Publication Date: Wednesday, January 28, 2004
Editorial: Survey neighborhood or forget 'calming'
Editorial: Survey neighborhood or forget 'calming'
(January 28, 2004) Tragic divisiveness in Downtown North shouldn't be a reason for city to renege on its plan to get a full representation of residents' views before taking action
The decision last week not to conduct a neighborhood survey on traffic barriers in Downtown North is highly unfortunate and should be reversed.
The city owes it to the community to move ahead with an opinion survey (as promised at the outset of the traffic barriers experiment last year) before making any decisions on so-called "traffic calming" measures for the area.
It would be irresponsible for city officials -- especially the City Council -- to proceed with traffic-control steps without a sense of what the majority of residents there would like.
As the cover story in this issue outlines, some residents were unaware of the six-month "traffic calming" experiment of closing off some streets with barriers until they noticed an increase of traffic on their streets. Some said they were told they would be able to express their opinions on the experiment before any final decisions were made.
The Downtown North Neighborhood Association (DTNNA) pushed hard for the barriers after many years of frustration with through traffic seeking to bypass the more-crowded Lytton, University and Hamilton avenues.
But a group opposing the barriers, Unblock, sprang up in response to what some characterized as heavy-handed tactics pushing barriers on the part of DTNNA leaders.
The lines have hardened, feelings grew intense and personal, middle ground eroded in the face of mutual suspicion and distrust that has exploded in the neighborhood.
In early December, we suggested that a "traffic mediator" is needed as part of this and other transportation-related projects to prevent such blow-ups in the future. Traffic engineers may do a good job of designing physical plans for projects, but the problem with "traffic calming" is not vehicles, pavement and signage but the human beings involved.
Meeting-facilation efforts seem to have been too little, too late for Downtown North. Vice Mayor Jim Burch and Councilwoman Yoriko Kishimoto met with residents from both sides of the issue (below the "leader" level) and found some potential areas of cooperation but not much room for compromise overall.
Then the Planning and Transportation Commission voted 8-0 to scrap the idea of a neighborhood survey, based on the huge influx of e-mails, phone calls and many speakers. There were 60 speakers at the commission meeting. The commission is to take the matter up again Feb. 28 -- which seems too far off -- and the whole matter would then go to the City Council for final action.
But the dropping of the survey, we believe, is a serious mistake, and reflects the pattern of mistakes made on all sides of this sad situation.
The fact that city staff members were unable to achieve an agreement between pro- and anti-barrier elements on either the wording of the survey or how it would be administered is symptomatic of the divisiveness and unreasonableness that has taken hold in this area of town -- and which now threatens to affect decisions elsewhere, such as in the Charleston/Arastradero Corridor study.
It also shows a fundamental misunderstanding of why a survey should be held. A community survey is not "a vote," as it has been characterized, but one additional source of information to assist city staff and elected leaders in making a decision.
A survey has become especially important in this situation precisely because of the high level of polarization, anger and suspicion that now exists. Both sides are claiming majority or overwhelming support for their positions, and no one seems in a mood to compromise -- despite the staff's belated efforts to propose alternatives last week under a so-called "Mixed Measures" plan. (See page 28.)
The city should move forward as quickly as possible with a household-based survey that reaches as many residents and property owners as possible -- not as a deciding vote but as a way to provide objective data to decision-makers and provide feedback to neighborhood leaders on both sides of this little civil war. Neighborhood sentiment accurately reported would be the best "calming" medicine.
The City Council, as with virtually all issues, should reserve the right to make the decision based on the best information available. But in the face of such flamboyant, emotional rhetoric from both sides, we think a neighborhood survey would go a long way toward accurately assessing just how divided residents are.
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