Happily, the city is planning to reduce the northern-most section to two lanes, to provide bike lanes and reduce the attraction for road racers.
Heard: Traffic blasting by at 55 mph on Black, Betteravia and Mahoney roads — speeds that are not inappropriate for these rural roads, but they are within the city, so I walked them. Kids in bounce houses every time I walked on a Sunday morning. Who knew Sunday was bounce-house day. Santa Maria Valley Railroad whistles every weekday morning. Trucks full of produce with refrigeration motors. Jets taking people to Las Vegas or San Francisco. And far more laughter than arguing.
Saw and photographed: Thirty vacant lots where houses have been torn down due to oil contamination. This is not discussed much, but in a couple of neighborhoods in Sunrise Hills 10-20 percent of the houses are gone, with no signs of plans to rebuild.
Throughout the city I saw many other houses that had “Valley Beautiful” award signs posted and others I thought deserving. There were also many homes showing signs of the drought. I hope people will find ways to make their homes beautiful without grass and water-loving plants, and that the city will provide incentives for property owners to do this. Such incentives will help keep our city beautiful and save tax money in the long run — if we can avoid the expense of desalinization and other new sources of water.
Let’s use some paint to remind motorists to yield to pedestrians — and pedestrians, please look and listen, and do not assume a motorist has seen you.
Rode: All our bus routes to some starting points. Santa Maria Area Transit is an efficient system and can get you to all corners of town in a short amount of time for a reasonable fare. Sometimes the buses ran early, but after a few complaints, they have gotten better about adhering to schedule.
The last steps: I ended at City Hall looking across Broadway at a signal that said “WALK,” but saw no painted crosswalk. Let’s fix this.
I had a rewarding experience. Hop on a bus, ride a bike and take a walk!