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Stanley Street. (Metro Wire photo)

Letter: Changing Stanley St. should be up to residents

To the Editor-

Many have certainly seen my name with strong opposition to re-striping Stanley St., and that opposition has only gotten stronger as time has gone by and the more I’ve thought about this.

The opposition to this has been very strong and vocal, yet here we are still getting this crammed down our throats. That must mean certain city council members either “know better” than us home owners, or just don’t care to listen.

I’ve lived on Stanley St. since December 2001. There have been multiple car/car accidents backing out of my driveway on to Stanley, but not one single bike/car accident, I’ve also had an ambulance that had to pull into my driveway because of an emergency. Now we’re being told condensing this traffic will make it safer? All while mentioning out of the headlines that maybe bikes and pedestrians should also have equal access to the road (that part is usually slipped in somewhere).

I’m not buying it even a little,and I’m far from alone in this thought.

I made one of the meetings at Washington School and shook my head watching the “smoke and mirrors” that was being shown on the overhead screen. I even mentioned once when I was at the podium with the photo that showed almost zero traffic at “9 AM on Tuesday” which I said was convenient timing of snapping that photo.

Another was when we were told that there would be less lanes to look for traffic while making a left turn from the center turn lane. Said with a smile all while neglecting to mention you’d still have one car lane and one bike lane to watch (not less lanes) but he sure made it sound good! At that point I left the podium because my I was getting angry, and didn’t want that to get the best of me.

I’ve talked to many people that live on Stanley, and a family member that runs a business on Stanley and the overwhelming majority oppose this! Interestingly enough the two alders that are leading the way wanting the re-stripe do not live on Stanley (imagine that).

I have been in contact with my alder, and we agreed on basically nothing regarding this, but he did tell me if he was wrong and the results don’t produce what he is telling us that he would but me a beer.

I told him if he’s wrong someone in my family could get hurt, and he’d be the last person I’d have a beer with.

I’m tired of politicians telling us what’s best for me and my neighbors on my street, all while not living here as well.

Jeremy Niemczyk
Stanley St. resident

Where do you stand on possible changes to Stanley St.? Send your letter to: [email protected].