As I will not be able to attend this evening, I have written the following open letter to Concilman Robertson which I hope to have read at the meeting:

To the Honorable Councilman Robertson,

Let me thank you for taking time to meet with representatives from our neighborhood to discuss making Undercliff a one way street and to offer my apologies that I cannot attend in person. Although the Park Hill community members here represent the oft-considered sentiments of the entire neighborhood, I would like to add my voice to theirs in order to reiterate our strong concern for the safety of all who live in or transit through our neighborhood.

If I may make a couple of observations about the road itself, Undercliff was built at a time when automobiles were smaller and cars utilized roads like Undercliff much less. It was never designed to accommodate our larger cars nor its current volume of traffic. Living up to its name, Undercliff’s incline and turns are extreme; visibility on the road is severely limited; and during any kind of inclement weather, the road becomes nearly impassable.

In the best of circumstances, the road is hazardous. Despite the obvious danger, I understand that historically there has been opposition to closing the road or curtailing access to it. There’s no way around it, so I’ll just say it: the issue has become couched as a “those living up the hill” vs. “those living at the bottom of the hill” conflict.

This is a shortsighted obfuscation. To those who would frame the issue thusly, I would remind them that children coming from both up and down the hill walk on Undercliff everyday. It doesn’t matter whether a child lives at the bottom or the top of the hill – if even one child is injured (or God forbid, worse) on Undercliff, it will be a tragedy for everyone.

Moreover, Undercliff isn’t even needed. Park Hill Avenue and Rumsey Road – roads designed to accommodate larger volumes of traffic – both bisect the neighborhood and can be accessed mere blocks from the Undercliff /South Broadway intersection. No one is going to be inconvenienced by more than couple of minutes if the City makes Undercliff a one way street, but it will cut in half the volume of traffic on that dangerous road.

This is first and foremost a safety issue. I don’t think making one small road a one way street is asking too much the safety of all our children.

Yours Sincerely,
(Names and addresses redacted)

Please, if you can, attend this meeting or send a letter.