Posted on 06/02/2013 7:40:12 PM PDT by Gamecock
VALLEJO (CBS13) — A Vallejo man took his concerns about pedestrian safety into his own hands by painting his own crosswalk, much to the chagrin of Vallejo Police.
Fresh out on bail and back on his block, Anthony Cardenas received a hero’s welcome of sorts.
Anthony lives on a busy, four-lane Vallejo street and he decided he was going to do something for the pedestrians.
In the name of safety, he grabbed some paint Thursday morning and hand-painted his own crosswalk.
“I tried helping my community out,” he said. “I got tired of seeing people get run over here all the time.”
However well intended, cops arrested Anthony for felony vandalism, and Caltrans had to chip the paint out of the street.
“Traffic division said there hadn’t been any pedestrian-involved collisions in that area, so they’re not sure what safety-related issues he was referring to,” said Vallejo Police Lt. John Whitney.
It’s worth pointing out that the intersection already has three crosswalks. And police say the legal crosswalk crossing the four lanes of traffic is just steps away from where he painted his.
But an agitated Anthony insists he made all the difference.
“I can’t even walk there because, look, they don’t even stop,” he said.
Buoyed by the support of his neighbors, Anthony doesn’t regret what he did, even though he faces charges and is on the hook for street repairs.
Police say it cost more than $1,000 to get rid of Anthony’s crosswalk.
You’re once. Twice. Three times a lady.
No one was arrested.
Control of Crosswalk locations is Fascist.
From watching the video, I’d say that his head is not quite right.
Wait. If part of his fine or whatever was he had to chip the paint of himself why is there this $1,000 charge to have it removed?
of course people shouldn’t paint their own crosswalks but it sounds like he has a good argument...
note that Vallejo is one of California’s bankrupt cities, reportedly because of high police and fire wages (so say the newspapers)... so it is a bit strange to see the VPD has time enough to arrest this guy for his little paint job in light of Vallejo’s reputation for having a lot of the good, old-fashioned type of violent crime
The local paper once headlined all the murders in town...and a local real estate broker got arrested for stealing all the newspapers out of the vending machines so that potential buyers wouldn’t be scared away from town...
maybe the VPD might find something better to do with its time than to arrest this painter of lines (and maybe the city traffic engineer might go out and look at that site for its alleged dangers to pedestrians)
just typing for lack of much better to do just now. Vallejoites, you can ignore this
Whoops! Didn’t read the whole thing correctly.
I painted a set of Vascar speed trap lines on my road a couple of times for the psychological effect in slowing traffic—but I had the blessing of the local gov’t.
They said “it’s your paint and your time”.
City designates downtown pedestrian walkway as 'Sam Steiger Crosswalk'
Oh, the humanity!!!
Here's the intersection in question. There's a similar setup in at the entrance to my place of work, which I actually traversed once in pursuit of my goal to walk to a nearby Subway sandwich shop. The message I got was, "Why are you walking, Idiot?"
I'm not an Arizonan, but I certainly remember Sam Steiger. In 1976, he got into a nasty primary contest with fellow conservative Rep. John Conlan (R-Ariz.) for the nomination to succeed retiring Sen. Paul Fannin (R-Ariz.). As both sides hurled charges and counter-charges, the contest morphed into the bloodiest fight since the Battle of the Somme.
Although Steiger won the nomination, the lingering bad blood between the two camps made it worthless, and Democrat Dennis Deconcini was elected to a seat that had been in Republican hands for a quarter century. Deconcini would go on to play a major role in giving away the Panama Canal.
We drove through the Vallejo marina yesterday. What a place!
There was a scruffy looking catamaran ferry boat docked there, with its bilge pumps running full blast just to stay afloat. I can hardly wait to take a ride on it. What if its engine quit? It would sink in minutes.
How does traffic use the road while some idiot is out there painting his cross walk, that criss crosses the real cross walk?
“just typing for lack of much better to do just now. Vallejoites, you can ignore this”
They shouldn’t ignore it! Everything you’ve posted is spot on! Vallejo has some very nice upscale neighborhoods. but all are east of I80. The trash between I80 and Mare Island is just that, a trashy throwback from the days when Mare Island was a working Naval Shipyard. “Old Town Vallejo” isn’t a place you want to go when the sun goes down.
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