Merchants Fear Traffic Ban Will Mean Business Blockade : Westwood: Shop managers’ first reactions are dire, but pedestrians and police think new limited closing of the village to vehicles is ‘fantastic.’

To some shoppers and police officers, the eerie stillness and quietude that descended upon Westwood Village the first night of a much-ballyhooed weekend traffic blockade was a blessing.

But to many area merchants, it signalled the first signs of what they fear will be a steep decline in business brought on by a ban on all cars in the popular entertainment district between 7 p.m. and 2 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.

Even Westwood Boulevard, normally besieged by crowds of voracious shoppers, diners and sightseers, was nearly deserted as the orange blockades went up Friday night. An occasional moped, DASH shuttle bus or police car motored past the dozens of empty parking spaces, their engine noises puncturing the silence.

Business was so non-existent at a Weyburn Avenue parking lot usually jampacked with cars that the attendant, Jose Morales, fell asleep in his glassed-in booth while waiting for the last daytime customers to retrieve their cars.

Upon waking, a grumpy Morales surveyed the nearly empty lot and said: “There is no business here. Nothing.”

“It’s just dead tonight,” said Melanie Welles, who spent her night shift at J & B Shoes on Westwood Boulevard waiting for the rare customer to arrive, and grousing with fellow merchants about the city’s new traffic policy. “This is terrible for all businesses on the street. There’s no one here.”

Manager Jano Youssefi surveyed the vast emptiness of his normally thriving Alices Restaurant on Westwood, a street that until Friday had remained open to traffic. Before the new policy, several other side streets were closed to traffic between 9:30 p.m. and midnight on Fridays and Saturdays.

“It is embarrassing,” said Youssefi, who claimed to have lost $3,000 in business during the first three hours of the ban Friday night. “Every customer that comes in here is complaining. I can’t even call cabs for them.”

City officials last week announced that crowds and sporadic weekend violence in Westwood Village had prompted them to reinstitute a traffic ban previously in place in 1986. That ban, which received mixed reviews, was scaled back due to merchants’ complaints.

Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, who toured the blockaded village Friday night, agreed the crowds were sparse but blamed it on initial apprehensions among usual shoppers, and on adverse publicity after an Aug. 3 melee in which dozens of youths began fighting.

“The first couple of nights, people don’t know what to expect,” said Yaroslavsky, whose district includes Westwood. “But I expect business will rebound, absolutely. Merchants have to give this a much larger chance than one weekend or two weekends.”

A few merchants welcomed the barricades, agreeing with Yaroslavsky that the ban will help their businesses in the long run by weeding out rowdy young “cruisers” in cars.

Meanwhile, those walking the streets welcomed the lack of cars. “This is fantastic,” said Police Officer Mark Kelly, who was walking a foot patrol beat with a partner. “It’s quiet.”

Leah Levy, 23, who grew up visiting Westwood, said she enjoyed being able to walk across deserted streets. “It’s great,” she said, “when nobody’s here.”

City traffic officers said the only problems they encountered in enforcing the ban were disgruntled drivers trying to sneak by them, and some name-calling and grumbling. Police reported no crowd problems and allowed the barricades to come down an hour early, at 1 a.m.