report by Warren Guidry
Dear FSJ Board,
I have a few safety requests for the board to consider:
1. Please request neighborhood business owners to REQUIRE delivery in smaller trucks that won’t break our trees.
2. “No Trucks” signs must be reinstalled on traffic light posts at Broad & Esplanade and at Moss & Esplanade.
3. The “No Parking” sign be reinstalled in front of Canseco’s, between the trees, so Mystery St drivers can pull out safely.
At 8:40 Monday morning, a big 7up truck, headed for Canseco’s, broke a large oak tree branch near LePage. You can see from the photos that the truck is just too tall for the main tree branches. The truck driver and helper struggled to drag the heavy branch off the street, then drove to Canseco’s. But not until I had a chance to pull out my cell phone to take photos. I quickly drove to Canseco’s and took additional identifying photos of the truck and reported it to 911 and to the “How’s My Driving?” 800 number on the truck. I’ve had no response back.
The 7up truck parked in what is a No Parking zone in front of Canseco’s. There is a designated delivery zone on Mystery St., next to Canseco’s and nobody was parked there while the 7up truck chose to park out front. Somebody has removed the No Parking sign on the lamp pole between the oak trees. It needs to be replaced and it would be great if the No Parking zone was clearly painted again.
Thank you for your consideration,
Warren Guidry
***
Kevin O’Mara replied,
“It’s the City’s responsibility to keep the trees trimmed, not the businesses’s responsibility to request smaller trucks.
1.) Since the side of the truck pictured has advertisements for 7UP it’s likely that the truck was owned and operated by PepsiCo, and it is doubtful that a corporation the size of PepsiCo is going to alter its routing, dispatching, and overall delivery schedule because a small business like Canseco’s says “please use a smaller truck.”
2.) 911 is for emergencies. The only way it would have been justified to call 911 about this is if the tree branch had brought down a power line. Using emergency services for such a trivial issue is absolutely unnecessary.
I don’t want to see the beautiful live oaks on Esplanade damaged but I find that Mr. Guidry’s response was a complete over-reaction to the situation.”
***
Sten Thornburg replied,
“Just to let you know with respect to the “No Truck Route” sign. Having this sign has no actual legal purpose when the truck has a right to go there, for example to effect a delivery, so it would not prevent large trucks from pulling up to this spot. It only affects trucks that are passing through the area.
Also, one effect of installing “No Truck Route” signs willy-nilly on major thoroughfares, without designating a proper route for them, is that they are eventually pushed onto side streets and will have to use neighborhood streets instead of large boulevards. I know this kernel of sort of useless information from watching too many city council meetings and this exact situation happened uptown with respect to the port.”