Montrose business leaders decry new diagonal crosswalk

City Manager Scott Ochoa on Thursday apologized for installing a diagonal crosswalk at a key intersection in the Montrose Shopping Park without first informing business leaders in the community.

The crosswalk at Honolulu Avenue and Ocean View Boulevard was installed in late February as a means to promote pedestrian safety, but a majority of the Montrose Shopping Park Assn.’s board members said at their monthly meeting that it has so far proved problematic, and they voted 4-1 to recommend having it removed.

Board President Andre Ordubegian said having red lights in all directions so pedestrians can cross diagonally is creating more traffic backup because cars are having to wait longer.

Drivers are intentionally avoiding Honolulu and its storefronts, which hurts businesses, while some pedestrians are growing impatient as well, he said.

“People are crossing on a red light,” Ordubegian said. “They’re tired of waiting there.”

But what’s also upsetting board members is that they wanted the city to pursue other improvement projects in Montrose, such as providing new trash receptacles to businesses and expanding a bus stop to make room for a Metro bus, instead of putting a diagonal crosswalk in place.

Vice President GiGi Garcia said she told Councilwoman Paula Devine at an informal meeting last year that a crosswalk change would be something worth looking into, but that she did not directly request one and neither did any other board member.

“I took the idea to the city and said ‘this seems to be a good idea, the people who were at the meeting seemed to be in favor of it, will you look into this?’” Devine said at the Thursday meeting.

Ochoa said he had received sporadic requests from community members for a diagonal crosswalk at Honolulu and Ocean View, and that public works staff ultimately made a mistake when it went to work at the intersection.

“Our staff jumped the gun. [They] had an opening in their schedule,” Ochoa said. “The team that we had working as a contractor, they went out and they did it and for that I’m sorry.”

Board member Ken Grayson said he was bothered by the fact he and his colleagues are elected by merchants to represent them yet they had no say in the matter.

“We are responsible for the business improvement district and yet nothing was approved by the board or brought to the board,” he said. “There should have been a procedure and that I’m disappointed in.”

The board then voted 4-1 to recommend having the city immediately remove the crosswalk, which is part of a six-month pilot program to see how well it works and is received.

Ochoa said he plans on trimming the length of the program to three months because it would be a waste to not have data to review.

There are plans on the table to potentially make the crosswalk permanent next year as part of an overhaul project along Ocean View, and that’s where the city could learn from the pilot program, Ochoa said.

“At this point, pulling it out completely doesn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense,” he said.

He said he could agree to reduce the project to three months.

“We wanted to do this before the shopping season, so we can have real data and evaluate it.”

Board member Kim Kelly cast the sole vote against having the diagonal crosswalk removed and said she’s in favor of giving it a chance.