Time for Main Street to go back to being family-oriented
Friday evening, three city guys were at the kite store and told them that everything on the sidewalk, including planters like mine, that the city encouraged us to have and even had a guy from the city come and sign off on what we did, now have to be removed.
That is completely different from what they said when they first came out.
What’s interesting as of Friday night, the restaurants had not gotten rid of anything. Still propane heaters in red zones, tables on the sidewalks in front of other businesses, barstools on the sidewalk, and the city is worried about plants, flags or a few boxes of shells?
The toy store, kite store, and shell shop, which are the heart of what made us the last of small family oriented beach towns. Thousands of families take their photos in front of them every year.
Why would the city want to destroy that, or any of the non restaurant/bar businesses that had already removed all their merchandise from the sidewalk?
Wonder if all the restaurants/bars who hadn’t removed anything were given notices of noncompliance like the kite store, I doubt it.
I think this is targeted at the businesses who want to remove the parklets and the parking to go back to everybody.
They also said even the benches are to be removed, if they weren’t the city’s benches.
I think it would be a pretty good bet if they did make restaurants remove the benches in front of their places, the city would come back in, at taxpayer’s expense, put benches back in and perhaps even put benches in front of businesses right next to a restaurant, so they’d become basically waiting areas for the restaurants.
Why would I assume such? Because the owner of a restaurant up the street from me, told me that his employee had said the mayor at the time, asked why they weren’t open.
She told him the owner said, we’re too small to social distance. but the mayor said they were not going to enforce it .Yet the city sent cops to other businesses. Do I know it’s true? Of course not, but what would their motive be? Plus we all know story after story of restaurant/bars treated differently than other businesses, over Covid violations.
With 12 trips to Europe, and a friend with five restaurants in Paris, I can tell our mayor we are not Paris. It’s not just density issues, we were never made for this.
It’s that in Paris, people drinking at sidewalk cafes would never yell vile and obscenities at passers-by or at women in store fronts which is happening on our Main Street. At least one of our City Council people came down to listen to women who are being affected on the street. We’re definitely not Paris It was one thing during Covid to have the parklets, but now it’s time for them to go. We’ll still have up and down the street, multiple Alfresco dining spots. They’ll just be on private property. Now it’s time for Main Street to go back to the beautiful and family oriented street it was before Covid.
Woody Woodruff
Controlling pigeons is a no-win situation
I was taken aback by the long and angry letter in this week’s SUN from a woman who had complaints about the cleanliness (or lack of) in the park at River’s End. Her description of the user-unfriendly condition of the picnic tables was a little annoying and a little amusing. Does she expect the Public Works staff to wipe pigeon poop off the tables every day so she and other picnickers can enjoy their meal? There’s nothing wrong with her proposed solutions, but trying to control the pigeons is a no-win situation … they’ll become accustomed to flying streamers and fake owls in time, and do what comes naturally, probably 5 minutes after a good clean-up!
I suspect the birds have a sense of humor…
My suggestion would be to bring along a washable sheet to use as a tablecloth, cover up the messy table, and enjoy her picnic. People have brought their own picnic blankets along with baskets of food for countless years to have the “al fresco” experience. In Edwardian England, servants of the upper classes would set the scene for tea or picnics on great lawns or wilder areas, but these days we have to fend for ourselves.
Bird poop comes with the territory, so make peace with urban wildlife and focus on good food, sea breezes, and pleasant company—but don’t forget the sheet!
Her criticism of Grant was unwarranted, in my opinion. I have spoken with him on a couple of occasions concerning problems at the local dog park, and he has always returned calls promptly, listened carefully, and will arrange for me to speak with someone else in the department if he doesn’t have an immediate answer.
Public Works has a lot of territory to cover, and I think they do a fine job keeping Seal Beach clean (within reason) and a nice place to live or visit. Be grateful for those tables, green and shady parks, and plenty of trash cans.
Sincerely,
Lois Sheppard
