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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPublic Comments - UnderwoodGC��dpicc�cP Chula Vista City Council Meeting Tuesday, 6 December 2016 Good evening, honorable members of the Chula Vista City Council. My name is Jane Underwood and I have lived at 168 Whitney Street, Chula Vista, 91910 since November 2013. Thank you for allowing me to speak regarding significant concerns that transcend my own personal hardships during the month of December living in "Christmas Circle". I have been a Chula Vista resident, a Philadelphia PA transplant, for twenty-three years. I am a productive, full time working citizen serving patients as a nurse at the City's larger hospital, Sharp Chula Vista Medical Center. I am on duty a minimum of three 12 -hour shifts per week, starting at 0700 and ending at 1930, although I frequently put in up to an hour of overtime. As you are presumably aware, my short, narrow street and the connecting loop street, Mankato, become "Christmas Circle" for more than half the month of December starting this Saturday, the 10tH The associated problems, most notably major traffic standstill that affects easily close to a one -mile radius, even backing up into the traffic light intersection at First and H, will create undue stress for me and others for a full seventeen nights this year! Aside from extreme inconvenience with long delays to enter and exit our homes, there are public safety and transit flow issues that can no longer be ignored. The population of the City, and the county, have dramatically increased since the old days when Chula Vista was a laid back, open space, lemon town. What made sense 59 years ago is no longer logistically feasible nor sustainable. These tiny residential streets in Old Chula Vista, and the one -lane secondary roads that feed into them, were not designed for the inundation of hundreds and thousands of cars night after night. The traffic congestion is not "minor", and it is not just a "few nights". It is unacceptable for LA freeway volume traffic impasse to be sanctioned for SEVENTEEN nights, more than half the month of December, for five or more hours a night. There is an inevitable disaster, a sentinel event, not to mention collisions and altercations, to be proactively averted at this point. To quote two of my neighbors, both longtime homeowners on Whitney, "this is a lawsuit waiting to happen". It is unfathomable to me, and to my assenting neighbors, that the City sanctions this level of traffic obstruction year after year, allowing backlog that would not be expeditiously cleared at any other time under any other circumstance. Traffic collisions, stalled vehicles, pedestrian versus motor vehicle, fallen trees, other debris in the road are all cleared in short order as a priority. Traffic flow is restored as quickly as is feasibly possible. However, somehow the smooth, uninterrupted flow of traffic on First and Second Aves, and between J & H Streets, is of no importance, logic and.order set aside, for the month of December. Why? So hundreds and thousands of vehicles from all over the county can funnel into two short, narrow streets. The City not only endorses this planned chaos and congestion but, redirects traffic, making legal turns illegal, making two-way streets one-way with official signage, and posting signs threatening to have residents' cars towed from in front of their own homes! All to accommodate an endless of procession of vehicles from 1700 until 2200 or later for 17 nights! It is madness! Except for the month of December, living in my rental home has been convenient and reasonable. The neighborhood is relatively safe, I run on all my days off, and most of the neighbors are friendly. Most importantly, though, my commute to work is short. 4.2 miles, and approximately 10-15 minutes both to and from work. However, during the "Christmas Circle" nights, I can expect my commute home to take up to an hour! This is very difficult to endure, as it literally costs me precious rest 1 need after working my long shifts in the hospital. Nurses work tirelessly, and to exhaustion. What we do is mentally and physically depleting. I need to get home as soon as possible, shower, and get to bed, so I can get up early the next morning to do it all over again. The time I spend waiting in bumper -to -bumper traffic on First or Second Street to Whitney to get home is time I should be in bed sleeping. I totally and completely resent that I am being forced to wait in a long line just to get into my own driveway! I have tried all different routes, all access points, but there is very little difference. As I clearly stated, traffic is backed up for easily a mile in all directions. One weeknight, I chose to drive home from work via H St from the freeway. That was a mistake. I waited a full six cycles to make the turn at the light at First, with traffic backed up starting just past Hilltop. Although I was the first car to turn on my green arrow, the cars in the opposite direction turning right on red heading toward Mankato to enter "Christmas Circle" blocked me after I was already in the intersection. I was in the precarious position of obstructing oncoming traffic, perpendicular to flow, with nowhere to go! There were no police cars to abate this. My Honda CRV is certainly smaller than an emergency medical response vehicle, and I can't squeeze around the traffic to slip through (especially on the bordering streets that feed into the loop) so how could an ambulance or fire engine get through in the event of an emergency? A medical crisis? A fire? Many of my neighbors are elderly and the prospect