Walking the Beech [Street]... (PART II)

Continuing the ideas discussed in this past weekend's post...

Here are a few ideas for consideration:

Proposed schematic for narrow sidewalks

Narrow sidewalks: let’s start with grates for under the trees. This will enable not only a few more square feet of walk able space but look neat, discourage dog pooping and create a safer walking environment (no ankle twisting when the concrete drops off into the tree well). City parking lot walls should be moved back to flush with the building line.

Where traffic light poles impede corner, extend the corner 4 feet into the intersection and move the pole. Yes, this sounds ambitious, but Beech Street still has lots of private resident side yards and without exercising eminent domain rights, the city has few alternatives to make the sidewalks ADA (Americans with Disabilities) compliant.


Unsightly sidewalks: Who ya gonna call: Gumbusters! Yes, there’s a cleaning process for removing gum and dirt and as for the cracked concrete and emerging weeds: property owner code compliance officers. This is a once a year project.

Commercial garbage: 2 options: either the City Sanitation pick-up schedule for Beech Street has to be moved to 7am or the commercial business owners need to hire private carters who will pick up garbage by 7am.

Litter, etc.: This is partly a code compliance issue and partly not. Let me explain: Unlike Park Avenue in the East End, Beech street has lots of area that is NOT fronted by commercial property: the library, the schoolyard, the city-owned parking lots. Not to mention lots of empty storefronts and one empty lot. In the off season, the streets are relatively clean.

But in the summer, it is impossible to keep up with the huge amount of cigarette butts (did you know that cigarette butts comprise almost 70% of all litter, more on that on another day) and trash that accumulates all day long. In September, West End Beautification launched a Good Neighbor Award incentive program to encourage business owners to comply with sanitation codes and present attractive streetscapes.

We also recommend summer street sweepers. (See our proposal here.) Specifically, two summer sanitation specials (not sanitation employees) who would work from Memorial Day to Labor Day, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday from 8am to 4pm.

Sweeping gutters, removing abandoned bottles, cups etc. from walls, bushes, parking lots, removing bags of trash piled on top of receptacles, wipe down trash receptacles (which, by the way, should have liners so they don’t smell in the summer heat.) The cost for this is estimated at approximately $15-$20,000 per year. More details on that to come.

Gathering place: The only place on Beech Street that offers any possibility at this time is the Welcome to Long Beach area on Nevada Avenue. I recommend a complete overhaul of that site (which is looking more than a bit tired since it was first dedicated almost 40 years ago.

New plantings, lighting, perhaps a small fountain, irrigation, benches, tables for playing cards or checkers, and pavers. Let people purchase pavers and benches for inscriptions to offset the costs.

Of course, while we’re dreamin, I’d like 2 bike bollards on every block, new trash receptacles with cigarette butt extinguishers on top and new cobblestone curbs.

Now, if I could just find a magic lamp…