6:00am | For many years, the empty lot on the South East corner of 4th & Cherry was the bane of the neighborhood. Kirsten Kansteiner, owner of Portfolio Coffeehouse and president of the 4th Street Business Association, hoped to transform the lot from a neighborhood liability into an asset.
“The idea to use the lot has been in the back of my mind for a long time,” said Kansteiner. “The actual concept of car/bike parking just develped about a year ago.”
During the planning stages, local architect and planning guru Brian Ulaszewski donated a rendering of the proposed site, which Kansteiner credits with helping the Business Association with reaching out to the residents of the area.
“We met with David Clement from NABA, as well as ABNA and the Rose Park neighborhood Association. These are the neighboring associations,” Kansteiner continued. “The neighbors’ concerns were free parking, and maintenance, both of which we were able to address. NABA actually was a great partner in giving us money for landscaping, which is still in progress, and volunteer hours.”
Artist Tom Walker was hired to create the public art components for the site, which include bike racks, seating, and planters.
“They wanted to do something very special,” Walker said, “not just your usual parking lot. They knew they wanted to have parking for cars, but also wanted to somehow have as many or more spots for bicycles, and planter features with drought-tolerant plants, and some kind of seating element.
“They wanted something that would give an artistic statement, and have impact. A few representatives of the 4th Street Business Association and I met with some folks from the City of Long Beach to initially talk about the project. My name had come up because of the lead I took in helping to make artistic Bike racks for Downtown Long beach happen. That was a project from, gosh, 2003 maybe?
“At this meeting, they kind of gave me the run down on what we wanted to do with the corner lot. This is a dream project! Lots of enthusiasm, and lots of great opportunity. They really gave me a great platform to work from. They told me what they wanted as far as number of bike racks, and planter locations, and it seemed really do-able and exciting. But then Kathleen Schaaf, who owns Meow (the vintage clothing store that has been a fixture on 4th street for as long as I can remember) made a really cool request: ‘I have a 1957 Edsel Station Wagon that I would love to see you do something with,’ she said.”
“We wanted something that fit the 4th street persona,” said Schaaf, “not your run of the mill park and ride. We were basically kids in a candy store with this ‘blank canvas’, and knowing it would be a gateway to our neighborhood, I, being a ‘make do and mend’ girl, thought about using ‘found objects’. Given that we had a very limited budget to begin with, and I had this old car in my back yard, the Edsel just seemed like a perfect fit.”
“Now, I have been doing various sizes of Public Art projects for a while now,” Walker continued, “and this was one of the greatest challenges I have faced. At first I didn’t think it would be possible. There are already so many hurtles to jump through when you create work in the public realm. After I had finished the Bike rack and planter proposals, I kind of half-heartedly started my drawings on it. Once the possibilities started to unfold, once the piece started to emerge, and it became apparent that this was not only do-able, but a really really intriguing idea, I started to get really jazzed.”
“We are calling it the Edible Edsel,” said Kansteiner, “because the front portion of the car will be planted with edible plants. This is a lesson we learned from the ‘Garden Walk’ project. Many residents come by and take cuttings from the plants, so we are going with it: Basil, rosemary, garlic and other edible plants will be available for neighbors to take cuttings from.
“At the end, all parties came out as winners,” Kansteiner continued. “Scott Ross, the property owner, needed to protect his property and his liability issues. The City of Long Beach wanted to improve the 4th Street corridor, and 4th street needed bike and car parking and, frankly, needed to improve the area by fixing up a vacant lot that had been there for over 20 years.
“Now, the lot is dedicated 50% to the 4th street businesses and 50% to the residents of the neighboring community, [who have] felt a definite ease on the parking crunch at night. The lot is open for residents to park there for free from 9pm to 9am daily.”
“I think we’re much more than just retro row,” said Schaaf. “4th street has become more like a new Main Street, but a very eclectic Main Street.
“The great thing about the Edsel is its pop culture heritage. Having that big old corporate Americana marketing disaster now a re-purposed artistic center piece to a cool new bicycle/commuter parking lot, just seems to embody what our street is all about: Taking forgotten relics from the past, putting a neat spin on them, and getting them back out there to be enjoyed again. That’s the future, as we see it!”
