by Elliot Gold
elliotgold@aconaonline.org
for Altadenablog
The Altadena Coalition of Neighborhood Associations (ACONA) held its third bimonthly meeting Tuesday night, Jan. 25, once again bringing out neighbors to discuss issues affecting them in Altadena. The meeting’s focus was on speed limits in Altadena, and on how to train teens to talk to Sheriff’s deputies when stopped.
The meeting began with an introduction to ACONA’s new Website, (http://www.aconaonline.org), which of course has a link back to the Altadenablog, as well as to important services often asked about by Neighborhood Associations. The new Website as well allows anyone in Altadena to download presentations made at previous ACONA meetings, providing tips for having a better neighborhood. The Website has a blog, allowing neighbors to hold open discussions of issues between formal meetings. The most important feature of the ACONA Website is that it has links to a number of Neighborhood Associations throughout Altadena, including a map showing where many of them are. The map, done by Jeff Sedlik for the Altadena Sheriff’s Department, is an excellent resource.
CHP: Speed Limits in Altadena
California Highway Patrol officers Thomas Miller and Ming-Yang Hsu presented a slide show on speed limit enforcement in Altadena. The focus of their presentation was on why speed limits change sometimes on the same street. One example is Woodbury, which in some stretches has a speed limit of 30 miles per hour (MPH), which later changes to 40 MPH. The officers explained that is because part of Woodbury is physically in Altadena (L.A. County), while part of it is in the City of Pasadena, which has different speed limit rules. There is a formal process LA County must go through to set speed limits, but Officers Miller and Hsu did admit that even that it was not a perfect system.
Pictured: CHP Officer Hsu talks about speed limits.
The speed limits are set really to protect residents, and are influenced by factors such as density of residential areas, as well as schools and churches where there is a lot of foot traffic. Speed limits are determined by what 85% of traffic is doing on a road. Speed limits in school zones are automatically lower. To better understand the speed limits, there is a federal map on CALTRANS that shows the different types of roads (http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/tsip/hseb/crs_maps/maplinks/13u/13u54.pdf) in Altadena. Guidelines for how speeds are set is determined by what is called the Manual for Uniform Traffic Control Devices (http://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov/).
In answering the question from the audience, “Who do we call in an emergency?” Officer Hsu said “Call the Altadena Sheriffs at 626-798-1131. They can get there faster than we can, and will call us to assist when it’s a traffic incident.”
Altadena Sheriff's Station: Training teens to talk to Sheriff's deputies when stopped
Sgt. Michael Randenberg of the Altadena Sheriff’s Station showed an Allstate video filmed in Chicago called "The Law and You" showing what happens during traffic stops, loud parties/alcohol, shoplifting and drug involvement, focusing on teens and what is the correct and the incorrect behavior when stopped. The film is directed at youth and is shown in schools. The message is that there should be mutual respect, cooperation and honesty.
The Altadena station is working on its own video focusing on our community. The script is in progress. There's going to be role-playing, and the kids are going to have an opportunity to be deputies, to see things from the other side of the badge. Keith "Sarge" Gibbs suggested that the kids that should be in the video are the kids he deals with in his boot camps that have been in the situations that the video is dealing with. Michael Trotman, a member of the Upside-Down-T Neighborhood Association, felt that the goal of the Altadena film was for neighborhood kids to build respect and camaraderie. He fears that when young kids see traffic stop, they sometimes become curious and get in the way and make a bad situation worse.
Natalie Salazar, Director of the Sheriff’s Community Law Enforcement Partnership Program (CLEPP), pointed out that the Altadena Sheriff’s Department is about to roll out what’s called the Vital Intervention and Directional Alternatives (VIDA) program (http://www.la-sheriff.org/sites/Youth/programs.htm), for youth 8 – 17 years of age in Altadena, which helps at-risk kids. She suggested that Neighborhood Associations reach out to the Altadena Sheriff’s Department when they have their block clubs. “You’ll find that the sheriffs will come out to your block parties to meet and talk with neighbors and their kids,” said Natalie. “Sometimes, they’ll even arrange for a helicopter fly-over, which is always fun.” Finally, she pointed out that March is Safe Communities Month, with a number of events planned to get kids (and adults) to meet the sheriffs in a casual fun setting.
ACONA’s next meeting will be at the Altadena Library in Tues., March 22 from 7-8:30 PM. Check ACONAOnline.org for updates, and use their blog to suggest topics for the next meeting.
