Castro Valley's Most Hostile Crosswalk

Your Boulevardier was running his errands downtown today -- on foot, of course -- when he was once again reminded that this is the most hostile, pedestrian unfriendly crosswalk in town.



You may recognize it as the crosswalk from Castro Village to the west side of Santa Maria Avenue. (The one that was moved from about ten yards west not too long ago.) Your Boulevardier finds this crosswalk hostile for at least two reasons: first, it has no curb cut (fancy-talk for wheelchair ramp) on the south side; second, it ends in dirt on the west side.

The first problem is an obvious one. Persons with wheelchairs -- or baby strollers (there is a toy shop at one end of this croswalk) -- can't safely get to the crosswalk without entering the street.

The second problem will become more clear when the winter rains arrive, and that dirt landing becomes, instead, a mud landing. Then, even the able-bodied among us will have to bypass the crosswalk to keep from ruining our shoes.

Castro Valley has a long tradition -- if that's the right word -- of spotty sidewalks. Some even take it as a source of pride -- a tip of the straw hat to our chicken-farming heritage, or somesuch nonsense. Whatever the case, the crosswalk pictured above is a hazard.