In June, La Jolla Village Merchants Association was debriefed on developments with electric scooters and the successful Concours d’Elegance in April.
The group also modified its ongoing strategic plan, as well as electing Lauren Johnston of Patronus Wellness to fill a board vacancy replacing hotelier Laurnie Durisoe, who sold Pantai Inn and is retiring.
District 1 staffer Mauricio Medina gave a scooter update.
“We’re identifying areas for rollout of scooter corrals,” he said. “In two months, you’ll start to see corrals on the street, but not blocking emergency vehicle lanes or fire hydrants or red curb areas, without taking out any parking spaces. The goal for this is to get scooters off the sidewalk and into these corrals.”
Medina described the new 4-by-40 rule, which allows groups of four scooters in corrals separated by at least 40 feet. He said the City will employ a “carrot approach” to enforcing corralled scooters.
“If a scooter is improperly placed, the operators will have three hours to remove it or it will be towed,” Medina said noting recently passed scooter regulations by the City has ended the “wild west period with no regulations on the books. Now we have an ordinance that gives stronger teeth to enforcing it. Hopefully, we’ll start seeing more compliance, with cops issuing tickets to people riding on sidewalks. This is only chapter one. We’ll keep a close eye on this issue.”
Michael Dorvillier, who spearheads the annual classic-car, three-day Concours in April described this year’s outcome as “awesome” adding, “LJVMA even had local car dealers set up with classic cars in front of their doors to bring people in. We also had small, one- and two-person groups playing music throughout the Village all day on Saturday, with a party with 1,200 people Saturday night at the Cove.”
“You did a great job and this was really a wonderful, synergistic, symbiotic relationship,” said LJVMA executive director Jodi Rudick.
“Creating these relationships, this is something big,” agreed LJVMA president Brett Murphy.
Dorvillier noted classic cars were shipped from as far away as Boston and New York by owners paying thousands of dollars in shipping fees themselves. “We’re really getting national attention for this show,” he added. In other action: • During public comment Susannah Stewart registered a complaint. “There’s this beautiful new plaza with landscaping at Children’s Pool and some big vendors sitting right there blocking the sidewalk and destroying the ocean view,” she said. Medina noted recent state legislation has loosened restrictions on sidewalk vending in parks. “It’s not within our jurisdiction,” said LJVMA president Murphy. “But we’d rather support people paying rent in the Village.”
• Discussing amending the group’s strategic plan after six months, Murphy said, “We want to promote associate memberships to our neighbor business districts in Bird Rock and La Jolla Shores. Rudick noted other changes include LJVMA offering free, one-on-one counseling to aid merchants, as well as plans to host job fairs to help Village merchants recruit new employees.
