Leona Heights Neighborhood News

by Gordon Laverty

We who have lived in Leona Heights so many years find that answers to our questions about the Leona Quarry Development go unanswered. The clock ticks on. City group meetings are gaveled to a close, and we feel that the whole city machine is arrayed against us. The city BIR group has to salute the Planning Commission; the Planning Commission has to salute the City Council; and the same Councilmembers seem beholden to their other supporters. Fortunately, there is recourse to the courts. During all the city protocols, we deal with city-paid staffers who may deal with developer-paid consultants, who are supposed to protect us as one facet of their duty, while we citizens, who are unpaid, have to search for facts, attend meetings, and pay our own way through the morass. There needs to be a better way in our land of best ways. It is a shame that we who will be impacted dramatically and live in the development area can see quite well what will occur soon, while our society takes the view, "Let's just go ahead, and we'll fix later whatever mistakes may have been made." The Leona Quarry development is too large, has been underengineered, and can impact so disastrously downstream residents, that now is the time to take the time to get the data and correctly work out the plan flaws. Pressing the schedule too fast can lead to uncorrectable future events. But that's all right. For by the time the unwanted events have happened, the Council membership will have changed, and there will be no one to hold accountable. And now, to sharpen my quill about the city traffic engineering leadership ... again. During the rains of November 7 or thereabout, another westbound car traveling much too fast down Mountain Boulevard and onto the Rusting 580 onramp crashed into the onramp wall. This is about the tenth such accident in the past two years. When we residents ask for a reduction of the speed limit on Mountain Boulevard between Seminary and Rusting as well as a stop sign on the eastbound lane at Rusting, we usually get a muted response. The need to control traffic better both directions on this stretch of Mountain Boulevard is so plain that a child can see the need. Ho-hum. So we shall write another letter and hope that none of our neighbors are killed before action is taken.