Citizen About Town

By Nancy C. Arcuri, Editor and Publisher

E-mail: nancyarcuri@thecitizensvoice.net

Fax: 626-307-9081

My friends in the Midwick Tract in Alhambra and I thank Monterey Park for finally providing the left turn signal at the intersection of Atlantic and Hellman.

Council approved this signal during the May 8 meeting.

This intersection has become more and more dangerous over the years as drivers take a chance to make a safe left turn on Hellman from Atlantic in front of cars that cannot see them as they approach Hellman from under the 10 Freeway.

Several Alhambra residents have be complaining to their City Council that this intersection has been the site of many fender benders.

They are pleased that they have lived to see the day that this traffic signal will make their lives safer.

Also on the agenda was a Dog Park to be located at Garvey Ranch Park. The Recreation and Parks Commission determined that this would be an asset to the city.

The staff presented their report that located the dog park near the tennis courts in two fenced yards (one for small dogs and one for large dogs).  This property belongs to the Metropolitan Water District and is leased by the city. It is located next to Garvey Ranch Park on Orange Avenue.

Councilmember Peter Chan had to leave the dais since he lives within 500 feet from the park and could not participate in the discussion.

Councilmember Teresa Real Sebastian supported this project along with approximately 12 residents who believe that a dog park would provide socialization for the residents and their dogs. She noted that many of the city’s dog owners were not notified of this meeting so they were not available to offer their support on this dog park.

Councilmembers Anthony Wong, Hans Liang and Mitch Ing listened to approximately 17 residents who were against the dog park.  They suffered from the “Not In My Backyard” syndrome. They all said that dogs would contaminate the ground with their pee and poop. It would also cause outsiders to visit the park, endanger the children and elderly residents and cause more heavy traffic.

These Councilmembers agreed with these residents and the agenda item died from the lack of a vote.

I realized that most of these speakers live off of Orange Avenue and Country Road in the very housing project that causes dangerous traffic situations in my neighborhood on Mooney Drive, Cathryn and Kays.

Their developer made a sweetheart deal in the 1970s with the sitting Council that restricted the ingress and egress on Country Road with a gate across a public street. Residents living in the hills on the east side of Country Road must drive on Mooney Drive to reach Graves and Orange.

I have been working with the Monterey Park and Los Angeles County to help relieve the dangerous traffic situations since 1972.

The city and county have added more tight turn signs before the blind curve on Mooney at the city/county line.

The county painted a double yellow line in the street on their side of Mooney.

The city painted the curb red on one side of Mooney just before the curve and painted the 15 MPH speed limit on the street.  There will be several speed buttons added to the street on the city side as a warning to the drivers who don’t care about other drivers, residents and neighborhood pets. They still drive too fast around a blind curve in their rush to be someplace.

In the name of health and safety the gate at Country Road should be removed before someone is seriously injured or killed.

Election Day, June 3rd, is fast approaching and the ballots should be in our mailboxes very soon.

Monterey Park voters will have Measure A added to their ballots.  This measure is requesting a zoning change from Commercial to Residential on the 9.15 acre commercial parcel located at 2015 Potrero Grande.  The developer, who paid for this ballot measure, wants to build 80 single-family homes in a gated community.

Once the zoning is changed from Commercial to Residential we cannot change the zoning back to provide space for another shopping center.

The question is do we want to keep the site for commercial development and more shopping or do we want to have 80 more homes build in our over crowded city.

Please study all of the issues and carefully choose your candidates. The winners of this Primary Election will be on our ballots for the November election.

Generations of men and woman have fought and died for our freedoms so you can vote.

You can honor their sacrifices by voting on June 3rd.