle. The bureaucrats in City Hall love them some Walk on Wilshire. It offers an opportunity for them to program things there, to collect what little rent comes in, and hide it all under the nonsensical concept of “business development.”
Of course it has nothing to do with business development. No one in City Hall has ever presented a comprehensive cost or budget analysis on this nonsense, and its adherents in the community who want to claim the street and block off cars don’t care. It’s another liberal gesture in which misplaced feelings are ever so more important than cost/benefit study.
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Last fall Mayor Fred Jung added a caveat to a Shana Charles proposal for another three month extension to do even more studying. Jung proposed to take the street closure all the way from Harbor to Malden – the whole damn block. To anybody with any sort of brains this was a non-starter idea meant to spike the 200ft closure one and for all. Naturally, the dopes Charles and Ahmad Zahra greedily went for it, the love the anti-auto gesture so much.
Tuesday’s staff report includes traffic crap bought from consultants by staff (our money, of course) to make the closure seem plausible, one conclusion being that impacts to traffic would be minimal. This is pure bullshit, of course. The comparison numbers between the 100 W. blocks of Amerige and Wilshire are based on the current Wilshire closure, the analogy being that botched surgery has already so weakened the patient that a little more cutting won’t make much difference anyhow.
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Fortunately, the City Manager seems to have brought some commonsense to the project. Citing staff’s inability to guarantee there won’t be a traffic impact, and noting the problem of access to businesses and residences on Wilshire, the recommendation is to drop the whole thing. There is also the potential of legal action lurking in the future, so there’s that, too. Staff recommends reopening the whole street to auto traffic and letting businesses on Wilshire pursue the “parklet” option of outdoor dining, a fairly reasonable approach.
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Well, Fullerton BooHoo will be out in force on Tuesday to moan and wail about the absolute criticality of the Walk on Wilshire, despite the fact that except for a few silly events planned in desperation, the place is empty most of the time; and the Downtown Plaza, perfectly suitable for this sort of thing, is only a few hundred feet away.
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But appreciation of facts and deployment of common sense can’t be listed among the skillset of people like the Kennedy Sisters and their ilk. But things aren’t looking good for The Walk. Nick Dunlap will recuse himself again, leaving four councilmembers to provide the three votes necessary to keep the boondoggle on life support.
What a dumb issue for so many people to get upset over!
Why stop there? Why not keep Wilshire closed, but make the closure a judgment free zone/encampment for those experiencing homelessness? This way, the restaurants get new diners and it always has people in it.
Have to hand it to Jung. Good shit!
All this mishegas for Mulberry St.
No, this is about a fuck you to cars. I small, useless, obnoxious gesture from people too stupid to know the south side of Wilshire is the only decent strip of history in Fullerton.
That bike lane lady will have to find something else to bitch about. She will. Maybe she will team up with Elizabeth Hamburglar to yell about building 30,000 units in the city.
Either the “I can’t Believe its a Law Firm” lawfirm is afraid of Bushala’s threats or Leavitt has put his foot down to stop pissing off City money on loser lawsuits that only benefit the City Attorney’s pocketbook.
Or both.
Can’t wait to hear Shana sob on about how District 5 needs closed street representation. Then Dunlap foolishly goes along.
He’s been recusing himself.
Waste of Wilshire
Woke on Wilshire.
The signs and barricades have the look of temporary all over it. This wasn’t meant to be permanent and it just looks very tired and shoddy.
Typical Fullerton boohoo. Take scraps in the name of equity. Thank you Dr. Shana and Ahmad for giving us trinkets instead of real help.
You’re dead.
There won’t be 3 votes to do anything. Charles will try to keep her baby alive somehow, by keeping the existing 200ft. But with Whitaker gone and Dunlap recusing himself there won’t be any dummies intimidated by her verbal diarrhea.
What happened to Dunlap and Whitaker? Guess their balls are locked up behind glass like the liquid laundry detergent l.
Where does Ms. Valencia land on this? What if anything has she previously uttered in public regarding Wank on Wilshire? Is she the swing vote here? What have her public safety masters directed to her to do?