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Not only has the city made it realistically hard to park and take advantage of the burgeoning theatre district by limiting parking to two hours at night, they are now proposing to take away a crosswalk at a vital intersection that connects dense housing to commercial businesses. Is this redevelopment gone backwards?
Just north of Magnolia Avenue at Blakeslee is the site of three mixed use developments, two of which that recently opened and are not 100 percent occupied. South of Magnolia lies their most directly accessible set of local businesses such as the popular diner EAT, Starbucks and a myriad of other services.
This weekend a reader asked why the city wanted to take it down. "It just seems like they want traffic to move faster," he said. Traffic signals and controlled crosswalks can be found 600 feet on either side.
The city's reasoning, according to a sign hung on the traffic pole (photo above) reads differently: "This marked crosswalk at this location is proposed to be removed as part of a traffic safety improvement." City officials could not be reached for comment as today is a holiday. Stayed tuned, more to come...
