SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — A recent change along Convoy Street has removed all street parking in favor of protected bike lanes, which surprised local business owners as the area is known for its bustling lunchtime crowds and packed parking lots.
"Each little plaza has about five, six, seven restaurants and maybe 20 parking spots," said Naomi Cho, the manager of Cross Street Chicken and Beer. "That's nothing for the amount of people coming through the streets."
So when the city replaced Convoy Street parking with a protected bike lane on Tuesday, Cho was caught off guard.
"Now half our parking is gone," Cho said. "Now we're parking two blocks down to get to work? It's not really fun for the employees."
This is the latest development in the city's Kearny Mesa Community Plan to improve underground piping, repave the roads, and provide more transportation options. The city is also looking to create space for 27,000 new homes in the area, 3,000 of which would be near Convoy Street.
"I kind of side with the city building bike lanes and all that, because I'm for green infrastructure," said Javier Perez, a local customer. "I believe having all these cars around is just too much."
New signs along Convoy Street instruct drivers to avoid the bike lanes and park on cross streets like Vickers, Dagget, Armour, and Pepsi Drive, where additional parking spots have been added.
"When that was brought up I got super excited, I was like 'Oh there's going to be more parking,'" Cho said. "All of a sudden now we just see a bike lane with no meters, no extra parking."
Cho said the city's plans are not enough to manage the traffic in the Convoy area. The city plans to convert parking to bike lanes on eight more streets in Kearny Mesa in the future.
