The North County Times article speaks to our city's real problem (from residents point of view and from an sound ecosystem point of view) with the aggressive butchering of trees to achieve ill-defined, questionably justified planning goals and parks and recreation practices (separate but equally destructive for trees).
This article contains a list of all of the 82 Special Status Streets that were given exemptions from mandatory widths dictated by codes. Nothing has been allowed this exemption since 1993 or since the current city council majority has been in power.
It's time to redefine what these roadway codes are and why they take precedence over all of the people who live along these streets, like the Crest Drive neighbors and the Wotan Drive neighbors in the article who are petitioning the city.
More than a decade of relying on developer deals to run a city in a piecemeal fashion for a revenue stream or infrastructure improvements, insensitive to safe and sustainable living for the children, the people, wildlife and the trees (always working 24/7 though far older than most residents) is blind to reality.
This isn't a simplistic challenge. This is a giant connect the dots with vision and intelligence. It demands the kind of coordination between traffic, housing, public health, environmental limits, economic changes and other criteria within our General Plan. The need for the status quo to be revisited is the very reason the update to our General Plan was needed and why discarding and / or disallowing diverse voices now is a big mistake.
This week one council agenda item will be to discuss the study findings for widening a portion of Manchester Avenue. Those neighbors spoke out with the same concerns of these people in the article above, so we are all connected.
image credit: 11:11
