Who was responsible for changing C Street, just above 6th Street, from two way traffic to a one way Street complete with “islands”? Are there plans to take this monstrosity to other streets in the City, if so why!

— John B

Responses

Anil Dwivedi

I understand the frustration. When the City makes a major change to a street that people use every day, residents deserve to know who made the decision, why it was necessary, how much it cost, and whether the public was meaningfully heard before it happened.

I am not going to point fingers without first reviewing the facts behind this particular project. But as Mayor, my approach would be simple: no redesign for the sake of redesign. Changes to our streets should have a clear purpose improving safety, traffic flow, accessibility, or the quality of life for the people who actually use them.

If a project isn’t working as intended, we shouldn’t be too proud to revisit it.

City Hall should make Eureka easier to navigate not leave residents asking, “Who thought this was a good idea?”

 

Anil Dwivedi

Casey Dresser

The project was voted on by Eureka City Council and narrowly passed. Three council members voted for it, and two voted against it. I do not think that city leadership should even be discussing things like bicycle boulevards and unnecessary one way streets to go with them, when we have real life problems to grapple with. This is unacceptable. We need to address the homeless problem, crime and the blight around town before anything else. The safety and well being of our citizens should always come first and be the number one concern of city leadership. Long before any vanity projects, like bicycle boulevards, can ever be discussed or considered.

Kim Bergel

The Bike Safety Plan has been a work in progress since I was on Transportation Saftey Commission, nearly 18 years ago. Two streets have been identified for bike boulevards, C and G Streets. Plans like these take time to implement. At the time as a mother with 2 small children riding our bikes all over the city I saw first  hand the dangers of cycling in our city. Implementation of measures such as this are important safety measures.

What is often overlooked is that these types of projects are very competetive when it comes to securing grant funding. Not only do these types if projects enable the City to enhance safety, they provide funding to repave the streets. If staff did not secure the funding for this ptoject, C Street would not have been repaved for years from now due to its low volume. Because of this grant, C Street has been freshly repaved.

Our City embraces all modes of transportation and safety measures must take priority.

 

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