MAILBAG - Jan. 17, 2008

Study streets before allocating money

Our daughter will be going to Sowers one day, and will take an Indianapolis route as did Danny Oates when he was killed by a 22-year-old in a pickup. As a family, we drive this street often. The area of the accident, in particular, is wide and with good visibility, bike lanes, straight roads, few intersections.

Besides other city streets in entirety, there are other areas of Indianapolis that may be at least as deserving of funding for speed/traffic remediation. For example, about three years ago, a resident’s son was killed while entering his car by a speeding vehicle that swerved into the bike lane where he stood near Farnsworth and Indianapolis.

Our council members have a responsibility to those who elected them to appropriately study and identify how to allocate limited funds. Funding, if available at all, should be equally accessible to any area of the city in similar need. What studies were done specific to speed in this area to warrant this line-item solution? Is this $90,000 city allocation a misdirected knee-jerk reaction to an emotional event?

Until the facts of the Oates case are fully known, the city is not in a position to ‘remediate’ anything. Speed measures, signs and crosswalks may not have changed the behaviors that resulted in this tragedy. As a city, we are setting ourselves up to be the scapegoats for any distracted, impaired, cell-phone using, text-messaging driver and his/her bad decisions. Will the Oates family now sue the city for negligence, as this list of remediation and supportive funding implies we are indeed negligent? It is sad that a family’s personal tragedy can be used as a political “feel good” platform. Ultimately, this Band Aid will cost us more than the $90,000 quoted.

KRISTIN R. STILTON

Huntington Beach

Developers influence local government

In her letter bemoaning the “foggy eyesight and lack of courage” of our city planners and council members (“City Council leadership needs improving,” Jan 10), Marinka Horack got it just about right. She echoed a previous call for leadership with a vision by fellow Southeast Huntington Beach resident John Scott.

Underlying this problem, which can be corrected in the November election, is the undue influence of developers and partisan special interests upon our local government.

One can go back to Poseidon and its desalination plant project or forward to Makar and the proposed senior center to see this insidious process at work. Their vision is totally one of self-interest and the projection of power that comes at the expense of the community.

The courage we are now showing in choosing new national leaders needs to filter down to the city level. We can deliver our own message of “change,” “hope,” and “vision” if we are willing to work for it.

Tim Geddes

Huntington Beach