History

So how did this get out of hand? I guess after 5 years of bickering & going in “circles”, by the residents of this 3 block area, the City was ready to try anything! Although the 85 percentile was only about 34 mph, it’s hard to believe no proven, conventional, Calming Device was good enough! Finally a petition was signed (11-99) by the residents (also one in 7-97) & approved by the Pacific Beach Community Planning Committee in Jan 2000 for Traffic Circles. But did the residents really know what they were getting? And the City know what it was doing?

Apparently the plans (with a Math error) were for a 24’ Circle, while the Street was 40’. Then on 1-24-01, the City told the PBCPC that the Circles were too expensive, & Median Chokers would be installed instead. Really? Two Circles more expensive than Four Chokers?

Could it have been the Fire Dept saying they couldn’t get their Trucks thru, &/or the ADA not liking the idea that the Vehicles, as they circled around, would be circling through the Cross Walks?

It is interesting to note that the Circle Drawing had a “Stepped” Curbing around it, while the Chokers have a sheer, unforgiving, “Vertical” Curbing!?

And this with the Cities written policy of not “boxing” in a street at both ends, because of emergency vehicle access, which this would have happened to Beryl between Gresham & Haines! Isn’t this fun!

Then to top all this off, the idea that some though the Circles would be like the ones (about 20) in the Evergreen Street area, (south of Ocean Beach) which are less then 4’ in diameter, on wider, quieter streets with a Light Post in the center! Unbelievable!

Then more? This complete major change to the street, including the loss of frontage parking, apparently wasn’t much of a concern to the City or PBCPC (non of them lived on Beryl?) as they didn’t go out of their way to make sure all the affected residents were notified of this! And this with the City saying in their Neighborhood Traffic Control pamphlet, “they usually require petitions of support from 75 percent or more of the affective residents”! Ha!!!

Not only have several residents stated they were not informed, but on Sept 20, 2001, a resident wrote to the City asking about the Circles! This almost 8 months after The City notified the PBCPC of the change & only a month before construction began!