Pico Great Street Update June 2018

Details: Category: Community News; Published on Wednesday, 20 June 2018 17:24; Written by Pico Great Streets Collaborative

Hello there! You may have noticed that we at the Collaborative have been pretty quiet this year. After all of last year's outreach for Destination: Pico, all 1,500 conversations we had with members of our community, all eight workshops, the surveys, the business visits, the art zine, the pedestrian counts...well, after all that, last fall we submitted a plan for Destination: Pico to the city - the community's vision for our Great Street between Curson and Burnside.

And then we waited. The wheels of bureaucracy turned. Slooooowly. And finally, today, after all those months of waiting, we can share what the city will be building on Pico this year! Every improvement the community asked for in our plan was approved. In fact, thanks to extra funding provided by Vision Zero and Council President Herb Wesson, we are getting more than we asked for. Let's break it down:

HERE'S WHAT THE CITY WILL BE BUILDING.

A new crosswalk at Masselin with pedestrian signal and curb extensions

A full traffic light at Burnside with curb extensions

Curb extensions at Hauser and Curson

Pedestrian lighting at targeted locations

Expanded and landscaped tree wells

Benches

Painted signal boxes (and more art to come)

Pedestrian head start at every traffic light

Two speed feedback signs

While the original Destination: Pico budget was $500,000, the extra funding offered by Vision Zero and the Council President means the city is now investing a total of over $1 million on Pico!

WHEN IS THIS HAPPENING?

Construction starts in August. The first improvements to be installed will be the ones that only require minimal street changes - e.g. the curb extensions at Hauser and Curson. We'll provide more updates as we get more schedule details.

WHAT WILL THE BENCHES LOOK LIKE?

WHERE ARE THE PEDESTRIAN LIGHTS GOING? WHAT'S GOING IN THE TREE WELLS?

We're still working on the details. The city has generally been very responsive to our ideas and feedback, but some things take more time to approve than others. We will be sure to fill you in when we know more.

WHAT ABOUT THE REST OF THE GREAT STREET?

While the Pico Great Street runs from Fairfax to Cochran, the Destination: Pico grant from the Mayor's Office covers the five blocks from Curson to Burnside. Because the amount of money in the grant was relatively small, we decided to focus our efforts on part of the Great Street to get the most bang for our buck. However, through the outreach process for Destination: Pico, we developed a strong, complete vision with the community for the entire 14-block Great Street, which we will be sharing in a future report. We will be looking for more funding to achieve the community's complete vision for Pico as soon as possible.