The city began work this week on a sidewalk six years in the making.
When Councilman Steve Aspel was a fledgling candidate in District 1 in 2005, he made no bones about his intent should he be elected. He didn’t talk about overarching visions for the city. His platform consisted of three things: crossing guards, trees, and the Esplanade – that is, restoring cuts to guards, trimming trees, and rebuilding the deteriorating seaside street and walkway known as the Esplanade.
Four years later, when he was reelected, Aspel added his repertoire.
“It kind of morphed into speed cushions, potholes, trees, and still the Esplanade,” he said. “My opponent called me ‘the pothole guy’…We got the crossing guards back. But it was still the Esplanade.”
Finally, this week, the Esplanade is getting its long-awaited makeover. The 1.5-mile street and sidewalk with the most unfettered ocean views in all the South Bay is about to receive $2.9 million in improvements. The street will be repaved, the sidewalk and bike path resurfaced and widened, and the overall aesthetic feel enhanced. New benches and seven public art projects will also be installed along the walkway.
“It’s not going to be some kind of real fancy project – just beautifying it and making it more functional,” Aspel said. “We are just making it more pretty. It is the signature street in Redondo Beach.”
At the groundbreaking ceremony Tuesday afternoon, Councilman Matt Kilroy said that the project would likely never have happened had not Aspel been “an absolute bulldog” from beginning to end of a process that involved putting together funds from federal, state, and county agencies.
“Whenever there was any talk of delay, you could see the hairs rising up from the back of his head,” Kilroy said. “It’s been something he’s been bird-dogging for years.”
The project was actually conceived in 2001 and approved for funding five years ago, not long after Aspel took office. But it almost never came to fruition after becoming enmeshed in a bewildering maze that included angry bureaucrats, disappearing funds, and the unlikely reappearance of a nearly extinct butterfly.
“It is government at its slowest and most aggravating,” Aspel said. “About five years ago, the money was approved by the federal government, then it wasn’t approved. It was pulled back, then approved again…Then it was part of the [federal stimulus] money. Then the city approved it after numerous community meetings. Then we couldn’t get the money from the Feds and we went back to see [Congresswoman] Jane Harman. She really came through on this.”
Aspel and other city officials made two trips to Washington over the course of the Esplanade funding saga. Harman helped finally see it through. Many acronyms were involved. Ultimately, federal funding was revived through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) – so called “Obama money” intended as an economic stimulus – in addition to some state and county funds: $800,000 was obtained through SAFETEA-LU (Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient, Transportation Equity Act – a Legacy for Users); over $400,000 in STPL (Surface Transportation Program – Local) funds; over $400,000 in Proposition 1-B Funds; $800,000 in Measure R Local Return Funds; and approximately $490,000 in required matching Capital Improvement funds from the city.
The city thought it had crossed the finish line by the end of 2009 and could begin work by early 2010. Aspel was so confident that he promised his constituents as much. “I owe a few people a few steak dinners,” he said ruefully. .
It turned out the stimulus funds had a small catch – their use required review and approval from the state transportation agency, Caltrans. It soon became apparent Caltrans was in no hurry. Aspel and former Assistant City Manager David Biggs were frequently on the phone with the agency with essentially a single question: where is our money?
According to Aspel, at least one Caltrans official grew tired of his repeated inquiries and snapped, yelling over the phone, “Steve, we have been furloughed, we’ve got our pay cut, and we aren’t in a very happy mood right now. So we will get to it when we get to it.”
So they went above his head. They found somebody in higher management with a local connection and a more sympathetic ear, and he helped see to it that the Caltrans part of the process moved forward. Finally, nearly a decade after the notion of beautifying the city’s most scenic street was broached, the deal was done.
“I almost gave up several times,” Aspel said. “We did everything. Everything but passing money – bribed people with lunch and dinners, and I swear, just begging people on the phone. That’s the way government works – they just had to look at it, dot the i’s and move it on to the next guy.”
Aspel credited Biggs for playing an instrumental role in keeping the project alive. Biggs, who is now city manager of Tustin, attended the groundbreaking on Tuesday.
“I think mainly I just helped him realize we could get it done,” Biggs said. “Just be patient. It wasn’t easy, but we put it together.”
Then there was the matter of the Palos Verdes Blue Butterfly. As part of the original push to beautify the area, the beach bluff restoration committee was formed in 2001. One of their recommendations was to restore native habitat along the bluffs, and over the course of a few years the invasive non-native ice plant species was replaced with drought-tolerant plants that had historically been in the area. Almost miraculously, the butterfly – thought nearly extinct – returned in 2007. It raised the question, however, if any serious construction could occur, due to the nature of endangered species protections in federal law. The city’s concession to this is that construction cannot occur during the summer months, when the butterfly breeds.
Councilman Pat Aust said that Aspel’s relentlessness paid off.
“He doesn’t make a promise he knows he can’t deliver,” Aust said. “He made a promise and he delivered. …It’s tough times to get things done, but if you say you are going to do things, you have to do them. You find a way. That is what it takes.”
City Manager Bill Workman, who accompanied Aspel on several of his lobbying efforts, said the Esplanade was worth prioritizing. He said this section of the Redondo waterfront has “one of the best views in the state of California” yet is mainly enjoyed by locals. He praised Aspel’s doggedness in bringing the street’s improvements to fruition.
“It’s a tribute to his tenacity,” said Workman. “It’s just one of those endurance projects. It was a long time coming, but it was worth the wait.” ER
