HomeMy WebLinkAboutCorrespondence - #28Flores, Dora
From:
Maria Ceja <ceja.maria95@gmail.com>
Sent:
Tuesday, April 20, 2021 12:53 PM
To:
eComment
Subject:
Item 28
Greeting Mayor Sarmiento and City Council,
I am opposed to item 28. This ordinance criminalizes residents in their right to be in public right of way. This
would subject residents to have encounters with a police department that hold a 37 percent score out of 100.
These punitive measures do not resolve the issue at hand and can potentially create more safety issues. This is
not the approach to create safer streets. The root of the issue must be addressed and the city can begin with
consulting with residents and the organizations doing the work on the ground, like Santa Ana Active Streets
(SAAS). This ordinance is a barrier that will affect a specific population, not an overall solution. Do better than
superficial policies and take action.
Sincerely,
Maria
SANTA ANA ACTIVE STREETS
April 20, 2021
City Mayor, City Council, City Manager
City of Santa Ana, Public Works Agency M-43
20 Civic Center Plaza
Santa Ana, CA 92702
eComment(? Santa-ana.org
Re: Public Comment, Item 28: Ordinance Adding Article XV, Sections 36-706 through
36-710, Entitled "Street Racing" to the Santa Ana Municipal Code Prohibiting Spectators
at Illegal Speed Contests and Reckless Driving Exhibitions
Dear Mayor Sarmiento; Council Members Phan, Lopez, Hernandez, Penaloza, Bacerra,
Mendoza, and City Manager Ridge:
I'm writing to express our opposition to Item 28 street racing ordinance.
Santa Ana Active Streets coalition works to advocate for a more accessible, healthier, and safer
environment on Santa Ana streets. We understand the dangers associated with street racing and
residents' safety concerns regarding street racing. One errant car can result in injury or death of
fellow motorists, pedestrians and bicyclists, as we've seen happen on our city streets. We also
understand that speeding and street racing has increased during the lockdown due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. Lockdowns emptied our streets, which in turn provide increased
propensity for speeding and street racing, while residents have lost many opportunities for
gathering and recreation.
Our coalition disagrees with criminalizing people in public rights of way, as described in the
following ordinance. People in a public right of way, even as spectators are still not participating
in the illegal activity, and so we believe they should not be criminalized. Santa Ana has the
highest pedestrian activity out of all OC cities, and under the current criteria laid out in the
ordinance, it is unclear as to who is a spectator and who is simply a passer-by.
Instead of enforcement strategies, we aim to resolve the root case of speeding and street racing in
our roads. Simply put, Santa Ana's wide main roadways incentivize fast driving. While drivers
speeding has grown more pervasive during the pandemic, speeding has always been present in
the City's wider, freeway -like streets. In our view, speeding has become more common and
faster, and it all comes down to how wide our roads are. People are naturally reacting to their
built environment, and they are reacting to it by speeding.
The City has invested and continues to invest heavily in improving street and traffic safety, and
we applaud such efforts. We applaud the more than $50 million obtained through grant cycles to
Santa Ana Active Streets 1450 West Fourth Street I Santa Ana, CA 92701
Tel. (657) 205-7306 1 www.saascoalition.ora I infonasaascoalition.ora
Page 2 of 2
transform our streets to make it safer to walk and bike. However, we believe more work needs to
be done. While progress has been made on some of our major arterial streets, including adding
protected and painted bike lanes, they remain environments that incentivize fast driving. The
City's prior planning efforts, including its own Safe Mobility Santa Ana plan, has identified
arterial streets as constituting only 20% of our roadway network, but 60% of all pedestrian
involved collisions and 68% of the collisions involving people on bicycles occur on them. These
data show how dangerous these wide streets are for all travellers, whether they be motorists,
pedestrians, or cyclists. Yet, limited progress has been made in implementing the numerous street
reconfigurations that have been studied in prior city planning efforts that would calm traffic
speeds. We call on the council to prioritize public works efforts on improving traffic safety on
arterial roads.
We believe that policing will not mitigate Santa Ana's street racing problem. This approach
would be reactive, and we believe a more effective approach will be proactive. Rather than
improving traffic safety, these measures will have the unfortunate consequences of policing
innocent civilians rather than those breaking the law.
We believe the Santa Ana Police Department had good intentions in developing this ordinance,
and as our work in Advocacy Activation, and Education demonstrate, we both have a shared
goal of improving traffic safety in the City. But we believe a more effective effort will lay in
cooperating with the Orange County Transportation Authority, and a more ambitious
collaboration with the Santa Ana Public Works Department. This team of agencies should
collaborate and set policy and implement capital projects that should change street design and
geometry to discourage street racing. Working with these entities will help to identify a
data -driven approach to locate which corridors in Santa Ana see pervasive street racing and
where to invest capital improvements directed at mitigating street racing. Examples of policy
changes and capital improvements include: Allowing parking on arterials such as metered
parking (which would require policy change at the OCTA level) which would generate revenue
for the city, protected bike infrastructure, pedestrian safety improvements (in collaboration with
Public Works), speed humps, and more frequent traffic lights and crossings throughout arterials.
More ticketing will not improve public safety long term, and we fear it is a slippery slope when
we are criminalizing people in the public right of way. We respectfully request the mayor and
council to vote against this ordinance. We at SAAS look forward to building a stronger
partnership with the City and County in improving traffic safety for all in Santa Ana.
Sincerely,
,;I�
Krictnrnher Fortin
Project Director
Santa Ana Active Streets 1128 E Katella Ave. I Orange, CA 92867 I
Tel. (657) 205-7306 1 www.saascoalition.ora I infonasaascoalition.ora