The city of Huntington Beach has announced it will unveil a bicycle valet service for its congested downtown during the busy summer months.
Unfortunately, that free service will not begin this Fourth of July weekend—the busiest time of the year in Surf City's pier area.
It's historically been the rowdiest time of the year, too, with multiple fights, arrests and police car flippings in the not-so-distance past.
Things have settled down considerably in recent years, and city officials are constantly seeking ways to un-grubby the popular spot for brodacious imbibing (think curfews, jacked-up rents, increased drunk-in-public citations).
Now, thanks to funding from the pollution-fighting state Air Quality Management District, Huntington Beach on July 16 will launch the Surf City Bike Valet Program, reports the Huntington Beach Independent.
The pilot program will run every weekend, utilizing two parking spaces at Fifth Street and Walnut Avenue that can accommodate more than 100 bikes. They will be overseen by the same contractor that runs the paid valet service for Duke's restaurant.
The service will also be extended to Tuesdays for Surf City Nights, the open-air market and entertainment events that fill the Main Street area closest to the pier (and which is closed to cars and trucks). The Boys & Girls Club will run the program those nights, seeking donations from riders.
Scheduled hours, reports HB Indy, will be 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sundays and 4:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Tuesdays.
Since it is a pilot program, those times are subject to change.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.