Seriously? This is how the fate of the safety of Island Crest Way is going to be determined? Our City Council seems to have gone rogue on this one. Three quarters of a million dollars reallocated in a quiet Council Chamber, zero public input and a complete disregard for years of study and public testimony on the solution to the dangerous Merrimount intersection.

We end up with two new stoplights on Island Crest Way that have been proven to impede traffic flow and offer no help for the ‘driver switching lanes’ issues that cause most of the accidents in the corridor (including the recent serious accident where a MIHS student was hit in the crosswalk). Worse, they provide no solution for the sub-standard intersection that started this whole tired discussion in the first place.

Grady’s dramatic flip-flop on this issue is simply his latest example of erratic behavior, and the budget backdrop for the decision is an obvious ‘red herring.’ No money was saved in this exchange — it was simply reallocated to the apparently mission critical issue of resurfacing a few residential streets. However, the costs of not doing the project are in the millions, including sunk costs of project design, bidding, staff time, consultant time, and the costs of the two-year public input process.

Shame on you, boys, for spinning this as a fiscally conservative move. Do what’s right, re-instate your original data-driven decision immediately and postpone the street paving.

Kris Kelsay