[OldNorth] No Old North Meeting in May

[Steve Tracy]

Hit the wrong key before I meant to send this. 

The bottom line is, we don’t have to toe the line with the Davis PD. Nobody there has any grounding in street design. 

Steve. 

Sent from my iPhone

> On May 19, 2020, at 9:51 PM, Steve Tracy <tracysteve642 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Angela. 
> 
> I believe the police are giving you an excuse, not a reason.  
> 
> I was fortunate to work for many years with Judy Corbett and Dan Burden as they developed better street designs in communities all over California and other towns in the US, 
> 
> Attacking excess travel lane width was the first and easiest tactic we looked at where Caltrans’ 12 to 14 foot width standards had been utilized in the past. 
> 
> A typical post-war main street In America had two lanes in each direction with 8 foot wide Parking stalls. 
> 
> Across the top of downtown Davis, 48 to 50 foot wide 5th Street used to have two lanes in each direction. That meant no parking, which hampered commercial possibilities. A blessing of sorts, it also meant the ever more popular Farmers Market in Central Park was affected. 
> 
> Many people back then chose to park in Old North Davis, including the School District headquarters parking lot. But that meant they were forced to run for their lives to cross 5th Street at C Street. 
> 
> One weekend when Cyndi and I were out of town, daughter Michelle and her boyfriend drew up some 2 by 3 foot renderings of the better street and how it would work. They took a couple of easels and some petition sheets to the Saturday Farmers Market, and stood by the Hattie Weber Museum and hit on people who had just run across 5th Street. 
> 
> Literally hundreds of people signed the petition. The following three weeks we had Bike Davis members at both ends of the Farmers Market with petition sheets. 
> 
> I forget the full count we collected, but is was several thousand signatures in the end. 
> 
> I do not recall if City Staff put the issue on an agenda, or if they resisted and we had to stand in line during public comment. We put a few copies of the full signature pages on the staff table for the Council members. As those were Passed down the line we could see Council members wincing as they saw the many signatures of their donors and supporters. 
> 
> Anyway, a full hearing was scheduled, with 5th Street as the dominant topic, and the massive signature list in play. 
> 
> The Council made the right decision, and the result was the better, safer, calmer, two-lane with turn lanes and bike lanes street we now have. 
> 
> Steve. 
> 
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone
> 
>> On May 19, 2020, at 8:20 PM, Angela Willson <angela729 at mac.com> wrote:
>>