Open Streets temporary closing in Hillcrest

To draw more visitors to downtown Vista, city council members are considering closing certain streets to cars so that bikes, feet and skateboards can take over the asphalt.

A proposed pilot program, planned around events like the strawberry festival which drew 80,000 visitors in May, is seen as a post-pandemic way to spur the local economy and support more multimodal uses.

If temporary events go well, the city might even close some streets permanently. 

On Tuesday the city council will discuss five options that were settled on at a meeting in March, when Councilmember Corinna Contreras led the discussion, pointing out the need to activate the downtown.

"This is urgent for me," she said, noting the many younger residents of her district. "They say there's nothing to do in Vista. You have to be over 21 for everything."

It wasn't always that way, councilmember Joe Green said. Growing up there, a weekly street fair was jam-packed with vendors, people dancing. "We would literally shut down the whole street."

Bring it back, he urged.

"I am so down with that," Contreras agreed.

Carly Dede, who owns a chiropractic business at the end of Main Street, opposed the idea over the lack of parking downtown. People hobble in on crutches and in wheelchairs, unable to walk any further than they already do, she said. If the plan goes through, it would devastate the business; they would have to move.

Councilmembers said that Rylan apartments, located about 300 feet from Dede's business on Main Street, has 55 parking spaces that are free to the public. 

Main Street, however, is expected to remain a pass-through. Other streets that will be studied as alternatives for closure include the area around Indiana Street. Shutting down Indiana heading west from east Broadway, capping all the streets, would still give access to every parking lot in that zone, Mayor Dan O'Donnell said. Only the Main Street parking spaces would not be available.

Another idea to squeeze in more parking — which Green thought would actually increase it — is to have one-way options for both Main Street and Broadway, with diagonal parking all along Main Street, taking up far less space. "It's a loop to see everything and it gives tons more parking for all of our business owners down there."

Officials plan to map out every entrance and exit to all potential parking lots.

The council will explore ways to revamp the public space around the gazebo on Main Street to make it a courtyard; how to  advertise better the public parking at the Rylan apartments; and outreach to downtown business owners.

Following the lead of Encinitas, which has an annual Cyclovia event — meaning “Cycleway” in Spanish, a global movement, allied with the Open Streets Project,  that temporarily reclaims city streets for walking and biking — Vista held its first Cyclovia on September 29.

In Pacific Beach, a similar event called CicloSDias will be held in November. The one-day event, sponsored by the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition, closes off nearly three miles of city streets to cars.