Time for action on lower speeds in La Jolla
It’s time for a universal 25 mph speed limit throughout La Jolla. Plus more (“Many La Jolla streets eyed for speed limit reductions as part of San Diego plan,” Feb. 26, La Jolla Light).
The city of San Diego’s “Safe Streets” initiative apparently does not even include the most deadly stretch from La Jolla Parkway onto Torrey Pines Road, where two injury five-plus-car accidents occurred over the past several weeks, causing a half-dozen hospitalizations and one fatality.
A recent crash around Torrey Pines Road and Hidden Valley Road, near La Jolla Parkway, resulted in one person’s death and injuries to multiple other people. (Dan Courtney)
I’ve lived at “The Gateway to La Jolla” for 30 years, during which time I’ve served on almost every La Jolla community group, including Traffic & Transportation.
La Jolla has a history of addressing traffic issues piecemeal, and the city still hasn’t implemented most improvements in the Torrey Pines Corridor Safety Program approved by the City Council in 2011. The main feature was a synchronized traffic signal at Torrey Pines Road and Princess Street to create an interval allowing safer ingress and egress for the side streets and homes along Torrey Pines. It’s time.
In the meantime, the risk of additional fatalities from the constant red-light-running down westbound La Jolla Parkway could be achieved with a delay on the green lights for Hidden Valley and Torrey Pines roads.
Expanding the concrete median on northbound Torrey Pines Road at Calle de la Plata should eliminate the many serious accidents caused by drivers speeding downhill past Roseland [Drive] in the painted median, which has led to a couple of rollovers plus one fiery explosion.
Lowering the speed of traffic would reduce the injuries from the daily rear-enders caused by drivers watching their phones.
The time for action has come.
Dan Courtney
Will the officials who supported frivolous cityhood lawsuit pay the cost?
So the city of San Diego is having to pay the $116,000 in legal fees incurred by the Association for the City of La Jolla in the meritless lawsuit filed by the city to try to prevent the cityhood process from going forward (“San Diego to pay $116K for legal fees in battle over La Jolla cityhood process,” March 5, La Jolla Light).
This lawsuit was not only frivolous but a clear violation of the will of La Jolla voters, as expressed through the association’s signature gathering, and it was shocking that Joe LaCava, as the elected City Council member representing La Jolla, chose to support it.
I see no reason why my trash fees and Balboa Park parking fees should be used to pay for this unnecessary cost and hope Joe and his elected colleagues will do the right thing for once and reimburse the city themselves.
Kevin Knight
San Diego needs competent leadership on infrastructure
When reading about San Diego’s infrastructure condition, one must again question the capabilities of Mayor [Todd] Gloria and our City Council (“Infrastructure needs may cost $7.8 billion more than San Diego has available,” Feb. 26, La Jolla Light).
Mayor Gloria was a council member from 2008 to 2016, including president of the council from 2012 to 2014. He has served as mayor since 2020. Thus, Gloria has served the city of San Diego for 14 of the past 18 years. What have he and other elected officials been doing? They had to have known about these conditions, since they evolve over time.
$7.8 billion is an enormous number, and to ignore such a critical part of San Diego’s well-being is incomprehensible. It is a blatant disregard of our council and mayor’s fiduciary duty to residents. It is as if our representatives have no business sense at all.
One can argue the infrastructure of our city is second behind security as the most critical aspect of city operations. In 2016, city voters passed Proposition H, with 64% in favor of the city earmarking tax money for infrastructure repairs. Gloria was part of the City Council then. Since this proposition passed, the city has pushed the money to the general fund, despite voters’ overwhelming desire for it to be spent on infrastructure.
Do our council members and mayor care about what voters think or do they just ignore us? It would appear the latter, and then they wonder why voters vote against other tax measures. Perhaps voters deem them untrustworthy.
From such blatant disregard of needed infrastructure investment we can all see over years of mismanagement, one must wonder if it was the strategy of our elected officials to force voters to tax themselves — again — to pay for items for which the city should have been prudently investing and managing taxpayer money. It is hard to believe it could be anything else, assuming our mayor and council members drive our streets, walk our sidewalks and read provided reports on infrastructure condition.
When will citizens wake up and vote for capable people? We have had enough incompetence with our elected officials. They are driving America’s Finest City to bankruptcy and/or forcing us to tax ourselves more.
The people should be furious. Where is the outrage?
Ted Levis
What’s on YOUR mind?
Letters published in the La Jolla Light express views from readers about community matters. Submissions of related photos also are welcome. Letters reflect the writers’ opinions and not necessarily those of the newspaper staff or publisher. Letters are subject to editing. To share your thoughts in this public forum, email them with your first and last names and city or neighborhood of residence to robert.vardon@lajollalight.com. The deadline is 5 p.m. Friday for publication in the following Thursday’s paper. Letters without the writer’s name cannot be published. Letters from the same person are limited to one in a 30-day period. ♦