Amy R. Spurgeon
Like ants frantically milling around each other in search of food, daily
motorists in Eastside Costa Mesa use the maze of neighborhood streets in
search of a quicker route -- all for an extra 15 minutes.
"It's too busy," said 26-year-old East 19th Street resident Claudia
Marquez, pointing to the stream of traffic flowing on the street in front
of her house. "It's like this all of the time."
Marquez lives with her two young children in a corner house on 19th
Street and Orange Avenue. She discourages her children from playing in
front of the house out of fear of the traffic.
Five years ago, other 19th Street residents had similar complaints and
decided to take on city hall.
A group of residents asked the city to place speed bumps along the busy
street -- which the county's master plan labels as an arterial highway --
that stretches from Border's bookstore on Newport Boulevard to Mariners
Park on Irvine Avenue.
"Our neighborhood is being turned into a freeway," said Al Eichler, a
42-year resident of East 19th Street. "It's devaluating our property. The
people who have children are concerned about safety. They don't want to
let their children play in the frontyard because they're afraid they'll
run into the street."
At the time, a city survey tracking license plates of cars entering and
exiting the street at Newport Boulevard and Irvine Avenue suggested that
50% of the cars weren't East 19th Street residents. It was estimated five
years ago that about 9,000 cars traveled the road daily.
City officials confirmed there was a problem, but said speed bumps were
not the answer.
"Speed bumps would reduce the volume of traffic by not more than 20%,"
Costa Mesa transportation manager Peter Naghavi said in 1995.
In the end, speed bumps were not installed, mainly because officials said
that would have pushed traffic onto other streets. Instead, a series of
other adjustments were made to East 19th Street, such as additional stop
signs, sidewalks and striping, said Bill Morris, director of Public
Services.
He said the real problem is East 17th Street, because crowded conditions
cause people to use residential streets -- such as 19th Street -- as
alternate routes.
The problems related to 17th Street date back to 1953, when Costa Mesa
first became a city. The county's master plan called for a six-lane 17th
Street, but only four lanes were built.
Since that time, the city has tried to avoid expanding 17th Street
because it is such a monstrous task. Residents along Flower, Orange,
