Bye Bye barriers Bye Bye barriers (April 14, 2004)

Residents protest removal of traffic barriers, take home pieces as souvenirs

by Bill D'Agostino

It wasn't the Berlin Wall.

Nonetheless, last week the controversial Downtown North traffic barriers drew a small group eager to save pieces of the six road closures as they were dismantled.

A few small children, tongues stuck out and thumbs firmly down, stood vigilantly in front of the barrier on the corner of Byron Street and Everett Avenue, while their parents took snap shots of the event.

"We're here to pretend we're fighting," said LaNell Mimmack, who lives on Palo Alto Avenue. After the barriers were down, she watched a truck speed through a street that had once been blocked -- the driver apparently unaware of her presence.

"I wish I could forgive, but I'm ready to recall the City Council," Mimmack said.

The Downtown North Neighborhood Association fought for years to have the city put in the closures, in an effort to slow speeding on the neighborhood's tiny streets. But after they were installed, other groups formed in opposition, saying they had been left out of the debate.

The city's biggest controversy in years was thus born, and e-mails barraged the Council and local newspapers. Even though the barriers are now gone, the divisions remain, and electronic letters continue to fly.

A dozen people showed up to protest Friday morning, but neighborhood association President Dan Lorimer said he had hoped for more. Organizers had been "blindsided" by the city's speed in removing the barriers, he said. Many families were on vacation last week.

Thursday night, the group held a candlelight vigil.

Janine Bisharat, who organized the events, said she planned to form a new group -- possibly named "Take Back Palo Alto" -- to get more council candidates who are friendly to residential homeowners elected. She and others felt developers unduly influenced the elected officials' decision.

"We're just trying to get people out here to send a message to City Council that we're not happy and we're not going away," said Bisharat, who lives on Hawthorne Avenue.

Christina Carlsen and her husband carried away one of the white picket fences used to block traffic, after construction crews dug it up from Cowper Avenue and Hawthorn Street. After hearing the fences were bound for the dump, they asked for one, planning to place it in their backyard to keep their dog safe.

"I'm against waste," Carlsen said. "It's not that I have an affinity towards the barriers or anything like that."

A block away, Ed Miller and Jamie Segura watched the protest with a hint of barely suppressed glee.

"We thought we'd been labeled rabble-rousers!" Miller said.

Standing outside his home on Everett Avenue, Miller said he opposed the closure even though it made his street quieter. It caused more traffic for others like Segura, he said, calling the pro-closure people selfish.

"Their cats and kids are at risk so that justifies them to put your cats and kids at risk -- it doesn't add up," Miller said.

One of the seven trial barriers will remain, on the corner of Palo Alto Avenue and Middlefield Road.

In the next few months, new traffic calming devices -- including traffic circles, speed tables and no turn signs -- will be installed, as part of a new one-year trial.

Bill D'Agostino can be e-mailed at bdagostino@paweekly.com

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