of one of them suffering an acute MI is not farfetched. My next door neighbor has had illegal bond fires on his front lawn, just feet away from my living room window. How will a fire truck get to me on time to extinguish a blaze? Access for emergency vehicles at all times should be mandated in the City charter, I would think. To put the residents of not only Whitney/Mankato but also I, J, First and Second at risk of not receiving prompt emergency medical attention due to traffic obstruction that has been blessed by the City is unconscionable. The suggestion I would put forth, which makes perfect sense and should satisfy all reasonable people, is to make the "Christmas Circle" decoration and light show a walk -through -view only. Signs could be posted at the both ends of the loop prohibiting access to all but residents and their visitors. Law enforcement resources are already being allocated, so police cars could be parked at each end to check for placards or stickers. They could also have a list of the residents' vehicles and license plates. It is certainly a feasible solution which has already been successfully implemented and enforced in other communities nationwide. My brother's Bensalem PA neighborhood has a truly magnificent light display. Visitors park their cars in the Bensalem High School Parking lot and ride a designated school shuttle bus to tour the streets. It is like waiting in line for the rides at Disneyland. Nobody minds the long wait because they consider it worth it. There is a wide open free parking lot less than a mile up the street at the Chula Vista Mall. Spaces in front of Sears are more than abundant. I myself walk much further than, past the mall, regularly. It is not onerous at all for able bodied people. Those who are not ambulatory could ride the tour bus. Perhaps the obsessed organizers of "Christmas Circle" would be willing to donate the cost of the shuttle and driver. Or, the City could commission such a tour bus. It probably would be an overall savings compared to the status quo. The City should be clear that the "Christmas Circle" "tradition", contrary to assumptions implied in my first email from my council woman, Ms. Aguilar, is not unanimously and democratically endorsed by all residents of the houses on Whitney and Mankato Streets. Rather, it is being driven by a handful, perhaps three households at the most, of retired women who are in their 60s or older, who have lived here for decades, or even inherited the properties from their parents. The 'organizer' on my street, at 130 Whitney, I learned just today, is the daughter of one of the original "Christmas Circle" establishers from 59 years ago. She inherited the house, of course, and has not worked in many years. I have not been included in any community meetings to plan or discuss this "tradition". None of these 'organizers' has ever approached me to elicit my feedback or input. This show is being run by tyrants who have no concern for the negative impact on the rest of us who still have to go to, and come home from, work and are too tired to endure a long wait in intolerable gridlock just to get in and out. In a casual walk around the loop one recent evening, I spoke to every neighbor who happened to be outside their home or walking. I spoke with two, including one who was no doubt an 'organizer' who told me "I've lived here 33 years...", both retired, who were adamant in wanting no changes, both denying that there was any traffic issue. (It is one thing to not see it as a problem that needs to be solved, it is quite another to deny the actual reality of the traffic itself.) However, I talked to several others who were in complete agreement with me about the need for traffic mitigation. They favored the a pedestrian -access -only plan. One was a young nurse with small children at 161 Mankato. They bought their home about two years ago. The other was a guy about my age, 183 Mankato, who told me he had to park his truck several blocks away and walk home when he got off work. The other two were guys in their 60s whom I speak to all the time who both said, they are "fed up" and "this is a lawsuit waiting to happen". They live at 136 and 152 Whitney, respectively. My new neighbor next door, who will have her first Christmas here, has confided that, "I don't know I have gotten myself into". There are four working adults with four vehicles in that household. Perhaps the City, in addition to coming up with a logical and reasonable, enforceable traffic mitigation plan for what is about to begin again this coming Saturday evening, should survey all the residents of Whitney and Mankato. The residents of the bordering streets are affected by this, too, so they should be polled as well. Solicit responses to questions about "Christmas Circle" and how it has affected their quality of life. Ask if anyone favors change, views the traffic as an issue requiring an action plan, etc. Those who are apathetic may not return the surveys but, those with strong opinions one way or another surely will. That is the only way you will be able to gauge community sentiments. Don't assume that this is supported by all, as the 'organizers' who presume to speak for the rest of us would have you believe. In any case, a large City cannot allow this level of traffic backup to occur for more than half the month of December. I want to love and look forward to Christmas, as I always have, again. I also don't want to be forced to move just because of a few tyrannical, inconsiderate, self-centered retired old women who want to relive their childhood every year as if it was still 1957. It is 2016 and the traffic is out of control.