Editor,

I have not followed the North Mesa housing controversy closely because any mention of it makes me ill.  This doesn’t have anything to do with my property value.  It doesn’t have anything to do with grand notions of what makes a sustainable, just neighborhood. 
 
We have lived on the Mesa a long time.  I have pushed both single and double strollers across the crosswalks.  We have seen the sad flowers on the ground near the crosswalks after fatalities.  

Driving in for groceries last week, we stopped at the crosswalk so a neighbor could cross when my daughter mentioned how hardly anyone ever stops for her or her sister.  She said they tend to look straight ahead and pretend not to see her.

So what do you do?  Call the police and complain?  I’ve tried that, it doesn’t work.  I brought up this question to someone earlier in the debate over increased housing on the Mesa and was assured plans were being made to keep everyone safe but I don’t believe it for a minute.

Last week when it snowed the kids enjoyed running the cross country track because they didn’t have to worry about cars sliding around near the road.  It’s a safe, beautiful place to get some fresh air.  We crisscrossed it for years back when we delivered newspapers.  It’s home to horny toads, coyotes, lizards, deer, and stink bugs.

Aside from the Mesa’s problematic crosswalks, particularly if one is very young or old, one wonders what would the wildlife do if traffic increases significantly?  There are already dozens of grisly accidents every year in the quarter mile or so around the roundabout.  Are animal underpasses be part of future development?  Are environmental studies part of this process?  

If underpasses might be built, then perhaps overpasses could be an option for pedestrians too, but how to do this in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act must be considered.  

It would be comforting to believe that the School Board and County Council would take these really basic safety and quality of life issues seriously, but history shows this is asking too much.

Lynn Hanrahan
Los Alamos