Efforts to turn the Convoy Asian Cultural District into a recognizable hot spot in town have led to significant changes.
Just in the last few months, frustrations surrounding insufficient parking have been growing.
The Convoy gateway sign is the latest streetscape addition to one of San Diego’s most popular Asian Business Districts known for its bustling restaurant scene.
Tom Phillips said he and his friend ride their bikes along Convoy Street once or twice a week.
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“For food and drinks mostly,” Phillips said.
They said these recently-installed bollard protected bike lanes give them a sense of safety.
“Definitely feels a lot safer riding in the bike lane than with cars prior to those lanes being installed,” Phillips said.
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The city said it installed them to “create connections within Kearny Mesa and with nearby communities,” but not everyone agrees.
“I think these bike lanes are terrible,” David Horwitt said.
Cyclist David Horwitt said they’re poorly designed and unsafe for inexperienced cyclists.
“You see a situation like this with traffic very backed up and the motorists aren’t looking for cyclists, yet his puts them in an area that I would call a conflict zone,” Horwitt said.
The bike lanes eliminated more than 300 street parking spaces, according to a city parking study.
Restaurant Manger Alec Schu said the bike lanes have exacerbated the struggle for parking and increased frustrations among many local businesses.
“The result has been a lack of parking, worse traffic, and no one actually uses the bike lanes,” Schu said. “My staff also no longer have anywhere to park. Some of their parking close to a mile away.”
Also recently installed are signs promoting two hours of free parking, but after that you have to pay.
“That definitely would make me think twice if I had to pay just to go and patronize a business. I might not patronize that business. Go find a lot that I can you know go in and not pay for parking,” Chris Crawford-Day said.
What's being done to improve parking in Convoy?
According to the city’s parking redistribution plan for the area, the Convoy District partnership is currently working with the city to create a community parking district that would include “shared parking agreements with nearby businesses” and privately operated shuttle services during peak times.
NBC 7 reached out to Councilmember Kent Lee and the Asian Business Association for an interview, but they were both unavailable.
