It is always amazing to me when a 10 million dollar project overlooks the most basic item, pedestrian safety.  On opening day I walked from my house on Newcastle down the trail for opening events.  I had known already that Newcastle would be shut down so for that day I wasn’t worried about getting hit by a car.  There were police on every corner directing traffic and it couldn’t have been safer.

The problem is walking to Evelyn’s park is dangerous. I have started walking the trail daily and crossing Bellaire is always my concern.  8 lanes of traffic, cars all in a hurry to go nowhere.  Walking everyday I have seen people at all hours of the day and have seen what people have to do to cross the street.  If you are walking southbound on Newcastle when you get to Town Oaks Pl you can see how far Bellaire is vs just walking across the street and you can walk in the park through the driveway entrance.  When you walk on Newcastle southbound, you see what amounts to a wall made of plants and flowers.  Once you walk you have no choice other to go all the way down to Bellaire and then try to cross at the crosswalk.  If you are walking you want the easiest way into the park and that is to skip the crosswalk.  This leaves crossing over at Live Oak and then finding the grass roped off and a sign saying keep of the grass, walking through the plants, or to Bellaire.  The easiest way is to just add a crosswalk and sidewalk.

I took some pictures watching how the women and small children are forced to cross Newcastle where there is no crosswalk at Camila.

There is no sidewalk on the east side of Newcastle and people have to walk in the grass, if it isnt roped off.  It seems the people living around the park can create their own laws and attempt to prevent people from LAWFULLY parking on a PUBLIC street.

It boggles my mind that the owner on the corner feels he is better than everyone else and can place cones blocking the public street and the public easement.

It seems after the crime scene tape was brought up at the last city council meeting it was moved back to what seems to be his property line. Then the owner put up this sign.  It says, “Please do not walk on the grass. The sign was on the city easement side. It has now been moved onto his property line, off the concrete.  It creates issues where people want to respect the home owner, but they want to be safe.  The sign and tape should be removed immediately.

For some reason they haven’t been removed and I am amazed every time I walk past this.  On the other side of the street there are fancy signs that look official that say no parking, ON A PUBLIC STREET. These need to be removed as well.

The illegal blocking of public roadways needs to be stopped immediately! There needs to be a sidewalk installed from Acacia to the park and there should be a crosswalk installed like at Evergreen park for pedestrian crossing.  They also need to re-stripe the crosswalk at Bellaire in all directions. The lines are faded and older lines are still showing and it is hard to distinguish where the walk area is.

Monday should be quite the show, between this and dogs it should be a fun night. See you there.