Aug

Pedestrian Bridge

Go over to Ashvegas to learn more about the pedestrian bridge issue that is on tomorrow’s agenda at City Council.

Categories : Asheville City Council, Global Warming, Local

10 Comments

Diogenes
August 23rd, 2010 at 2:07 pm

Gordon, will you be supporting the reopening of the bridge?

Will you, or someone at city hall, give a thorough report and explanation about the peeling wayfarer signs around town? We all know by now they are peeling and have become unsightly, but we don’t know what steps have been taken to remedy the problem, whose responsibility it is to replace or remove them. Shouldn’t someone be presenting information about this unfortunate situation to the press and public?

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Brace
August 23rd, 2010 at 3:57 pm

With the gate into Hillcrest already open, people can already come and go with no control other than whomever chooses to play freeway frogger, go west to Westgate or cut under the 240 Bridge.
It appearts that there is a chain on the rt side of the fence by the Hillcrest housing gate in the staff photos (pg 34 of staff report). Is this gate locked at times?
Rather than pay for a police officer to be stationed at the gate from 6am to 9pm, why not make the gate card accessible, just like the front vehicle gate. That has got to cost less than $138,000 a year. Then the Wachenhut guard from the front gate could check the pedestrian gate a couple of times a day.

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Gordon Smith
August 23rd, 2010 at 5:44 pm

I’m still waiting to hear from the Housing Authority’s survey of Hillcrest residents before coming to a final conclusion. For some reason, that information has not reached City Hall despite City Council’s directive two months ago.

That being said, based on current information, I am strongly leaning towards advocating for reopening the bridge. Safety and transportation issues are front and center across the city right now. We’re seeing folks from every corner of the city telling us they want more and safer options to get from one place to another.

There are currently no available routes for west Asheville residents to directly access downtown. The pedestrian bridge closure has cut off that access. Residents of Hillcrest too often unsafely run across the highway.

Regardless of whether the bridge is reopened or not, the safety issues on the Chicken Hill side of the pedestrian bridge and underneath the Smoky Park bridge must be addressed. There is often violence there. The cost of reopening the bridge is largely due to hiring more police officers to patrol the area. This needs to happen whether the bridge is reopened or not.

A reopened pedestrian bridge will increase transportation options for Chicken Hill, the River Arts District, Hillcrest, and west Asheville residents. Increased safety there will improve the quality of life for Chicken Hill, the River Arts District, Hillcrest, and west Asheville residents.

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Gordon Smith
August 23rd, 2010 at 5:45 pm

As to the signs – The Tourism Develoment Authority is responsible for them. There have been multiple news stories over the last several weeks, so I don’t feel a need to rehash that here.

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Diogenes
August 23rd, 2010 at 7:25 pm

Citizen Times article on peeling signs:

http://www.citizen-times.com/article/20100809/NEWS/308090023/1003/ARCHIVES

Mt. Xpress:

http://www.mountainx.com/news/2010/so_about_those_peeling_signs

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barry
August 23rd, 2010 at 7:43 pm

~~signs~~

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nathan hensley
August 24th, 2010 at 2:21 pm

why waste the taxpayers money to reopen that pedestrian bridge when it won’t be long before hillcrest is leveled for the future connection of the future I-26? if you do waste taxpayer dollars you will be making a lot of people in this city mad!!

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