vision2020@moscow.com: traffic calming
traffic calming
Bill London (london@wsu.edu)
Mon, 24 Nov 1997 09:39:40 -0800 (PST)
Perhaps traffic calming on Polk Street is a great idea whose time has not
yet come.....but the petition to create the Local Improvement District and
build those traffic calming devices at mid-block didn't have quite enough
support. Very close, but not close enough.
To succeed, a petition needed the signatures of 60% of the
resident-owners (those of us who live in the houses that we own). Of the
22 parcels on Polk Street, 13 are resident-owner dwellings. And 60% of 13
is 7.8--or in reality, 8 resident-owners.
Unfortunately, only 7 (which is certainly more than half, but not
quite enough) signed the petition.
Several residents who were initially supportive would not sign
because they didn't want the contraversy or the expense. The reason I
held the petition so long after discovering the count was that one of the
resident-owners who favored traffic calming was
talking/discussing/negotiating the issue with a neighbor who initially was
supportive, but who had changed her mind. Those discussions did
ultimately led to a dead-end.
So, the traffic calming effort is over, I am sorry to report.
I'll be turning the petitions back to Moscow Public Works
Director Gary Presol, with my thanks for his responsiveness.
Similar appreciation is also due to Moscow City Council Public Works
Committee chair Linda Pall.
BL
ps--And certainly my thanks to all of the people on Polk Street and across
town who supported this quixotic effort to dethrone the car culture and
put people/community first.
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