Monrovia Media Frenzy over a $170 Stop sign

January 15, 2008 at 2:05 pm in Driving, Metroblogging Network, News, Utilities

Sheesh Monrovia didn’t get this much media attention when then President Clinton stopped in to give some congrats over a new truancy program some 10 years. ago. Whats the big deal here now?
City Hall not wanting to address speeders that I wrote about HERE and HERE.

This morning I got a call that he media was all over on North Primrose. I got there and in fact there were a lot of people out there. I met Maribel Parry who with her husband Robert, started the North Primrose Residents association. It started after an incident where they were nearly Tboned turning into their driveway buy a patron of the liqour store at the bottom of their street. Only there 18 months and working there with others who have fought city hall for traffic controls for years they decided to escalate the battle. The cost to put up a stop sign to slow down traffic on Primrose: $170 according to Maribel.

More after the jump.

KNBC4 was there, I talked with Gordon but don’t have a link for that story. Yet. Jaime Garcia from KCAL9 ran his story HERE. As I left Telemondo34 arrived.

The local “minstry of truth” aka “principal information officer” Dick Singer was there. Gave the usual traffic survey says….no sign. Interesting how this much media attention to what appears to be a reasonalble and CHEAP fix is getting.

The sad part is that KCAL9 edited out the interview with Mrs. Parry. She certainly was more interesting and came off as a real person not poised and rehearsed like the Minister of Truth.

I met many neighbors who all fed me the same story of trying for years, maybe 20 years with little response. Do you think this attention might get the fix the residents want? Maybe?

ABC7 popped in briefly according to Maribel but they just took some pictures or film but left. Googling them I found the story they opted to run was on the upswing in gang violence here in Monrovia, a slew of shootings with one a day since the weekend leaving one man dead. Their story HERE. I can’t help but wonder if they are letting the North Primrose get the attention to deflect this one with the City Council meeting tonight.

The sad part still is the fact one man died, and a friend of my daughter, an innocent MHS student is now paralyzed from injury in a driveby on Saturday.

8 Comments »

Les

The sign itself may cost $170 dollars, but after the EIR, public hearings on the EIR, resolution by the council, council discussion, resolutions, passing resolutions, cutting a work order, processing the work order, putting workorder out for bid, processing the bids, selecting the lowest bidder, handling appeals by the losing bidders, diggin a hole, putting a post, and bolting the sign to the post it is going to cost waaaaaaaaaaaaaay more then $170.
frazgo

The interesting thing Les is that others in town have gotten far more with no hassle at all.
legotech

http://www.efa-mn.com/shop/store.php?crn=217&rn=393&action=show_detail

Dated a cop for a while…one day they told him he wasn’t writing enough tickets…he went to the city yard and snagged a stop sign and bungee’d it to his motorcycle and planted it next to a tree in his neighborhoot and wrote warnings all day….next time the city went around fixing street signs they planted that one and no one ever realized it didn’t belong.

Not that I am saying that anyone should buy any kind of commercial grade stop sign or put it up somewhere or anything.
bmayhem

Umm.. why don’t they just plant a stop sign one night. IF the city won’t do something about it, take the matter into your own hands. A sort of civil disobedience. Oh and vote out all who stand in your way.
J

I have the same problem kinda sorta. My childs school is open to a park. Park patrons try and use the childrens bathrooms all the time. The kids have to go to the bathroom in pairs and are expected to fight off a would-be-attacker on their own. 6 year olds!! The school has had plenty of problems in the past and the school has refused to do anything about it. The park has PLENTY of criminal activities going on in it daily. Local police feel we need a fence. I recently promised the school board I will put some media coverage on the case. So much more to the story… but with just the basics, need I say more?

I was very interested in this story about the stop signs, as it points out a disaster is waiting to happen and someone will be liable when it does happen. Almost like its laying the ground work for a lawsuit and helping the prosecution.

Any advice on how to make sure this school board GETS IT? I mean… they are sworn in to serve and protect. But being proactive does not work for me. I do not think a “million man march” is necessary either. The problem with our school board is they are all older. Many are older then 60. I am assuming they dont watch the news (many people dont because its depressing) and they are caught up in a mind frame of being invincible, because things that happen today didnt happen when they were young.

