If City Council Agrees On Tuesday, These Seven Intersections Previously Found To Deserve School Crossing-Guards -- But Currently Not Assigned -- Definitely Won't Have Them...And These Three New Intersections Will
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Aug. 16, 2016, 9:04 p.m. UPDATE: The Council voted 7-0 (Price, Andrews absent, were present earlier in meeting) to approve city management recommendations, below.(August 15, 2016, 9:25 p.m.) -- If a City Council majority agrees on Tuesday night Aug. 16, seven Long Beach intersections, previously found to deserve school crossing-guards -- but where they currently aren't assigned -- will be removed from the City's list of intersections where school crossing-guard deserve to be deployed...and three new ones deemed hazardous will be added.
Proposed for removal from intersections deserving school crossing guards are:
Dooley Elementary School- Daisy Ave./Del Amo Blvd.
Emerson Elementary School- Palo Verde Ave./Willow St.
Twain Elementary School- Arbor Rd./Clark Ave.
Lafayette Elementary School- Pacific Ave./Willow St.
Proposed to receive crossing guards are:
Stevenson Elementary School - Lime Ave./l6th St.
Whittier Elementary School- Gundry Ave./17th St.
Cesar Chavez Elementary School- Maine Ave./l3rd St.
In an agendizing memo -- which can be viewed in full at this link -- Public Works Director Craig Beck and LBPD Chief Robert Luna (with signed approval from their boss City Manager Pat West) say that removing the seven intersections from those deserving crossing guards is justified "[d]ue to neighborhood changes, new school construction, population redistribution, school schedule changes and traffic signalization upgrades...These evaluated intersections are currently signal light-controlled, and are part of the "safe walking route to school" maps for elementary schools, which can be found at
this link. The removal of these
intersections from the recommended list will have minimal impact, as crossing guards are not currently assigned to these locations." City management's memo doesn't provide details of why, or for how long, or on whose authority crossing guards haven't been assigned to these locations.
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In recommending their removal from crossing-guard deployment, city management's memo cites the recommendations (advisory only to the City Council) which concluded that the seven intersections "do not meet the qualifying criteria to be considered 'hazardous'".
The memo recommends adding crossing guards at the three indicated intersections "after the City's Traffic Engineering Division conducted an evaluation of school-aged pedestrians and vehicular movements" and the three intersectioins met the conditions and numerical criteria in a LB Municipal Code section (adopted by a 1978 LB ballot measure, text included in the memo) and other unspecified circumstances.
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In terms of Fiscal Impact, staff's memo indicates that the "school crossing guard budget for FY17 is $1,142,850. Staffing assigned to the eliminated intersections will be redeployed as necessary. The City's School Crossing Guard Program is administered by the Police Department (PO) and is budgeted in the department's General Fund."
