ACORNs target "unsafe" streets

Acorn, a group of Belle Air elementary school parents and local residents, took to the streets last night to ask the San Bruno City Council to add traffic calming devices, such as speed bumps to the avenues around the school.

"A lot of accidents have happened here and the city has done nothing about it," said Jose G. Rodriguez, a member of Acorn. "We want speed bumps to be put on Third Avenue because people drive like it's a highway."

In addition, the group is requesting that a traffic light or stop sign be put at San Bruno and Sixth avenues as "people usually go straight without stopping," said Ana Espinoza, acorn's translator and welcome committee member.

Parents are concerned their children are at risk when they are walking to and from school and have to travel along roads and through intersections that are narrow, Rodriguez said.

Directed by Acorn leader David Sharples, the group paused at Third and Pine avenues to voice their concern about cars only pausing at stop signs and the speeds at which they traveled.

City Manager Connie Jackson followed the group along Third Avenue to Aroma's Pizza and Grill at the corner of Sixth and San Bruno avenues. She said she had been invited to attend the march to see the state of the intersections as the city, she said, "[has] not received any previous requests for speed bumps or traffic lights," that she was aware of.

This was Acorn's second meeting, but the first addressing the need for traffic alterations.