July11,2002
The slow death of a young city
Traffic is terrible, not only volume wise, but also the characteristics of it. Our streets are packed with cars and many drivers going over the speed limits, not stopping at stop signs, running red lights. Laguna Boulevard could be called the connecting freeway between I-5 & Rte 99. Streets where our children play are not safe, many drivers drive through stop signs and the 25 MPH around our homes means nothing for many drivers. Noise? What about those car radios blasting day and night. Cars for sell parked right off Laguna Boulevard.
Our land development has become an unorganized process. Kaiser Center was approved without an official Traffic Impact Study (no future forecast of traffic numbers), Taco Bell on Laguna Boulevard was approved even though the area zoning did not allow it (an exception was approved), new homes being approved without enough schools around, apartment complexes popping up everywhere, etc. Everywhere you look some type of building is going up, and this is taking place regardless many resident requests for a slow down on the City’s growth. Our leaders justify this by the revenues the City gets o will be getting. Yes, we need revenue to run the City, but do we need that much revenue to the point of creating bigger problems, that in the long run will cost more to mitigate? The City is about half developed and I do not see any sign of the city that we were led to believe it would be, what we have now is far from it.
My last subject is crime. It just take to read every month the Police Log and the monthly statistics put out by the Elk Grove Police Department. Crime is on the rise quite rapidly; arm robberies, burglaries, thefts and vandalisms are becoming part of our everyday life in Elk Grove. To prove the crime situation, just go to any shopping center and ask any person that work in a store if he or she has recently seen or heard about a crime in the area, the answer most likely will be yes. Per the Elk Grove Police Department, crime has increased in May by a whooping 11%. A couple of examples(from the Police Log dated June 27,2002) show the seriousness of the situation:
* 4720 Laguna Blvd., Laguna arrests. Five Elk Grove police officers arrested Ronald Richardson, 18; Keith Grimm, 20; and Kevin Grimm, 21, on suspicion of armed robbery at 8:47 a.m. Friday. 5109 Laguna Blvd., at Franklin Boulevard, robbery. Police are looking for two robbery suspects in their20s who entered a Swanson's Cleaners at approximately 7:24 a.m. June 18and pointed a handgun at a store employee. The men demanded money from the cash register and fled with an undisclosed amount.
Not everything is gloom and doom in the City of Elk Grove, there is a very big bright side to our City. The residents of Elk Grove are the big bright side, and because of that there is hope for our city, yes our city. Hopefully, our city leaders realize that we are not happy with the way things are and they proceed to mitigate areas such as traffic, development, crime, etc. Many people have gone in front of our elected leaders during meetings and have been very outspoken about the problems afflicting our city, however it seems that nobody is listening in the City Council and our demands are being pushed aside. Requests to put Mr. Cooper's seat up for election was met with an exception/arrangement around the state law for his seat sake.
This is our city, our opinion should matter. Elk Grove will be a great city when we have elected leaders that listen to us and make their decisions with the people of Elk Grove in mind, after all the City Council promised us a family oriented city with safe streets and safe from crime. Recently, a lady told the Council that if she would have the opportunity to vote again to be incorporated, she would vote no, maybe many of us would vote No now.
Marcelo A. Jimenez
Elk Grove 95758
Phone 916-681-3381
P.O. Box 1924
Elk Grove, CA 95759