SANTA MONICA : Residents Seeking Traffic Mitigation Picket Council

Frustrated that their area’s traffic plan had been stalled, dozens of Sunset Park residents created a little gridlock of their own last week by holding a protest march in the City Council chambers and temporarily halting the council meeting.

Equipped with signs and a bullhorn, the Friends of Sunset Park, a residents’ association, rallied on the City Hall lawn, then marched into the council chambers.

Friends of Sunset Park had been angered by the council’s rejection of a traffic mitigation plan that supporters hoped would ease commuter traffic in the southeast section of the city. The council voted last month to oppose the controversial plan, which would have included 24-hour turn restrictions along Pico and Ocean Park boulevards.

The council had initially supported the traffic plan after it was endorsed by Friends of Sunset Park and a second residents group, the Sunset Park Assn. of Neighbors (SPAN). SPAN, however, decided to oppose the traffic plan and successfully lobbied the council to oppose its funding last month.

Protesters from Friends of Sunset Park carried signs into the council chambers last week reading “Council keep your promises!” and “No more delays, action now.”

Newly elected Mayor Paul Rosenstein said he later discovered that the march inside the council chambers was in violation of the council rules, but that he did not object.

“Something like that is relatively rare in Santa Monica,” Rosenstein said. “But people have the right to express their feelings, and I don’t mind as long as they don’t do anything that is destructive.”