The Last Thing 6th & Columbia Needs...

 

... are any crosswalks or stop lines at all!  Everything is fine there!  Don't waste the money and effort!  Stick to Warren!

Last night, on its way to the Domino's "Pizza" shop on Fairview Avenue, the tractor trailer waited at the red light at 6th & Columbia for at least 20 seconds.  If, by some miracle, a painted pedestrian crosswalk existed for pedestrians crossing Columbia on the west side of the intersection, the front of the rig would have been occupying most of it.  If, by some miracle, 3 stop lines existed at the intersection, the front of the rig would have been well past one of them.  (Let's face it, most drivers respect stop lines at traffic lights that have turned red.)  Vehicles stopping in all three directions at this intersection -- including plenty of trucks of all sizes, weights and lengths, of course -- can regularly be found well into or adjacent to the unlined pedestrian crosswalk areas and well past where stop lines should be.  Can you blame drivers, though, for stopping where they feel is best and without any guidance in the form of a white line?  There is not one drop of white anything at this busy truck route intersection in a residential area where the farmers market happens to take place on Saturdays.  Not that Rob "The Slob" Perry or Joe 'safety mayor" Ferris care.  And we all know how safely Council President Margaret Morris drives!   Stop lines?  Crosswalks?  Pedestrians?  City residents?  Farmers market patrons?  Babies in strollers?  Pshaw!!!!

Waiting at the red where there
 is no stop line.  Directly between 
two recently installed ADA curb ramps.

No stop line, no crosswalk.  Nothing.  
Just the way Rob Perry, Joe Ferris, Jason
Foster, Margaret Morris, and Henry Haddad prefer it.

This morning, while observing traffic at 6th & Columbia, it took no more than five minutes for me to take the two pictures above.  After about one minute, the second car that approached the intersection on 6th took a right on red, completely ignoring the new NO TURN ON RED sign hanging next to the traffic light that is among Henry Haddad's three accomplishments this year as chair of the so-called SAFETY Committee.  At the committee's June 1st meeting, Haddad requested four traffic signs of HPD Captain David Miller so that Miller -- on his free time when law enforcement was not bothering him -- could request the signs (by email? Text? Phone? Smoke signals?  Fax?) of DPW Superintendent Rob Perry (who shows up to Infrastructure meetings but leaves before they are finished).   One of those four requests -- for a DO NOT ENTER sign at 7th & State meant to keep wrong way drivers from entering the intersection where State traffic does not stop-- still has not been installed by DPW.  During last Monday's meeting of the Infrastructure Committee -- six weeks following his sign requests to HPD Captain David Miller at a SAFETY Committee meeting -- committee member Haddad forgot to ask Rob Perry why the last of his four sign requests had still not been taken care of by DPW, or --- or, or, or -- IF OUR $125,000 DPW SUPERINTENDENT WAS EVEN AWARE OF THE REQUESTED SIGN FOR 7TH & STATE THAT WAS MADE TO DAVID MILLER ON JUNE 1ST!  Henry, sitting at the same table with Mr. Perry, either forgot about that sign request of his (it has been a while!) or he has just given up on caring if the sign ever appears.  A sign that just might save someone's life.

And why would anyone expect Infrastructure Committee chair Jason Foster to ask attendee DPW Superintendent Rob Perry about an unresolved traffic sign request that was made six weeks prior to the second-in-command of the department concerned with law enforcement at a meeting of a committee supposedly concerned with safety issues that Jason was not a part of and never is?

Thank you, Margaret Morris, for creating a dysfunctional system of committees so that nothing worthwhile will ever get accomplished!