“I get more cheers than jeers,” said Joseph Pi\u00f1a, the parent who a couple of years ago decided something had to be done about all the harried drivers and near-misses threatening the safe arrival and departure of youngsters at Ocean Beach Elementary.
\nThe thank-yous are heart-warming and memorable for Pi\u00f1a, the first parent to step forward after the school had discontinued its student crosswalk guards. Recently, Pi\u00f1a got a big hug from a misty-eyed mother who spotted him in his neon-yellow vest that says “Emma\u2019s Dad” on the back. She told him to keep up the good work.
\nYet Pi\u00f1a also hears pushback from some drivers who snub the handful of volunteers and their efforts. There\u2019s a particularly cringe-worthy comment some make that belies the orange cones, sandwich-board signs that say “School Crossing” and high-energy volunteers who work smack-dab in the middle of the 4700 block of Santa Monica Avenue where mostly kindergarten-age kids cross.
\n“It\u2019s not a real crosswalk,” one driver said mockingly.
\nIt\u2019s a remark usually borne of frustration from parents who are too time-depraved to observe laws \u2014 and common-sense practices \u2014 when it comes to double parking, U-turns, hurried drop-offs and three-minute parking zones.
\nBut when the Ocean Beach Planning Board this month voted on what to do about that curious spot that has two parallel lines that were originally painted yellow but then topped with black paint days later because of a city miscue, the decision brought nothing but cheers.
\nThe board Feb. 5 settled what supporters hope is the final detail holding up construction of a new, “real” crosswalk. After hearing audience members sound off on four options, the board voted unanimously in favor of the “shovel-ready” alternative: a raised, concrete crosswalk with curb cuts that will allow wheelchair access and act as a speed bump.
\nThe project will cost around $13,000 and already has the necessary funding, said John Ly, aide to District 2 San Diego City Councilmember Kevin Faulconer, who sought the board\u2019s help to reach a consensus on the design.
\nSome parents had expressed support for an alternative that eliminated curb cuts, with the speed bump\/crosswalk flush with the sidewalk. The design, based on a crosswalk at the Belly-Up Tavern in Solana Beach, could have included landscaping and features intended to improve accessibility and stormwater flow.
\nBut when Ly revealed it would require further design and cost more than $60,000, support for that alternative evaporated and swung to the “take-the-money-and-run” option, as Pi\u00f1a put it.
\n“As long as we can at least get something to slow people down,” said Suzy Reid, a mother of two Ocean Beach Elementary students who holds leadership positions on the school\u2019s Site Governance Team and School Site Council. “All of our parents are really looking forward to this. We\u2019ve been talking about this for years.”
\nA timeline was not available. Gary Pence, the city\u2019s senior traffic engineer for the project, said in an email he needed time to work out details between the school and the city\u2019s Streets Division.
\nThe yellow-line crosswalk that used to be there is an oddity of almost folkloric proportion. Immediately after it was painted, the city realized it committed a violation because a mid-block crosswalk has to be accompanied by a streetlight. When a work crew returned days later, it laid down black paint directly on top of the yellow lines without blending, so the outlines are still prominent.
\nPublic pressure for a streetlight intensified last year. It was installed on the south side of Santa Monica Avenue two months ago.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“I get more cheers than jeers,” said Joseph Pi\u00f1a, the parent who a couple of years ago decided something had to be done about all the harried drivers and near-misses threatening the safe arrival and departure of youngsters at Ocean Beach Elementary. The thank-yous are heart-warming and memorable for Pi\u00f1a, the first parent to step […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":279497,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11561","_seopress_titles_title":"Planners give nod to long-festering crosswalk project at OB Elementary","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551,11561],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-279496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-peninsula-beacon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279496\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}