Nancy Jamar first opened her vintage art supplies brick-and-mortar store, Gilding the Lily, nearly 20 years ago. Despite Jamar’s long residence on the street, cars would often go past her shop, completely unaware of it being there. This continued until the introduction of Walk on Wilshire in 2020. Suddenly, people were dropping by more than ever before. Now that the roads have recently reopened to vehicle traffic, she’s again facing a drop in customers finding her store. “I feel like there’s less people walking on Wilshire,” she says. “They’re driving again and so they’re just shooting past here.”
Walk on Wilshire was a 200-foot pedestrian zone in downtown Fullerton created by the city. The small promenade on West Wilshire Avenue cut off vehicle traffic from the adjacent streets of Harbor Boulevard and East Wilshire Avenue for about four years. It was supposed to be a temporary solution to the COVID-19 pandemic and California’s stay-at -home order. Walk on Wilshire allowed outdoor dining on the street, and helped struggling businesses on Wilshire increase clientele. As the program’s lifeline continued to be extended, mixed feelings began growing among business owners and those in the community. Some loved its communal atmosphere, and the foot traffic it brought into their businesses, while others were not happy with its prolonged life. Eventually, disagreements on the program began forming between Fullerton’s council members. It all came to a head earlier this year when the City Council voted to reopen Wilshire Avenue’s streets starting Jan. 31. 2025.
With Walk on Wilshire seemingly being gone for good, locals and businesses along what used to be the pedestrian zone are divided on the city’s process in making the decision and how it’s affected their businesses.
The Collective is a sweet spot for vintage clothing and uniquities; sitting right on the corner of Villa Del Sol on Wilshire. Despite being newcomers to the street, the curators of the shop, Sophia Limon and Nicholas Pidgeon, quickly grew to love Walk on Wilshire— crediting the program for helping people discover their shop when it first opened.
“We liked it, we thought it was great and again it helped our business,” says Pidgeon. “In the beginning of us being open, we were soley successful on foot traffic because no one knew about us.”
He also mentions the outdoor seating in the street playing a role in their success. “Maybe they weren’t planning on shopping here, but they would sit and be curious about our business.”
In terms of how their business has been affected since Wilshire reopened to traffic, it only lightly altered the number of customers they see. “You can’t really tell for a while but for the most part, I think that a lot of our business came from the closure of the street,” says Limon. “We’ll only see going forward how it’s going to affect the business. It may be better for us; it may be worse. Time will tell.”
For Jeff Tomes, the owner of Pilgrim’s Coffee House, time is already telling. Tomes says business has improved since it reopened. He’s been on Wilshire for close to 10 years now, with his cafe becoming a popular study destination for students.
“I’ve noticed I’ve been busier for sure since they opened it. But how do you quantify? Is it because it opened?” he asks. He believes reopening the street was the right thing to do but admits the city’s attempt to pedestrianize Wilshire was a great idea. He says they just didn’t go about it the right way, adding that the city didn’t have the budget to properly “beautify” it.
Zavior Rivera from Anything Rustic, a family-owned business that specializes in vintage home decor and furnishings, also noticed a few more people stopping by the store since the street reopened. “I could see how other businesses like Fullerton Brew Company would probably want it closed because they were having their patio and their food out there. But we don’t necessarily have anything out front,” says Rivera. “But overall since it has been opened, I honestly think we do get a little bit more foot traffic.”
Other businesses found on Wilshire such as Green Bliss and Rialto Cafe say there has been no significant effect on their businesses since the street reopened. The owner of Green Bliss Cafe, Andreina Di Zio, says, “I know the community wanted to keep it closed,” adding that she’d help those fighting for the pedestrian zone to stay. Alyssa Tabanico from Rialto Cafe also voiced concerns for the safety of pedestrians crossing the street, now that it’s open to traffic. “There should be a stop sign or something because people walk into the street like it’s closed still. I’ve seen a few people almost get run over,” Tabanico says.
Los Angelos residents, Ryan Mendiola and Allison Oh, often come to Fullerton to grab drinks from Sip and Savor. Despite not being locals, they were disappointed to find that Walk on Wilshire was gone. “This is my first time seeing it not closed. I’d prefer it if were still closed, it was easier to walk through,” says Mendiola. “It was nice being able to walk around freely,” Oh says. Students from Fullerton Union High School, Jasmine Sanchez and Esai Carreon also expressed not liking the street being reopened. Sanchez misses the freedom of walking around and hates the cars crowing the street. And Carreon doesn’t understand why it was reopened in the first place, since she says so few cars come through it.
Walk on Wilshire was initially introduced as a pilot project in 2020—meaning that it was never permanent, and every eighteen months the city council would have to decide whether to renew it.
Bruce Whitaker, Fullerton’s mayor at the time, envisioned it being like other popular pedestrian zones like the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica. By 2022, the council voted to continue the program into mid-2024, eventually allowing businesses to purchase spaces to install parklets in front of their businesses starting Jan. 1, 2023. This addition to the program was also introduced as a “trial,” with no intention of becoming permanent. This led to business owners being hesitant to make the investment, and only three of the seven businesses within the designated Walk on Wilshire parklet zone participating. Around this time a notable business owner in Fullerton also threatened to sue the city over the street being closed.
In 2024, the program’s vision started getting blurry. The Fullerton Observer wrote a story titled, “Walk on Wilshire on Life Support,” which covered a City Council meeting that was held on July 16, 2024. In the article, it notes that Councilmember Whitaker had suddenly decided to oppose the program, blaming issues such as access for emergency services, and the parklet program not being a success. A few business owners began voicing personal grievances with the program as well. Others criticized the city’s efforts in closing off the street using large orange barriers to keep traffic from entering the pedestrian zone, which also blocked the bicycle route from cyclists. The city eventually replaced the orange barriers with actual metal poles and created a proper bike lane with signage.
By October, it still wasn’t clear whether Walk on Wilshire would be permanent part of downtown Fullerton. In a council meeting on Oct. 16, 2024, Councilmember Jung suggested extending Walk on Wilshire’s length down the rest of Wilshire toward North Malden Avenue. “Why should we, as Fullerton, be okay with mediocrity? If we’re gonna do this, let’s do this all the way,” said Jung in the meeting. He also mentioned the cost of the program, suggesting that reopening the street would be cheaper than maintaining it. A staff report by the city estimated the cost of extending Walk on Wilshire to be $250,000. At the time, according to Councilmember Shana Charles, the city’s budget was $289 million.
The council ultimately decided that Wilshire Avenue would reopen on Jan. 31, 2025, unless a plan to extend Walk on Wilshire was proposed. January arrived and a new council was seated with Fred Jung, now mayor, and Jamie Valencia as the new addition. Even though the city planning committee had created a plan to extend Walk on Wilshire for the council, Jung and Valencia voted to reopen Wilshire while Charles and Zahra voted to extend it. Mayor Nicholas Dunlap excused himself from the vote, due to his father being a co-owner of The Villa Del Sol in downtown Fullerton. The tied vote finally sealed the beloved promenades end after nearly five years.
Despite Walk on Wilshire and the communal space it created being gone, Nancy Jamar is continuing the fight to get her shop out there and hopes to create a community of her own. “I installed a motion sensor so that I could have the door open and that’s a lot more welcoming to people,” says Jamar. “We’re doing stuff like that and we’re kind of taking a step back to how the business was at least a decade ago, when we taught small classes. So, we’re trying to shift to have a new balance that’s not strictly commerce but also a community.”
This appeared in the Summer 2025 print issue of Inside Fullerton.
