Sometimes it takes time and distance to get a better perspective on a problem. Having moved from Coronado to Pine Valley in 2006, every time I come to town to visit family I am thunderstruck by the volume of traffic and the outright unnavigable mess that Coronado traffic has become……and that is saying something as it has been a mess since the bridge tolls were removed in 2003, if memory serves me.
In response to the recent injury to a young man crossing Fourth Avenue, the City Council has proposed AGAIN closing A, B and C Avenues to cross town traffic from Third and Fourth…effectively making the street a cul de sac, a privilege no other street in this town has. Coronado has seen this stupidity before in 2003 after the tolls came off the bridge and traffic flooded into town. I might add that Mayor Tanaka was on the City Council when former Mayor Smisek and the City Council erected barriers prohibiting cars from turning onto A, B and C from Third Street; in the process doing so without an Environmental Impact Report. A court ruled that the erection of the barriers violated CEQA and ordered the City to do an EIR TO TAKE THEM DOWN. Never mind that the city violated CEQA putting them up without an EIR. The EIR would have cost the city about $200,000. In the meantime enraged local citizens, myself among them, who saw the traffic count on D Avenue spike to a steady 3500 CARS A DAY as a result of closing A, B and C gathered signatures and put an initiative on the ballot to remove the barriers which became Proposition M. It passed overwhelmingly in the 2004 election by a 3270 vote margin, in the process saving the city the $200,000 that an EIR would have cost.
If I understand Mayor Tanaka’s comments, he intends to circumvent the necessity of an EIR by putting such a closure to a vote of the citizens of Coronado, as initiatives do not require an EIR. Whether an initiative sponsored by the Council would fall in the same category as a citizen sponsored initiative remains to be seen. Talk about hubris!
The last time the 300 Block of A, B, and C Avenues were closed and traffic was diverted, Orange Avenue lacked the capacity to absorb the increased traffic and today the traffic is even worse! Traffic today is often backed up for for blocks on 3rd Street waiting to turn left onto Orange Avenue. The people whose homes line Third Street are inundated daily.
The City Council needs to propose a real long term traffic solution rather than reverting to their failed playbook of moving traffic from one street to another. Of course there is no effective way to remove the ever increasing volume of traffic from Third and Fourth Streets, the count of which exceeds the traffic going past Lindbergh Field, unless you actually remove it! Unfortunately the loudest voices prevailed and the Tunnel Project, which was moving through the final EIR stages necessary to even begin construction, was canceled by a vote of the citizens (yet again proposed by Mayor Tanaka if I remember correctly) thereby closing off the only real option for removing the traffic from Third and Fourth short of closing down North Island and NAB. Does anybody else see a pattern of behavior on tough questions by the Mayor and the City Council?
So what can be done to tame the beast of base destined traffic that is and has been destroying the quality of life for the residents who live along these streets? The City could take back Third and Fourth from the State and impose lower speed limits. Also the City could work with Coronado’s Assembly and Senate representatives to reimpose the tolls on the bridge. Try crossing the Golden Gate without paying the toll! The volume of traffic and the problems it causes is a function of a constant stream of increasing traffic dumped relentlessly into town. Those folks who have lived here more than 14 years can recall when there were tolls and the traffic was backed onto the bridge and not city streets lined with people’s homes! On the outbound on Fourth more needs to be done with the Navy to stagger exiting traffic as well as reducing the number of cars to the base either through incentives or some other method of reducing the population of commuters.
Succeeding Councils over the years have played politics with this issue and accomplished nothing. As an example, where are the bulb outs from the Committee chaired by former Councilman Phil Monroe that would have narrowed Third and Fourth and made crossing them safer? Where is anything? Coronado has even more traffic, going faster on stretches of Fourth Street than before, now that the speed limit has been RAISED! The people who live on Fourth and Third and A, B, C down to Alameda deserve a more effective game plan than this one put forth by the usual politician responding to the last loud voice he or she heard with some cockamamie failed idea that has already been rejected, all because he has done absolutely nothing in the past eight years to change the status quo and solve the problem.
Story Vogel
Pine Valley, California
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Pine Valley, California
