Remarks by Peggy Esposito to Piedmont City Council – August 2, 2010

Good evening Mayor Barbieri, Councilmembers and Mr. Lee:

As has been stated by others, I too spoke here and at the scoping session about PEDESTRIAN Safety. Apparently, I too was not heard.

The only pedestrian safety addressed in this DEIR is that of users coming up from Highland Avenue on the wooden slatted sidewalk, to use the proposed new facility.

Apparently, no other pedestrians are important. I am just one of many pedestrians who live east of Blair Park who use Blair Park as a sidewalk.

There is currently no sidewalk on either side of Moraga Avenue beyond Coaches Field.

Pedestrians use Blair Park as their sidewalk.

We actually walk through that very pleasant strip of land for the length of the park.

We feel safe as we walk through Blair Park as it currently exists!

Since no sidewalk is planned in the current sports behemoth plan, pedestrians would have to

1. take their lives in their hands as they cross Moraga Avenue from Coaches
2. make their way up a series of many steps to reach the pathway behind the fields

1. Walk the length of the fields on a deserted pathway far, far from the street
2. Make their way out at the upper parking lot and back out onto the inhospitable and unsafe racetrack which is Moraga Avenue.

So, I would expect that further consideration be given to ALL pedestrians, not only those who live in Piedmont and play soccer.

I can not imagine how this city council could ever vote to certify this DEIR as it is currently written.

With at least 19 identified conflicts which represent significant and unavoidable impacts, how can this DEIR move forward in the process?

Only with a statement of OVERRIDING CONSIDERATION.

Could the needs of a select few of Piedmont’s soccer playing children really override SAFETY?

The liability to the city of Piedmont alone is sufficient in my view to stop this project dead in its tracks.

The certainty of litigation in the future should also stop this project now.

Whether one or two fields are built, it really doesn’t make any difference to the liability to Piedmont if a pedestrian is hit while crossing Moraga Avenue, especially if it is in a lit, specially designated cross walk.

The very nature of the roadway through this canyon, beginning at Estates and ending, more or less, at Highland Ave. doesn’t lend itself to any of the mitigating measures which have been proposed. The very nature of the roadway lends itself to driver error as it curves and turns on its way down the hill.

A week ago last Friday, yet another serious accident occurred as a truck tried to make a hurried dash across Moraga from Harbord Drive. That driver was taken by ambulance to a hospital and the traffic was one-lane-only for a period of three hours. The probability of more accidents can only increase with the addition of more traffic.

As Jill Broadhurst mentioned two weeks ago, Oakland Traffic will not install a traffic light at the intersection of Harbord and Moraga. Oakland has already done the research. The line of sight as cars exit Highway 13 is simply not sufficient.

Once again, I urge all of you to take a walk from Coaches Field, across Moraga Avenue and up to the top of Blair Park – and see for yourselves.

On last thing …….. the pictures in the DEIR sure make the project look pretty. Perhaps this is because there is not one picture which illustrates how the project elevation will appear from the perspective of a person standing on the roadway. Those high retaining walls and berms cannot be made beautiful in any way. They would be like Hoover Dam in our back yards.

PS

Friends of Moraga Canyon adopted the spot at the very bottom or the Moraga Avenue median. Those of us who have worked there – clearing, planting and weeding, know very well that drivers are traveling way more that 25 or 35 miles per hour. They know that immediately when they have crossed the Piedmont city line, they can speed pretty much with impunity. The Oakland Traffic Department has never had the man power to spare an officer to ticket there. So, to think that slowing traffic down is a way to mitigate problems with speed, it is simply wishful thinking. It isn’t going to happen.

Thank you.