Mari,
I hear you, many but not all of the folks who have lived, here for many years you, man of the folks who have lived here for not very many years hear you and if Steel Head trout could hear they would hear you.
Sadly your voice, mine and the voices of Frank, Keith, Laura, Diane, Louise, Gail, Dan, Pierre, Bob, Kathy, Michael and many, many other Evergreen and HV folks has been drowned out by the clink of a commercial educational corporation's tuition in its coffers and the whir of its clients luxury SUV's whizzing up and down Evergreen Ave. causing the 20 or less morning only park and walk commuting children of its well heeled clients to feel uncomfortable walking to school along semi-rural 100 year old accident free Evergreen Ave.
I have no sympathy for bureaucrats who are only employed by DPW as "engineers" because they seek the security, benefits and pensions of the County which they could not find in the private sector.
Given the number professional professional planning, programing, conceptual, preliminary and final design and aerrors they have committed these bureaucrats would have been terminated within one month of their employment by most professional design and engineering firm.
Their most glaring unprofessional errors were to: Not meet with the folks from Evergreen Ave., MHS and HV community to develope together a safe route for all; Design with the manmade and natural elements of Evergreen Ave. and HV; and to select construction design methods and materials compatible with the historic character and quality of Evergreen Ave. and HV.
As a retired architect urban designer I don't feel for these County bureaucrats who appear by their actions, designs and product to be totally ignorant of community and urban design methods, means and practices for working with communities developed over the past 60 years.
I'm saddened that HV and Evergreen Ave. folks and MHS' few park and walk clients won't have a tree lined, ADA compliant 4'-0" wide impervious earth toned asphalt pathway to walk on similar to those ADA asphalt pathways at Muir Woods National Park.
I'm heartened by new DPW's Bob Beaumont listening and directing that two Melrose Ave crosswalks be redesigned to eliminate one.
Would that Bob were on-board in July 2010 in lieu of old-school bureaucrat Mansourin.
I'm unhappy as I'm sure many Evergreen Ave., HV folks and maybe some MHS folks are over the unconscious destruction of: Evergreen Ave.s historic semi-rural quality and character; Many mature flowering wild plum trees; The curb appeal of Evergreen Ave. homes and especially; the habitat of endangered Steel Head trout.
I wonder if Chuck Oldenberg is up to documenting the Evergreen Ave. that was and how it was lost to the demands of the automobile?
Demands which were perceived to endanger pedestrians so historic Evergreen Ave. had to go the way of the buggy whip.
Sadly perhaps it's wiser not to whistle Dixie as the County doesn't have $500,000 or more to demolish what it has wrought nor another $500,000 or more to construct a pathway.
