From Hillcrester Walt Chambers….
Council moves SANDAG plan ahead
For such late notice, I was impressed by the number of people who attended yesterday afternoon’s City Council meeting. Four people spoke very passionately and eloquently in opposition to the Park Blvd portion of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT). Each requested a continuance of the issue. One spoke in favor. Miriam Kirshner and other SANDAG representatives were there to try and put a favorable light on the project.
It appeared to me that Councilmember Gloria was shaken by the continued opposition. Good. He should be. Kevin Faulconer made a good case for continuance, and questioned SANDAG as to why it had not returned to the community planning groups to seek approval for the project. I suspect that SANDAG will be heading back to the Uptown Planners and the North Park Planning Group soon after such admonishment. I’ll be right there to make sure that the Livable Streets side is heard loud and clear.
In the end, Kevin Faulconer and Carl DeMaio voted against the measure. All others voted for it. It passed.
Sadly, the project is spoken about only in terms of transit and the benefits of transit. Never was livable streets, quality of life, complete streets, or how people would be effected mentioned. By taking the human factor out of the equation, SANDAG is given free reign to run roughshod over our neighborhood. And it is a neighborhood — not just a transit corridor. We need to remind them continuously.
