News-Record.com

Hey Margaret,

OOPS ! Now you've gotten me started. I love my neighborhood.

I have lived on Fairmont Street for thirty-five years. I don't particularly object to the median on Hill Street. It will probably cause traffic confusion and back-up, but it will make a nice entrance to the area. I think that many medians encourage u-turns, which I think are unsafe for pedestrians, bike riders and automobiles.

The median, which only extends for only one block, will not slow down traffic. It will probably have a bottle-neck effect which could cause significant slowing of emergency vehicles getting to and from Battleground Ave. and Wendover Ave.

I am told that during a heart attack or stroke every minute of delayed treatment raises the death threat by 7 to 10 percent. If this is true, the median could actually be dangerous to heart patients.

The part of Hill Street that is really silly is the median between Battleground and Smith streets. It is just an ugly narrow curb. Signs in the medium get bent and knocked down on a regular basis. I wonder how much has been spent on replacing them.

East Lake, Hill Street and Mendenhall Street have been cut-through streets for as long as most of us have lived in the neighborhood. We like the convenience of being close to downtown and UNCG and Greensboro College. We like being able to walk to classes, the park or to shopping areas. We like being close to emergency medical treatment facilities. We don't want to live in a "gated community". College students have always lived in the neighborhood. The so-called neighborhood association doesn't like college students. They don't want commuters driving through "their neighborhood."

I personally feel that the Greensboro Department of Transportation and the city as a whole could spend money more wisely. The intersection at Westover Terrace and Benjamin Parkway could use turn signals and a better pedestrian crossing area. The traffic circle at Garland and East Lake is confusing since the city painted lane lines. Filling gaps in the sidewalks on East Lake would have been a better use of city funds.

And BTW: Those silly traffic-blocking islands at East Lake and Friendly Ave. are some of the most stupid "improvements" the GDOT has done in years. And that's saying a lot, since they do many unwise things. That barrier was erected because the so-called neighborhood association asked for it. Notarized petitions against the traffic barriers (with many more names than the association had at their meeting about it) were unheeded by the city. What a waste of time and money.

Thanks for the opportunity to sound off.
Diane Davis
905 Fairmont street
Westerwood Resident
Greensboro, NC 27401

Surely the City Council has been unaware that the divisive bullies who comprise the wna board (who demanded to use $15,000 taxpayer "grant" money to build the impairing Hill Street median) have absolutely no right to represent the thousands of us who live in the Lake Daniel Park Neighborhood.

This median has absolutely nothing to do with traffic calming - that is a load of rubbish.

News Flash for City Officials: Just because a group claims to represent others doesn't mean that they actually do.

We need to have Hill Street open for ambulance access by having two lanes that take us from our neighborhood directly to Wendover to the Trauma Center at Moses Cone (the only one in town.)

We have seen a half dozen serious automobile collisions on Market and Friendly in the last two years (including one at the East Lake / Friendly debaucle - another wna boondoggle) - not to mention the folks who live here who have, in recent years, required emergency medical attention (home invasion violent attacks, heart event, diabetic complications, etc.) If it is your child who is seriously injured, you best chart another, less direct route, folks - before you get stuck behind the singular car that can block you from making the right on Smith Street. We don't consider this nor our regular routes "cut through" - this is not a gated community although the wna would like to make it so.

The only conclusion a bunch of us came to was this: The wna's only purpose in pursuing this median was to eventually attempt to place a sign for a gated entrance erroneously proclaiming us as "westerwood"...and sacrifice public access and safety in the process.

Toto, we all ain't in "westerwood" anymore than we are in Irving Park. The wna boards bullies have announced that they want to force the issue of yet another restrictive zoning overlay - this time a "neighborhood conservation district" (more control issues) and somehow they imagine us as a gated community (which we are not, nor wish to be.) Deed restrictions are serious matters and have huge repercussions for homeowners.

Since the ugly revival of the wna all we have seen is divisiveness and marked increase in hositility between formerly friendly neighbors here in Lake Daniel Park.

This neighborhood association is like a cheesey b-grade horror flick, with each passing month one more unpleasant discovery after another - we wonder if the City of Greensboro is as sick and tired of this nasty group as we are?

I live around the corner from the new median and am surprised and amazed that anyone could be upset about a project that will beautify our neighborhood and make it much safer.

I live directly behind the block of the new Hill Street median and do not feel that this will be a problem for emergency vehicles. Our beautiful neighborhood was established in the early 1900's and the width of our streets is much more of a problem for emergency vehicles. For instance, on Woodlawn Ave, especially in the 400 block, cars park on both sides of the street for almost the entire block. It is difficult to navigate my small Camry through the maze at times and I am sure it is difficult for a massive fire truck. The city engineer took emergency vehicles into account when they designed the median, so I am unsure why this is a concern. There are many two lane roads (many reduced to one with parked vehicles) in the city and I don't see that this is a real concern.

The Hill street connector amounted to a freeway off-ramp in appearance and safety. The median, once planted, will look like a neighborhood entrance. I hope that, when finished, it looks like the Spring Garden median that has greatly improved the UNCG area and made is safer for pedestrians. Sure, this means we may have to slow down as we speed home from work, but I hope that it slows down everyone and I am willing to sacrifice a few seconds in exchange for a safe walk around the block with my two year old. In addition, the one lane side of the street is still wide enough at Smith Street for a person to turn right while another person continues straight across the intersection.

I don't think this is a controversy in our neighborhood. A small handful of people may be upset, but in my judgment the vast majority feels that this will be an improvement when finished.

And, do I need to mention that this project was documented countless times in the newsletter distributed to every household and approved by the city. If people were concerned did they file their complaints with the city or are they just attacking a finished project to create drama?