The Haight of Insanity: Safety Overview of a Street with Four Schools

[XLFD]

"The height of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result." -Albert Einstein

 

Protecting our children should be one of our highest priorities.  We can expect them to be reasonably safe at school, and safe at home, but what about the areas in between.  Haight-Anderson-Lawndale Streets are all on the same line going across Ludington from east-west starting at Nelson Road and ending at M-116:

 The front doors of Franklin Elementary and Lakeview Elementary open out to these streets, and this meridian also abuts Ludington High School, which attaches to the Middle School.  Four schools that serve our community. 

 

We can bus or drive our children to and from school; most do.  Particularly if they have seen or experienced the difficulty in walking or biking safely to any school due to a lack of sound policy in our basic infrastructure.  Is this a good idea though—to get them accustomed to using vehicles to get from one place to another.  Such habits may lead to obesity, laziness, increased traffic and pollution, and rising demands/costs of fuel.

 

Our local government will apply for grants from the federal Safe Routes to School program, and ignore the extent of the problem, which would require a lot more dedication and financing than a couple thousand dollars used for pamphlets and walk-throughs.  Of course, once they receive the token monies, they are free to devote their attention elsewhere, and ignore the growing problem as they continue to devote less and less to the city sidewalk maintenance budget, and less will to developing solutions for the growing dangers.

 

So here’s the scenario—we are going to do a virtual walk down these avenues (the orange arrow on the map) and try to identify the existing problems and think of possible solutions.  We start at the corner of Lawndale and Nelson.

 

Surprisingly, there are a few kids who start their travel to school before they get here.  Kids in various residential areas on Jebavy , Limouze, Barton, and Bonnie Streets will take this path to get to their school.  Those areas are outside the city proper and have little facility for bikes and walkers.  This year the school day is starting the same for all, but in the past, the older kids would go through this area in complete darkness (check the absence of street lights and dense trees), nowadays it will still be dark most of the school year.  Although the north (your right) side of the road is in the City proper, and sidewalks should have been put in by law when Pineway was constructed, there is none.  The south side has no such mandate, but the addition of street lights and sidewalks on the north side of the road would make a difference.  Note also how the trees and hills block the kids from walking much off the road.

 

Around this point some street lights exist, and Pineway kids join the mix.  As before there are no sidewalks or shoulder on the sides of the road-- the sidewalks near the AFC to the far right just go around that facility.  The right-of-way (ROW) opens up a little, allowing kids to walk to the side of the road.

 

The lighting situation is still sparse after getting past the hospital.  The north side ROW gets cluttered.  No sidewalks, amazingly, all along the back border of the hospital, and abutting the medical office buildings that have been built since 1984, and should have by law had sidewalks along Lawndale.  Safety and sidewalks bad for business, perhaps?

 

The Lawndale Apts. builders in 1994 (to the left), made a home for senior citizens; they didn’t want them to walk down the roadside safely.  To the north, a few sidewalks have been installed, but they also get their share of parked vehicles on them, making them effectively useless. 

 

The end of Lawndale sees landscapers winning the battle against sidewalks and the hidden stop sign on Staffon.  Pedestrians who should be travelling on the left side of the road, should not cross until they reach Staffon, and then continue on the un-sidewalked shoulder there.  Kids don’t always have such patience, so as a motorist be careful at this corner, and the streetlights are still not very good here, though they will be adequate past this point.

 

Kids coming up Staffon join the mix, some of these come from points to the southeast.  North Staffon homeowners  (as well as Pine, Maple, Jackson Streeters) have already travelled in the road from their houses due to the near complete absence of sidewalks or paths.  A block from the Franklin Elementary School and these intersections scream danger for all that pass through.  The only thing safe about this area is the visible stop sign on this corner.

 

The north side has sidewalk thoughout Anderson, but check out dearth on the south side.  One homeowner has put up two ROW-blocking structures on his property, practically across from Franklin Elem.  It’s amazing how a code-enforcer can get on your case for a ‘yard sale sign’ put in the ROW, but has no problem with this perennial jerk that endangers our kids.

 

The south side on Anderson continues to have gaps in the sidewalks.  The first gap here happens to be the house of Mike Nekola, a member of the City Planning Commission, and the chairman of its’ Special Land Use Committee, and he is also on the Block Grant Steering Committee.  His community involvement is commendable—but maybe he could plan on steering some of his money for a special purpose—to build a sidewalk across from the schools where our children go. 

 

Haight Street begins at Washington.  A common sight, no sidewalks to be seen down the street.  The ROW isn’t as blocked as other areas have been.  This is one block away from both the high and elementary schools.

 

Sidewalks are on the next block to the south, about halfway down they start to the north, after a difficult ROW to start.

 

The next block, sidewalks go halfway to the south and north, reducing their effectiveness.  Note the two vehicles blocking the sidewalk to the south.  That could be two parking tickets worth $60 total.  Parking enforcers don’t bother with these, I’ve noted, in this city.

 

The end of the prior block, shows the hilly ROW to the north with no sidewalk, and then the lack of sidewalk down the next block’s south side.  Notice a pattern of helter-skelter paving yet?

 

Next two blocks, still nothing to the south, a bit better to the north.

 

Further down, the trend continues, the north side will be sidewalked all the way to Lakeview Elem. , and the south side will have none, yet be passable. 

 

 

 Lakeview Elem.  Notice when school starts partial or total blockage of the north sidewalk by parked vehicles.  The south side and street also has its blockages by an inconsiderate homeowner, as seen on the bottom picture. 

