Update: Ironman announces date for next year’s race
UPDATE: Ironman announces on its website that next year’s race will be held on December 15th, 2019.
While the Ironman race in La Quinta created excitement Sunday, the resulting traffic chaos created headaches for local drivers and businesses with lots of angry comments on social media.
Breakfast time at Louise’s Pantry in La Quinta means frequent customers and busy servers. The restaurant serves up “home style cooking”, however not much cooking was done for last Sunday’s brunch.
“We did not have a single wait and that was unusual. I’ve been here 15 years and I’ve never seen a Sunday like that,” Jared Perry, a manager at Louise’s Pantry, said.
He noticed dropped reservations and took many phone calls from customers stuck in traffic jams.
“We’re having people show up hours late saying, ‘Hey, we sat in traffic for two hours, an hour and a half to get here to eat,” Perry said.
Those delays came from road closures due to the Ironman event. Perry says he estimates business was cut more than half on a normally busy Sunday brunch.
“We just didn’t have the people that we needed to keep running the operation,” he said.
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Viewers took to our social media venting their frustrations citing “horrible traffic” and “poor planning” by the city.
“The traffic was horrific. I hope they don’t do this again,” Efren Diaz wrote.
Christina Vallante DeJoseph wrote: “Barricades all over. Cops not being useful. Took me a hr and half to go to work. No signs were posted. People going through red lights. Very unorganized.”
City of La Quinta staff says they have heard the complaints and are apologizing to the community.
“Obviously, no one wants their day disrupted. That wasn’t our goal, and we’re very sorry for our community having to experience that,” Chris Escobedo, community resources director for the city, said.
The city says months of planning had gone into the event working with various agencies coordinating the traffic and notifying residents. After seeing the complaints staff says changes will be discussed including adjusting the race route.
“We’re in the process of setting up an after action meeting with Ironman so that we can directly express the concerns as well as the feedback, and to look at items for future consideration,” Escobedo said.
The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department says while the event was kept safe with no major incidents, some recommendations have already been discussed to improve communication on closures during future races.
“Maybe having the officers printing out some pamphlets and outlining road closures so we can hand to residents that don’t look things up on their phone. We can facilitate the exchange of information that way,” Capt. Misty Reynolds said.
Capt. Reynolds also clarified a Facebook comment posted on the La Quinta Police Dept, Facebook page that said: “The police department didn’t approve the event. We made recommendations to address potential issues. The feedback from the community will be used to make adjustments next year.” She said the “approval” was in terms of legislative approval, as her department was not a law making body.
“Next year, I hope they have it a little more organized so this doesn’t happen again to the local businesses that bring money into the valley,” Perry said.
A hope that means more traffic in the restaurant and less hassle on the roads.
The city meeting with officials from Ironman has not been set yet, Escobedo said it will be in the near future. A request to Ironman for comment was not returned.
La Quinta City Manager Frank J. Spevacek, released a full statement on the traffic frustration reading:
“The City sincerely regrets the impact the IRONMAN event had on our residents and businesses. When undertaking this event, the City felt it would bring both excitement and pride to our beautiful community. While it did garner world-wide recognition and was a safe event, traffic was brutally impacted. We most sincerely apologize to each and every one of you for the inconvenience, personal frustration and issues it caused.
With this being a first-year event, we expected there would be problems and Sunday evening we started evaluating what went wrong so that we may learn from this experience. City staff worked with IRONMAN, the Cities of Indian Wells, Indio and Palm Desert, the County of Riverside Emergency Management, the California Highway Patrol, the Riverside County Sheriff, the County Fire Department, American Medical Response (Ambulance), and the La Quinta Police Department to create a traffic plan that would minimize traffic impacts while accommodating a safe event. The event was announced in January 2018 and then promoted through websites, social media, print publications and postcards to each La Quinta household. The plan was designed to facilitate emergency vehicle access and resident circulation, and to not trap or block residents and businesses from going about their day. We are fully aware of the impacts that all experienced and City staff was monitoring the situation and making adjustments throughout the event.
Again, the City of La Quinta extends its apologies to all residents and businesses for yesterday’s traffic congestion. We hope that our community understands that we would never put our resident’s needs last in order to hold an event. We respectfully appreciate the comments and feedback we are receiving and will take each suggestion seriously.”
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