Thanks for listening.
J

I have the same problem kinda sorta. My childs school is open to a park. Park patrons try and use the childrens bathrooms all the time. The kids have to go to the bathroom in pairs and are expected to fight off a would-be-attacker on their own. 6 year olds!! The school has had plenty of problems in the past and the school has refused to do anything about it. The park has PLENTY of criminal activities going on in it daily. Local police feel we need a fence. I recently promised the school board I will put some media coverage on the case. So much more to the story… but with just the basics, need I say more?

I was very interested in this story about the stop signs, as it points out a disaster is waiting to happen and someone will be liable when it does happen. Almost like its laying the ground work for a lawsuit and helping the prosecution.

Any advice on how to make sure this school board GETS IT? I mean… they are sworn in to serve and protect. But being proactive does not work for me. I do not think a “million man march” is necessary either. The problem with our school board is they are all older. Many are older then 60. I am assuming they dont watch the news (many people dont because its depressing) and they are caught up in a mind frame of being invincible, because things that happen today didnt happen when they were young.

Thanks for listening.
frazgo

“J” do what these guys did, post some signs re not a “public restroom”, school use only. Get your local PD public affairs aka neighborhood policing group to help you. Get your PTA and similar groups involved in the cause.

Then…let a writer on your local blogs know about it. Share pics of your signs with them. Link to local major media. What ever you can do to get attention.

Fraz….
Jen

Thanks Fraz. BUT…
I had a family member who owns an engraving business engrave signs that say STUDENTS ONLY for the bathrooms a year ago. IT DOESNT WORK! I am on the PTA Board and most of the board are school employees too afraid to speak up and take an action. I dropped my list of concerns on the PTA board and they all kept quiet. In fear of losing their job? The principals hands are tied at that spending level. Although, I do think he should stand up beside me and my friend on this cruisade. I have since figured its political on his end. Which is really frightening to think a principal may have fear of repercussions from the district superintendant and the school board. A cryin shame. The school is over 50 years old and the fight for a fence dates back to 15 years ago at least (that I am aware of). I had the local police run me a report on CALLS to Service from the park, and let me tell you, there are sex acts, assaults, robberies and more going on there. CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? I complained that the PTA BOARD meetings never allow for other voices to be heard. Its closed doors. Not PTA Members allowed. Just BOARD members. I want them to open the BOARD Meetings up to public forum for the first 15 minutes. They wont. Its like the principal is trying to keep any voices from being heard. Well… I dropped a big 5 page manifesto on the PTA Board and was since lectured it was not the venue. So last week my friend and I went to the SCHOOL BOARD MEETING and met with the trustee’s and dropped a bomb with a promise that they better do something soon or Im going public. Im giving them a short amount of time to conclude whether they will ignore this attempt like they have ignored past attempts. I promised them I am not stopping at this level.

I am trying to prepare myself on our next move. Plan A was making a fuss with the Principal. Plan B was the bomb on the PTA Board. Plan C was the bomb on the SCHOOL BOARD. PLAN D… ought to be a doozy.

Oh, and to add to it, the school leases its land back out to the city for no monetary value at all. I got a hold of the lease. In prior years it was represented that the city would not allow the school district to put a fence up. Seems they were lying all these years. The land in question is not even leased land. They lease past where we want a fence, and as a favor for leasing to the city, the city park gardener mows and waters and our kids get to play on the field(which is ours anyhow!). The land in question that we want fenced in IS NOT PART OF THE LEASED LAND. So… something is fishy for sure. When I presented the lease to them… lets just say, a couple administors were shocked! There are several other schools in the district that are closed campuses. But not ours. There are other districts in the area that have parks behind the schools. And they have already fenced their campus in from the park!! Our school district is waiting to be reactive. Its driving me nuts.

There is a sidewalk that goes through the entire park and straddles the blacktop of the school. Park patrons walk that sidewalk and mix with our kids playing on the field every day. Last year a crazy man approached a kid and touched a kid. And theres more…

** Deep Breath, Sigh **

Monrovia Media Frenzy over a $170 Stop sign

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