Closing City Heights streets in a car-free celebration for everyone
After a week of multiple deaths and critical injuries involving serious vehicle accidents across San Diego County, a car-free event in City Heights will promote safety and community.
“This week there’s been in the region a lot of high profile accidents,” Jesse Ramirez said. He is the director of urban planning for the City Heights Community Development Corporation. Sunday, the organization will host CicloSDias with the San Diego County Bike Coalition .
“A lot of our world and our infrastructure centers around cars. But reality is you can’t just keep adding cars and freeways. There’s a cost to that,” Ramirez said. Sometimes that includes the cost of human life.
There have been at least two pedestrian deaths in the county in the past week.
In Carlsbad, a pedestrian was hit and killed in a residential area on Friday morning, October 17th, near Tamarack Avenue and Skyline Road. The driver was arrested after returning to the scene.
Last Monday, October 20th, a A 12-year-old boy was killed while walking to Pershing Middle School in San Carlos with his two siblings, who were also injured.
The event Sunday from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. will close more than a mile-and-a-half of University Heights from 35th street to Euclid Avenue. Pedestrians and cyclists are be able to roam the neighborhood without concern for any vehicular traffic. They can also visit businesses for discounts and freebies.
John Cooper is owner of Stay True CycleWorks in the 4400 hundred block of University Avenue. One of dozens of businesses that saw streets torn up and under construction for three years. Cooper is happy with new wider lanes, traffic lights, round-abouts, and safer street crossings for his customers.
“This is about safety,” Cooper said. “We are taking the opportunity to use the full open streets with no cars. It’s helpful to people because it can be very scary out there.”
Down the street at Rosa’s Ice Cream, they have a menu that includes sandwiches and strawberries with crème. The store is offering discounts Sunday to encourage people to try their food and to attract business back to the neighborhood after years of construction and unsafe streets outside the front door.
“It’s a lot better, prettier, and cleaner outside. Much easier for customers to come see us,” said Nora Reyes who is helping her family behind the counter this weekend.
