December
13, 2001 Executive Summary:
Pico Improvement Organization (PIO) Outreach Survey
This
survey was mailed September 12, 2001 to approximately 9,500
residents located between the Santa Monica Freeway (#10)
and Ocean Park Blvd. It was also mailed to 400 businesses
along Pico Blvd. The survey was designed as a public opinion
poll, but also contained questions regarding residency,
job location, and use of public transportation. Several
open-ended questions were included. Surveys were coded to
see if there was a difference in perception between residents
on the north side of Pico and residents on the south side.
The
response rate, 14% for residents, and 18% for merchants,
was unexpectedly high, possibly due to the mailing date
(September 12). People wrote notes all over the surveys,
thanking the PIO for asking and adding comments, ideas,
and suggestions.
The
percentages noted below use both north and south portions
of Pico, phrased as a range.
Who were the respondents? Of the residents, between 56 and
65% of those surveyed have at least one family member who
works in Santa Monica. 34 to 38% said they’d lived
in their present location over ten years, many of those
for twenty or more years. 53% of the residents south of
Pico said they lived in a house, with that number dropping
to only 25% north of Pico. Only 30 to 37% percent use public
transportation at all, and 77-78% said they drove to work.
The
business community told us that they were hands-on, independent
businesspeople. 96% of respondents were independent businesses,
and 59% had owned their businesses for ten years or more.
49% are sole owners, rather than being a corporation (35%)
or a partnership (17%). 70% would like to expand their businesses.
Not many absentee owners; 91% work onsite. 93% drive to
work, 53% of them from homes in Santa Monica.
Parking,
predictably, was underscored as a problem by the merchant
community, where 64% said on-street parking was a problem
and 66% cited the absence of off-street parking. Employee
parking was noted as a problem by 74% of the merchant community.
41% of those responding cited parking as the biggest problem
facing their business.
Residents,
probably due to the number of preferential parking zones,
had the opposite response: Between 50 and 59% said onstreet
parking was not a problem, and between 57% and 62% said
that offstreet parking was not a problem. Naturally, 56%
of the residents south of Pico, where preferential parking
zones predominate, didn’t believe employee parking
was a problem because for them it wasn’t. Only 47%
of those north of Pico agreed. Ironically, when asked if
improvement in customer parking was needed, however, 64-65%
of the residents agreed. 76% of merchants agreed.
Pico
Blvd. itself received high approval ratings in terms of
ability to arrive by public transport, location of crosswalks,
upkeep of streets and sidewalks, and the medians, landscaping,
and streetlights of the Pico Streetscape Project. It should
be noted here, however, that when people were asked what
single thing they would do to improve Pico, adding left
hand turn lanes garnered specific comments from 87 of the
1,421 responses, and 81 of the respondents wanted to remove
the medians entirely. Many respondents indicated that left-hand
turn lanes were sacrificed for the medians, although in
fact, none were eliminated by the Streetscape Project.
When
it came to storefront facades, however, Pico didn’t
fare as well. A whopping 73 to 76% of the residents and
63% of the merchants said some or significant improvement
was needed, and 131 of the respondents said the one thing
they would do to improve Pico was to improve the storefronts.
City
services received good ratings overall, particularly the
fire department (this was right after the terrorist attacks
of 9/11), but 73% of the residents north of Pico and 62%
of the residents south of Pico said that some or significant
improvement was needed in crime prevention efforts. 66%
of the residents north of Pico and 54% of the residents
south of Pico also noted that there was not enough illumination
in their alleys. Graffiti and loitering were noted as being
problems in over 50% of the residents responding, with many
comments about the liquor stores being problem areas.
Energy-saving programs were not a huge desire by residents
or merchants; however many of the replies indicated they
were already involved in energy-saving efforts. Many of
the respondents who did want to participate in an energy
savings program provided their contact information.
When asked about outreach from the Pico Improvement Organization,
the majority said they would like to see a PIO Newsletter
and event such as a street fair or sidewalk sale on Pico.
There
were several open-ended questions.
1. “If you could make one change along Pico Blvd. tomorrow,
what would it be?” As would be expected, the range
of answers was huge. Grouping the answers showed some major
themes:
-
131 respondents said they’d improve storefronts,
building facades
- 87 wanted to add or improve left hand turn lanes
- 81 wanted to remove the street medians.
- 51 wanted more trees, flowers, and other plantings
- 41 wanted to get rid of loiters of all descriptions
- 32 wanted to get rid of or reduce number of liquor stores
- 25 wanted to get rid of massage parlors
2.
“What businesses on Pico Blvd. do you patronize?”
What was apparent in the responses to this question was
that residents on both sides of Pico regularly shop there.
Quite a few of the respondents listed five or more businesses.
154 different shops were mentioned. The businesses receiving
the most responses were:
410 - Trader Joe’s
277 - Rite Aid
147 - 99 Cents Only store
140 – Gas stations
113 – Restaurants (without mentioning which one)
95 - Airport Pharmacy
84 – McDonald’s
83 – Farmers Market
72 – Carwash
66 – McCabe’s
57 - Rae’s Coffee Shop
47 – Burger King
45 – California Map & Travel
44 – Santa Monica College
43 – Campos Burritos
43 – Liquor stores
42 - Videots
40 – Unurban
3.
“What type of retail or service business would you
like to see established on Pico Blvd.?” drew 151
different responses. Some of those types of businesses
were already on Pico, but were unknown. Many respondents
had more than one suggestion, but the most frequent responses
were as follows:
138 wanted a coffee house, Starbucks-type of chain or
a coffee shop.
103 wanted a large, major grocery store
88 wanted more restaurants,
80 wanted more upscale restaurants,
79 wanted bookstores,
63 wanted a Target, Kmart, or Walmart
53 wanted clothing stores.
