A local online petition in Point Loma has been making gains. Its a petition to make the intersection of Catalina Boulevard and Cañon Street residential-only. And it follows the tragic death of a 7-month old baby who was injured – her father was also injured – by a motorist as they crossed Canon in a pedestrian crosswalk.
Here is the text of the Petition:
PETITION
At 6:25am on March 2nd, 2015, seven-month-old Juniper Aavang was struck while in her stroller by an SUV travelling North on Catalina Boulevard, as it turned onto Cañon Street, Northeast-bound.
This was a preventable tragedy.
For decades, this intersection has plagued the residential and family-oriented nearby Point Loma community. Residents have pleaded with City and local authorities to remedy the situation, yet their concerns have remain unheard.
And now an amazing little girl has lost her life.
2014 census data shows that 17% of Point Loma citizens are aged 18 and under, and 28% of households have children. Additionally, there are 453 children attending nearby Sunset View Elementary.
It is only a matter of time before this tragedy repeats itself.
We are asking the City of San Diego to end Cañon Street at Talbot Street, and to effectively close Cañon Street from Talbot Street to Catalina Boulevard. In order to accommodate the local residents, there will be an entrance and exit to Southernwood Way with a light at Catalina Boulevard, making the intersection usable by residents only. This will eliminate all traffic speeding North on Catalina Boulevard from ever turning West (Right) onto Cañon Street and into Point Loma residential neighbourhoods.
Cutting down a singular palm tree will not solve this issue.
The unused section of Cañon Street would be converted into green space. A space that will become a small memorial community park, where all San Diego families can once again enjoy a safe corner of the Point Loma community.
We are a family-focused community. Please keep it that way.
Juniper’s relatives were born and raised in Point Loma, they still live in our community. This tragedy could have befallen any of our local families. Please keep our community safe and support making the intersection of Catalina Boulevard and Cañon Street an extension of Southernwood Way, thereby making it usable to residents-only.
Our sincere and deepest thanks for reading and signing.
Here is the Petition. As of this writing, there were 1420 signatures.
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
The idea of closing the section of Cannon between Talbot and Catalina Boulevard is a bad idea. Doing so would divert a significant amount of traffic to the intersection at Talbot and Catalina Boulevard, making entrance and exit to the Fresh and Easy parking lot a disaster. Can you imagine the amount of traffic backed up on Talbot and Canon coming up the hill and waiting to turn left on to Catalina Boulevard in the morning? Additionally, all the kids that the petition is trying to “protect” would have to deal with said traffic every time they head to Cup of Yo. You have to wonder if anybody pushing the closure idea has given any thought what the real impact of closing that segment of road would cause. I can envision traffic backed all the way south on Catalina at the end of every work day. A more realistic solution would be to place pedestrian activated flashing lights at the crosswalk in question like those on La Jolla Boulevard in the bird rock area traffic circles.
We have already talked about this in the other article.
DO NOT SIGN THIS PETITION !!!!
This is a one persons agenda to make “her neighborhood” her own. She wants to close down a HISTORIC street just because there was ONE accident that lead to a death.
Since the removal of the palm tree, the area is now, as my local input, SAFE. You can now see not only the crosswalk, but you can see the sidewalk where people walk if they are about to cross.
Now, how to make that intersection safer. We do NOT need to close down the street and turn it into a memorial park. A park is already planned at the bottom of canon street. There is a baseball field and Westminster park just right around the corner. How many parks does Point Loma need? And how are we going to fund this park? This park would cost ~$1m to make, and probably another $10k to maintain throughout the year. And lets not all forget we are trying to save water.
A simple and EFFECTIVE solution that would please ALL locals, not just one person, would be the installation of flashing crosswalk lights or a red light, that would be triggered when someone is at the crosswalk. Out of the 1000’s of cars that cross that intersection each day, there is probably only 1 or 2 people that cross the crosswalk.
So please. DON’T CLOSE DOWN CANNON STREET.
Please sign this and have your friends and family sign it too. It doesn’t necessarily mean they will change the road but at least it keeps the problem in the light and forces people to talk about it.
No. What do you think a petition is for? Dur, it means we want change.
And the only people signing this petition should be locals who know the area. Not friends in family that don’t even live in San Diego. And please read the petition too.
I signed the petition and I am local.
The area is not safe, with or without the tree, with or without cross walk lights. I do believe that a less drastic correction with a required stop at the light before a hard right hand turn is a good compromise. This was the solution, that has worked, at Catalina and Chatsworth.
It takes a lot more than a petition to make a major road change like this.
I have been following this tragic story since it happened. I feel so sorry for that family. The pictures of the mangled stoller tore ay my heart strings.
The best way to honor that poor baby is to address the problem and take corrective measures. Most everyone agrees it is a very dangerous intersection and crosswalk.
I like the idea of changing the intersection the way they changed the one at Catalina and Chatsworth as someone suggested on another post. You can see the pavers on google earth from where they made the change. There should not be a crosswalk there the way things are now. It creates a false sense of security. It would be safer without a crosswalk.
I live very close to the accident site. I am heartsick that a baby died just yards from my front door. However, closing Canon street will not solve the problem. Catalina Boulevard is a major road, with definite rush hours of 6-9am and 3-7pm. The military installation is not going away. The National park is not going away. The university is not going away. The businesses at Talbot and Catalina are not going away. Closing Canon street would create gridlock that would overflow into our residential neighborhoods. How quickly would those commuters start looking for another route through the Wooded area or the college neighborhood?
The answer is realigning the intersection and crosswalks, similiar to what was done at Chatsworth. Move the current crosswalk on Catalina to the other side of the intersection, move the islands and realign the Canon street turnoff to make it a right turn only with a clearly defined crosswalk with a signal across the lanes.
This area of the neighborhood has issues. Have you ever watched a truck back in Fresh and Easy? That’s another nightmare waiting to happen.
Not to downplay the tragedy and that some kind of action needs to be taken, but how exactly do you make the area “residential” only. Many people work up there on Catalina(myself included). Are we all supposed to either go up Chatsworth or get onto Catalina from Voltaire regardless of where we are coming from?