The path to most resistance The path to most resistance (May 14, 2004)

City's efforts to build trail along Oregon Expressway creates ire in neighborhood

by Bill D'Agostino

It was thought to be a simple project, costing less than $3,000 and slightly improving the city's paths for walkers and bikers.

Instead, it became another Palo Alto tale of irritated neighbors and competing interests.

The city is now scrambling to appease angry Oregon Avenue residents, who were recently shocked to find the city building a short path connecting their small, private street to the parallel and much larger Oregon Expressway.

"In my wildest dreams, I didn't think this would cause such a large controversy with the immediate residents," said Michael Jackson, deputy director of Public Works.

City officials said the path will give bicyclists and pedestrians a safer choice than the expressway. Requested by Councilman Jack Morton, it is tied to a larger project that will enhance the wheelchair accessibility of the expressway's curbs.

The project was endorsed -- although not enthusiastically -- by the Palo Alto Bicycle Advisory Committee about three months ago.

But when neighbors saw the construction equipment begin to clear away brush between the road and the expressway a few weeks ago, they began complaining to City Council members.

In an e-mail to Councilwoman LaDoris Cordell, Terry Dresser, an assistant professor of radiology at Stanford University, wrote, "by clearing the vegetation, they have destroyed the privacy of our cul-de-sac and completely changed the character of our street."

Neighbors were given no notification of the project, typical of such small city projects.

Assistant City Manager Emily Harrison believes some of the concerned neighbors are still harboring animosity about the opening of Oregon Expressway in 1961.

Those neighbors have, nonetheless, got the ear of the city officials working on the project. More vegetation will be added to provide more protection from the expressway, Jackson said.

Officials noted that the city's comprehensive plan endorses "connecting paths for pedestrian and bicyclists where dead-end streets prevent through circulation."

But Dresser wonders who's more important -- the bicyclists and walkers who use the street or the people who live on them. For her, the choice is easy.

"We don't think Oregon Avenue should be a bike route at all," she said.

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

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