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Libbeytown Project
Libbeytown project Fall 2014:
$335,000 down the tubes.
| Libbeytown
is a nice residential section of Portland on outer
Congress St. on the way to the Maine Mall.
For some time the residents had been thinking that they were under attack from all kinds of traffic rat-running through their streets trying to find a better route from Congress St. to Brighton Avenue..... The general feeling was that their kids had a right to play in the street, and they didn't want strangers (that's you and me, buddy...) traveling on their roads. The number of cars was a problem too... all 500 or so a day. |
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In early 2015 the residents wanted to know if the city would traffic calm their streets (A number of people from the neighborhood also really didn't like the Thompsons point / Congress St. re-design of the roads due to happen).
Vern Malloch, Portland Asst. Police Chief stood up and told them they really didn't have a problem, and that if they wanted their kids to be safe, to keep them out of the road.
Nonetheless, "perception" being everything in Portland, valid or not, they petitioned their city councilor Ed Suslovic to install at a cost of $335,000 myriad 2-3" speed tables and two roundabouts with a couple of illegal stop signs thrown in for good measure, all in an attempt to solve the "problem" they didn't have.
Waste of money: I walked around for while taking pictures one day, and all but one person I asked said that nothing had changed in the neighborhood. One woman yelled at a driver to "slow down". C'est la vie........they're learning.
A few pictures of the install: note some of them on a grade: a real no-no. Note too the last picture: the road crumbling around a manhole...a common problem in the neighborhood, along with cracking and crumbling pavement. THAT didn't get fixed.
Click on the picture for a larger view.
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