No more left turns on SEE PUL VEDA in El Segundo
Al Keahi, chair of the El Segundo Economic Development Advisory Council, Mayor Drew Boyles, Council Members Scott Nichols, Carol Pirsztuk and Don Brann, former mayor Bill Fisher and Councilman Chris Pimentel celebrate the renaming of Sepulveda Boulevard to Pacific Coast Highway. Photo
In what promises to be one of the best returns on investment ever for a rebranding effort, the City of El Segundo changed the name of Sepulveda Boulevard to Pacific Coast Highway. The cost for the 14 new highway signs was $15,000.
“El Segundo has more Fortune 500 Company headquarters in its five square miles than any other city in California, except San Francisco. But during the 2008 recession, when we tried to recruit new businesses, they didn’t know where El Segundo was,” Mayor Drew Boyles disclosed at the signs’ unveiling on Tuesday morning.
“Now they know. We’re on the beach,” he said.
Preparing to replace Sepulveda Boulevard signs with Pacific Coast Highway signs are Segundo Economic Development Advisory Council (EDAC) Member Lily Craig, El Segundo Mayor Drew Boyles, El Segundo Mayor Pro Tem Carol Pirsztuk, El Segundo City Council Member Scot Nicol, El Segundo Economic Development Manager Barbara Voss, and EDAC Chairman Al Keahi. Photo courtesy of the Phelps Agency
Continental Development CEO Richard Lundquist said he proposed the name change 25 years ago. But steps to change the name didn’t begin until 2013 when then Mayor Bill Fisher reactivated the city’s Economic Development Advisory Council.
Councilman Don Brann noted that Pacific Coast Highway is a “magic name around the world.” He expressed hope that Manhattan Beach would follow El Segundo’s lead. Pacific Coast Highway starts at Dana Point in Orange County and runs north through Hermosa Beach. But in Manhattan Beach, and until Monday, in El Segundo, the street name changed to Sepulveda Boulevard.
“I’m looking forward to no longer having my phone tell me, ‘Turn left on SEE PUL VEDA,’” Brann said. ER