Council adopts shared-streets pilot and expands 1% public-art program; one dissent on safety and metrics

Council adopted Ordinance C36901 to authorize designated shared streets, selecting a segment of Wall Street as a pilot, and passed Ordinance C36892 to expand and strengthen the city’s one-percent-for-public-art program. Councilmember Cathcart said he would vote no on the shared-streets ordinance because of safety concerns and a lack of required traffic-volume metrics; Cathcart asked for a required traffic study and clearer definitions of what constitutes "low volume."

Other councilmembers described the shared-streets measure as a pilot and an opportunity to learn, citing prior neighborhood and transportation commission review and examples of successful shared streets elsewhere. The 1% public-art ordinance was described by council supporters as a sensible update that increases thresholds for when the one-percent allocation applies; that measure passed unanimously.