Border Collie, I have to believe that this is a concern you truly have and not, well I wont go there. As far as a concern that every neighborhood will want this is valid. I’m sure every neighborhood would want this, but I have to wonder where you have been the last few months on this forum and whom it is you have been responding to, I thought you were reading the other thread regarding this including several things I had wrote, even though you disagreed with us you seemed to understand the difficulties we have gone through. The idea that anyone can go in and demand the city do anything and they bow down and do it, is insane. There have been people ask for and demand many things, including 4 way stops at every corner, speed humps, no left hand turns at Bidwell and Natoma, Bidwell to be closed, one way streets etc… etc… . Do you see any of that happening, No. Is going to happen? More than likely not. Every neighborhood is unique, and their problems are unique and will have to be addressed independent of one another. Please give me an example of another neighborhood that is bordered by 4 main arterials, where the traffic could be and should be using the arterials but because of the way the neighborhood is designed that they choose to use every street in the neighborhood creating hours of bumper to bumper traffic in the neighborhood on a regular basis. I think you will have a hard time finding one.
The city has proposed a 4 hour closure because this is what has been determined would be necessary for this particular neighborhood to remove bumper to bumper traffic for those hours, again after looking at every other possibility first. These are the hours they see as a problem, not the only hours we see as a problem. For some not all in the city they consider bumper to bumper traffic in a neighborhood for hours at a time unacceptable. However our neighborhood could have the same amount of vehicles a day and thousands more and as long as they do not create gridlock in a neighborhood, would be acceptable to most of the city. Again, after everything we have been through and all of the demands we have made, I have to laugh at the idea of mass street closures. We are at what the city believes the problem is (bumper to bumper traffic) and not necessarily everything we think is a problem and they are willing to address what they see, not what we see as all of the problems. Now we are willing to take what they are willing to give and see if this will work to make things at an acceptable level for us. Is it my ideal of course not, but it doesn’t change the fact that this is all the city is willing to do. Again, every neighborhood in this city can go demand what ever they want, it does not mean that they will get it or anything if the city does not determine it is a problem and if the city determines they do have a problem, than they will apply every possible solution and then they will go with the first most minimal thing as possible that they believe will obtain the objective. They did not go straight to a street closure for 4 hours in our neighborhood. When this went to city council they then changed it to 3 hours. I have greatly appreciated a lot of your posts even though we disagree on things, you at times have made me step out of the box and re-evaluate my position and try to see if I would feel the same way if this wasn’t happening to me. However, either you have not heard a thing I or a few others have stated or you have your mind so made up about things that you can not step out of the box and really look at this from an objective point of view, if this is a serious concern to you.
If we could not exclude you or even us from our neighborhood and still get the cut through traffic out we would be happy to do so. Again, do you really think that we are thrilled about having to cut off an access point to our own neighborhood, forcing us to go around every time we leave our homes or come home during those 3 hours. I don’t even know what to say to you if you do think so. Unfortunately, things have gotten so unbearable for us that we are willing to do this so that we can receive some relief. Not to punish you or not to punish us, just to get some relief. Believe, me that we are still being punished the rest of the day and are receiving our additional lashings just to get some relief here. This does not come without a cost to us either.
As far as the special treatment, Wow, you just don’t get it do you, if you think we have, or are, or will receive any special treatment. The only special treatment we have received is from the rest of the city and the commuters that have battered and abused us above and beyond what you or most of the residence in this city has had to go through, just to shave a few minutes off of their time. Orangetj, sorry I forgot selfish me for wanting just a little of what most of the neighborhoods have in this city and what we had a few short years ago. Selfish me for wanting people to use one of the 4 main arterials surrounding our neighborhood not our neighborhood. Naïve, me to believe people would want to support their community and the people in it and do what they can to help us get some relief. I can understand this outrage if we were asking you to do something that we do not have to, or if we were going to receive some benefit above and beyond anyone else from this. But if you think that, after everything you have read, there just is know since in trying to explain it anymore.
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divisiveness and resentful feelings among people |
We are far above and beyond this here, with people who believe thier few minutes, is so much more important than our neighborhood, our daily quality of life, our safety, etc... etc.. especially when a significant amount of the time they are not even saving that few minutes because there is as much grid lock in here as there is on Folsom Blvd, so we are being sacrificed for a few minutes or for nothing.