SUNSET PARK There’s never been a better example of looking both ways before crossing the street.
Behind the fence of the Santa Monica Airport runway, cars zoom freely along 23rd Street, cutting through a neighborhood of mainly single family residences, many speeding from Ocean Park Boulevard to Dewey Street — a stretch that lacks any stops signs or crosswalks.
The residents who live immediately east and west of the seven-block portion of 23rd Street are frustrated, calling it a thoroughfare, speedway and even race track.
They fear the day when they will step onto the street and get hit by a motorist.
“You come to the street and there are certain times of the day when you stand there and there is no break in traffic,” said Delta Tomlinson who has lived off 21st Street and Hill Street for seven years. “I’ve had actual altercations with people.”
He recalls a time when he and a friend were crossing the street when a driver — whom Tomlinson said “clearly should’ve stopped” —drove right by without stopping.
Angry, Tomlinson flipped off the driver, who circled back and started yelling at the two pedestrians.
“He said you can’t step out on a street, you can’t just walk on the freeway,” Tomlinson said. “It’s indicative of the attitude motorists have on that street.”
Residents like Tomlinson wonder why there are no crosswalks any where to be seen on that stretch of 23rd Street, only part of the corridor divided by a traffic median.
The median was City Hall’s response to the concerns about the lack of pedestrian accessibility on 23rd Street, said Mayor Pro Tem Herb Katz, who lives in Sunset Park. The traffic island, which was installed about three years
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 16, 2007. Read the original PDF.