By ARIELLA MONTI
City officials may allow pedicab companies to operate in town, including the boardwalk and Oceanview Avenue in the West End.
While the details are still being worked out, City Manager Charles Theofan said the venture is something worth considering, especially as a way to benefit Long Beach’s economy.
“If it’s going to take a person from the Allegria Hotel down to Lola’s [restaurant] for dinner,” Theofan offered as an example, “that’s good for Lola’s.”
He explained that the city would incur no expenses for permitting the pedicabs to operate on its streets, nor would their operations be considered a revenue stream.
Pedicabs, which are small cabs pulled by bicycles, can be found in parts of the country as diverse as Manhattan and Key West. If they were to come to Long Beach, the City Council would have to approve a contract with a pedicab company, which would need permits to operate.
A contract would run for a year, and give the city the power to end it at any time, according to Theofan. “The contract is going to have a provision that will give me that absolute right, for whatever reason, to terminate the contract,” he said.
Meanwhile, a promotional e-mail from the new Allegria Hotel, which is still under construction on the boardwalk at National Boulevard but is expected to open in late May, listed pedicabs as one of its services, at a cost yet to be determined. According to B.J. Skarl, the hotel’s chief concierge, the hotel was approached by the owner of one pedicab company about the prospect of using his service for the hotel. Skarl said the hotel is interested in working with the city and a pedicab company to offer the service to its guests as well as residents.
“Certainly if our guests are looking to take a ride on the boardwalk or to a local restaurant and use that little service, it’s going to be wonderful,” Skarl said.
Theofan noted that any contract he would approve would allow him to make changes if any part of the company’s operation was deemed problematic. As an example, he said, if the company was permitted to operate on Beech Street but was found to be causing problems with car traffic, he would have the authority to curtail the company’s operations there. Theofan also noted that the company would have to have adequate insurance, and, as is required of the city’s taxi companies, drivers’ backgrounds would be checked.
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