 

 

 West of Lakeview.  Those who come up or down from this side to get on Haight, will be disappointed about the lack of pedestrian facilities, particularly to the south.  My pictures from the Gus Macker tournament show more of the deficiencies in this area.

 

 Improved lighting where needed, clearer right-of-ways everywhere, stricter enforcement on ROW/sidewalk obstructions, visible traffic signs, enforcement of mandated sidewalks that haven’t been built, and more sidewalks close to the schools are a bare minimum of what we should be doing as a community.  The fact that we aren’t will likely lead to another unnecessary death in the near future, and impel caring  parents to drive their kids a couple of blocks to school and back. 

[Sweater Cows!]

RE: pineway was there before the street, that used to be woods until they cut the street through there a couple years ago. The street used to stop at the back of the hospital it did not go thruogh to nelson

[XLFD]

I think you're right, Sheila, because I've always wondered why the Pineway complex did not have a second access route on Lawndale. I really was never over in this neck of the woods until recent. As for Pineway, to me it has always seemed somewhat unsafe and against federal law to have just one access into such a place, as a fallen tree or brush fire could effectively prohibit any vehicles from going in or out of there until remedied.

[Sweater Cows!]

My kid gets irritated that I always want to walk on the streets and "jaywalk" when crossing. Seems I grew up to... rural... to get the whole sidewalk and crosswalk deal. But if I lived in town I would not be letting my kid walk that route.

Well, I wouldn't period until she is 20 anyway but still it should all be well lit and have sidewalks.

Of course I always tell her to stay in the dark as that way the monsters, ghosts and bad ppl can't see/find you. I don't like having to go under the street lights on the corners. 'they' might get me. Yep, I'm weird anyway.

[XLFD]

Custer doesn't really have too much 'crazy traffic' beyond the two major crossroads, and is pretty good as far as walkable shoulders go elsewhere. Ludington, on the other hand, is more unpredictable and not very user-friendly for alternate transportation modes, particularly in the ROW. And, of course, if you jaywalk or walk on the wrong side of the road here, there are about 15 LPD officers and about the same amount of MCSO employees nearby, ready to ticket you, if they're not hot on the trail of those scofflaw cyclists.

[AQUAMAN]

Too bad Einstein never met Shay.

[XLFD]

Perhaps if that meeting occurred, Einstein could have reminded him that: "Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex... It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction."

[XLFD]

Tomorrow is a local experiment for walking/riding to school, sponsored by our federal friends at Safe Routes to School (SR2S). Three locations are available for parents to drop off their kids so they can walk to Foster school, as explained in Friday's LDN. They will then walk to school from those drop off points as a group.

Driving to a drop off point so that your child can walk to school is pretty silly when one thinks about it. Why don't they just drop them off at the nearby school? Style over substance. Better is to encourage parents to identify the problems that currently exist that prohibit them from letting their kids walk/ride to school (starting from their house) and having the City government and negligent property owners remedy the problems in a systematic manner.

[Willy]

I agree with you on this one XLFD. The Ludington school district should not be encouraging students to walk to school when there are no sidewalks on some of the streets. I think this could be a good time to present the problem of no or incomplete sidewalks to the City and let them know that there is a problem. The big obstacle to installing new sidewalks will be homeowners who will be forced to pay a hefty fee in order to have them installed.

[AQUAMAN]

Sidewalk repairs and installations by the City of Ludington is sub-contracted, and usually bid quite reasonably. It is my understanding that the City and homeowner share the costs of such work 50/50. Usually, the city just adds the cost to the taxpayers real estate tax bills, unless otherwise agreed to in advance. Last year the DPW lady I talked to said only $65K was available in the budget for this sidewalk work, and it was spent already in the first quarter of the new year. Therefore, they have no incentive nor budget for repairs after the first 90-120 days in allocated spending in this area. Conversely, I feel the City should allocate and budget for the needed repairs as they are warranted, and not merely rely on a budget figure to make necessary repairs. They surely have enough monies in savings, and as well are duly responsible to the taxpayers for safety issues of streets and sidewalks.

[XLFD]

Somewhere down the line, the Building Inspectors of Ludington (remember when we used to have one) failed to oversee the City Charter mandate of installing sidewalks at the street abutting new constructions. The policy Aquaman points out above, is pretty accurately described, and shows why there are people around Ludington who, even if they want to install or repair sidewalks, get put on a waiting list because of the lack of funds.

I also have fair reason to believe that current management may not have the best bargain-hunting skills for contracts (to be further expanded on soon), so this further limits them. I talked with someone who has had some experience with putting sidewalks in and was surprised that the actual contractor's costs for labor and materials were significantly less than the amount the city contracted with last year for 301 N William's sidewalk. When you are considering about 600% profit for the contractor, the taxpayers are getting the short end.

[AQUAMAN]

Last I knew, and this is a while ago, they had a local contractor for some sidewalks and a Carr Settlement Co. as another sub-contractor. If the current co. is making 600% profit and not being made to compete with others in a low bid situation, then something smells fishy here. My main point is that the annual allotment of $65K out of a $3Million budget, is about as pitiful an allowance as I can dream of, about what, 2% of the budget. That in itself should tell us something about the priorities the locals get in infrastructure for safety around here. All things being equal, I wouldn't pass another budget like this without at least a 10% allotment towards this infrastructure work, at least until we catch up on the work that is desperately needed and put off for too many years already.

[XLFD]

The total requested for the next three years is under $50,000 for each year. With no Building Inspector, no full-time assessor, and code-enforcers more interested in politics than their jobs, look for more of the same, including more wasteful spending on pet projects of the two Johns.