To the Editor:
After reviewing the video of the November 18 City Council meeting, I came to the conclusion that something was off with the decisions made regarding the Gibbons Drive issue.
The argument was made that because the speed of vehicles traveling along Gibbons Drive was perceived as being excessive that measures had to be taken to slow it down. The most obvious, simple, and least expensive solution would be to place a few speed humps along Gibbons and convert the intersection at Cornell Drive to a four-way stop. The speed could then be monitored for a few months to determine if additional steps might be needed.
It might also help if you could convince Alameda’s Police Chief to occasionally assign an officer to enforce the speed limit in the neighborhood as was done on Fernside Boulevard with noticeable positive effect on reducing speeding in previous years.
Placing a roundabout at the intersection of Gibbons, Northwood, and Southwood would not only be completely unnecessary, it would also be unnecessarily expensive, costing several thousand dollars, especially when compared with the few hundred dollars for the speed humps and additional stop signs. This latter solution can probably be covered by the extra funds already in the Public Works budget.
I would encourage the Council to rethink your earlier decision.
Thank you,
Jay Garfinkle
Editor’s note: This letter was initially addressed to Mayor Ashcraft and the City Council, and was sent to the Alameda Post as a letter to the editor.
Family
A poem by Art Lenhardt
We started out a while ago
Not knowing how we’d be.
Then, more than sixty years would pass
To build our history.
We don’t think we’re outstanding folks,
Not one scion or a star,
We grew up close and full of love
For each, for who we are.
We shared our pleasure and our pain —
— there was a lot of both —
But helping one another through
Was part of all our growth.
Our kids have felt like cousins, since
We felt like siblings, still,
Although we six not all shared blood,
We all felt quite fulfilled.
We know there’s not too much time left,
When so much has been done,
But we all still look far ahead.
We know how to have fun!
So ‘families’ is how we felt
When we first started out.
But now it’s simply ‘family’
Of that, there is no doubt.
Remember this, that, while you grow,
And others grow with you,
The memories you build with them
Will make a love that’s true.
This love does not rely on blood,
A thought of which we’re fond.
I just believe it works alone
And makes a perfect bond.
