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Originally Posted by the urban politician
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OK, great for Cinespace, but I'm actually kinda pissed about this. How the hell is traffic supposed to circulate in that area now that there is no connection E/W from Ogden to 21st Street? The only N/S road between California and Western is already Washtenaw and there is a 3 block backup on Washtenaw at 21st street every day at rush hour already. Add that to the endless line of trucks servicing Lagunitas that line up along the viaduct on 19th and this neighborhood will basically be gridlocked 24/7. If they are going to do this they need to do some serious work to the side streets which also have a bunch of stupid ass anti-gangbanger dead ends including one at 18th street.
I own property in the area and can tell you that the success of the area has been great, but this is going to create some serious headaches for anyone living between 21st and Odgen and Western and California. I had to lay on the horn for like two blocks straight the other day to get the oafs who parked their semi trucks basically in the middle of 19th street to move it. I usually don't take 19th (which is a two way road that the semis reduce to like a .85 way road) because of that and instead go in through the studio. With these closures there is literally no way to get to Washtenaw (which as I said is the only street in the area that passes under the viaduct). Where is all the traffic to Lagunitas' parking lot going to go? All the way to Douglas Park and back in from the West at 16th?? They already made Washtenaw one way a few years ago which was a total disaster that took drivers like a year to figure out since, again, it's the main connecting street in the area and was two ways forever before that.
I probably shouldn't be complaining because this is basically going to double the value of my retail space as Washtenaw becomes some sort of weird minor arterial one way street that empties all traffic from the Studio and Lagunitas, but I can't help but feel like the people who actually live there are going to suffer. I hate to say it, but they might have to rip up Washtenaw and widen it so it can become a proper two way street again. I just don't see how the area continues to function otherwise.