To the editor:
The Herald has once again done an admirable job covering a serious issue affecting everyone in Peekskill in their latest, “Rerouting danger from Peekskill’s streets”.
A council person was quoted as saying that “pedestrian safety is of utmost importance for the city”, and mentioned incoming grant money going to address this. However, simply repainting crosswalks isn’t going to solve the issues of too much traffic and rampant car violence we have here; road and intersection redesign (something I enthusiastically support) will take a lot more money and a long time.
There are many no or low cost things we could do now, and for whatever reason, this council hasn’t.
If this council were serious about pedestrian safety, the cement blocks at Esther and Division would have long ago been pulled out, protecting pedestrians from the constant dangerous illegal parking. (A concern was voiced that cars could hit the barriers, but no illegally parked car has been hit so far, and if that ever actually happened, wouldn’t that be better than said car hitting a person forced into the street by these selfish people leaving their cars in the crosswalk?)
If this council were serious about pedestrian safety, they would have taken that $30,000 they pulled out of nowhere for retractable bollards at Esther and used it to start installing speed tables around the schools. Around $3k apiece, that’s 10 speed tables. That’s two of our schools and hundreds of our children better protected from careless and violent drivers.
They wouldn’t have fought a FOIA request asking for data on all the accidents and injuries happening. They claimed they didn’t collect that type of data, but then published some of it on their own anyways. The people of Peekskill deserve to know the truth about what’s happening in their own community.
If the council were serious about pedestrian safety, they would have long ago directed the police to drop the hammer on the dangerous driving here. If you were born in New York State, you know Interstate 90 and how it is constantly patrolled by state troopers. Why aren’t we aggressively addressing this issue, safeguarding pedestrians and people with disabilities?
If the council were serious, long ago they would have addressed the incredible number of mechanics shops here who re-up inspections on cars that have no business being on the road. Cars with missing bumpers, taped on mirrors, missing headlights, everything. And let’s not forget the pervasive illegal window tinting that puts our police at risk in addition to pedestrians.
When was the last time the city or the state took a closer look at the driving schools here, and make sure people are being correctly trained to operate a vehicle?
I hope people have started connecting the dots- that many of our quality-of-life issues stem from a strained budget and too small tax base. It is not a stretch to attribute our constant budget shortfalls to how this council approaches development. Their insistence on ridiculous parking minimums and reluctance to let the downtown appropriately develop directly contributes to our money troubles, and yes, to the dangerous streets we have.
Their latest plan is to start charging builders for parking waivers, when it’s the council who sets the parking minimums! There’s a word for that: extortion. This will further slow or end investment and building here, further contribute to the housing and housing affordability crisis we’re in, and further exacerbate the issues we have with traffic and dangerous driving.
Instead of shaking down builders and adding more cars, why don’t we simply build more housing and expand the tax base?
Grants aren’t forever. If we want safer, more vibrant streets, we need leaders with vision and backbone, eager to shape change positively, instead of stifling it as much as possible.
“A society grows great when [the old] plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit.” I want my children to sit in the shade of trees on safe streets, surrounded by packed cafes and shops and neighbors and life, not parking garages and rotted buildings.
Brian Orsi, Peekskill
