Destination
The City Council wants to make Seal Beach a “destination”? Sorry, they’re a little late for that. Everyone knows about Seal Beach and Main Street. Has the City Council ever tried driving down Main Street or walk on it’s sidewalks? We have hordes of people coming there. The problem is, too many of them aren’t coming here to spend money and support our town. But our visitors and for that matter, our residents, who want to use our shops and restaurants, thus support our town, are being shoved out. People who previously patronized our town are starting to go elsewhere in significant numbers. People who come here to spend money wouldn’t mind paying a little for parking. But they don’t want to have to fight traffic or people over parking spots. We have less parking here than when I came here in 1977. In the past, when our city outgrew our parking and our smalltown atmosphere was damaged by traffic and parking hassles, our city council came up with ways of creating more actual parking rather than taking away parking, which has become the trend for way too long now. We need the City Council to step up and not just claw back parking spots that were stolen for other uses, but create new parking.
We don’t need to throw more bodies and traffic at our small town. We need to make it friendly to the people who actually want to support our town and its financial health and preserve it’s small town feel atmosphere.
Woody Woodruff
A letter to our City Council
Some of the residents of First Street have been feeling like your illegitimate stepchildren! Back when our current mayor was first running for a seat on the council, we at Riverbeach were promised help to resolve the ongoing bus situation which now starts at 5 a.m. As I have stated many times, the buses are 99.9% empty. I don’t wish anyone not to have a means of transportation but can’t we put it somewhere else where people might actually ride it?
Now that we are dealing with the Shea Homes development the congestion here is making it a very dangerous area. With the signal down we have observed vehicles approach the intersection and, if they see it’s clear, they don’t even slow down. Of course, that is always the case with the bike riders who feel they are above the law. We are also experiencing dump trucks and cement trucks etc., who like to show up well before 7 a.m. and idle right out front of our complex. Not to mention the noise and the dirt and the dust. Is it going to take a serious accident or a fatality for you to act? I’ve also been informed the north side of 1st Street near the new development will be a “No Parking Zone”.
In my opinion this whole situation is a travesty!!!!!!!! Would someone please take the bull by the horns and get us some relief?
Respectfully
Stephanie Sweeney
An act of kindness
This letter is to acknowledge an act of kindness here in Seal Beach. Last week while taking a walk that included the pier, I lost my driver’s license. When I returned home I realized I had lost it. While I was calling places I had stopped, there was a knock on my front gate. There stood a smiling man who said “Guess what I found?” He said he had found it on the pier and had tried a few restaurants to see if I might be there. He had biked here from Cerritos, so he went to the trouble of finding my home. I thanked him sincerely, but he left before I could tell him how much I appreciated the effort he had taken to find me. If he had mailed it I probably would have spent much time and trouble getting a new license. I hope perhaps on his weekly biking he may pick up the Sun and read this letter.
Carol Swanson
Pedestrian safety in Leisure World
Pedestrian safety is one of the reasons cited for a proposed program that would bring city police traffic enforcement into Leisure World.
We already have Stop signs and painted crosswalks, most with flags and at least one with lights that flash. Whether other such devices might be available is hard to imagine, but if there are more, shouldn’t we try those first? And if there are simpler remedies, shouldn’t we try those first? Just two:
Remove a few parking spaces at specific places to improve pedestrians’ view of oncoming traffic. No cost but a few buckets of paint.
There are inexpensive LED devices that could make walking after dark safer. They could be distributed community-wide at a relatively little cost.
We know the proposed program doesn’t station a policeman at each crosswalk; so what makes it more effective for pedestrian safety than some simpler measures? There is, of course another consideration. Experience tells us that the $200,000 already spent and the Police Department’s new cost will want to be justified and recouped. If the program is put into action, we can probably look forward to more and larger fines and much stricter enforcement of even more regulations.
Then too, a $200,000 expenditure is a heavy thumb on the decision scale. Is the program still subject to decision, or does the expenditure make it inevitable?
Len Diamond
Leisure World
