Letter: Remove Unsafe Bike Path Barrier During Fireworks Show

Hello Marina Del Rey Beaches and Harbors!

For years, in fact decades, hundreds of residents of all ages have biked from miles around, congregating at the Ballona Creek Bike Path just past the UCLA Marine Aquatic Center, an excellent viewing location for the fireworks. Hundreds if not thousands of cyclists bike to the show.  Walked bicycles on the shoulder-to-shoulder Fisherman's Wharf pedestrian crowd are an absolute menace, so the Ballona Creek Path entrance has long been the perfect outlet for hundreds of these cyclists. 

Last year, without announcement, police blocked off the entrance to the bike path much farther back, all the way to where the bike path meets the street path to the Fiji loop, and then tried to push people back.  But the path from Fiji Way to the bike path was packed with bikers, families, children -- there was nowhere the people in front could go, and the people in back had no idea the entrance was blocked.  We had a complete jam. 

I was in the front area and witnessed a near riot break out with the poor lone security coordinator (protecting a bike path barrier set up at wrong set of gate poles).  He was assertive about getting people to retreat, which was physically impossible for the trapped crowd.  (I don't think he had any idea how massive the crowd was on the street path behind us!) 

Through the entire show hundreds of families were trapped on the path between Fiji Way and the bike path, completely out of sight range of the fireworks show -- standing, trapped, cheated, out of luck.  They didn't see a thing.  Please check last year's police reports for any accounts of this mess.

I am writing to ask you to please a) be aware this year of the tradition and expectations, and b) if at all possible, restore the correct block off point to about one-hundred yards west of the bike path entrance, where it has always been, at the gate poles just PAST the UCLA Marine Aquatic Center.  If not, the city should have an aggressive campaign to advertise the change to people (and explain why, please). 

There is no good reason to block off this area farther back at the wrong set of gate poles -- and I'm even wondering if the people who blocked it off were inexperienced and simply didn't know where the barrier was supposed to be.  I strongly expect this was the case, a simple matter of not knowing. 

Personnel were sent to block off the path, and simply didn't know that they must do it at the Aquatic Center line, where they have done it for decades, rather than where the bike path meets the street path.  Either way, this should be addressed consciously. 

The friendliest gesture, most useful, most trouble-free (for you as well as cyclists, as well as safety for pedestrians on the Wharf itself) would be to insure the traditional protocol.  It serves residents all around coming into the Marina. It's a good thing to do! 

Thank you for your consideration.  Here's the location in question: http://goo.gl/maps/uCrUI

- Bill Russell, Marina del Rey

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