Special to El Rrun-RrunLast week, The City of Brownsville added some new parking meters on an unused bus driveway.
But the way the city workers went about it, some local residents say that in trying to save a penny it may have been dollar foolish.
The driveway once led to the Greyhound building on the St. Charles Street entrance. Like any typical driveway, curbs are not needed. But now, having the parking meters there, a concrete curb is necessary to protect pedestrians. It shouldn't, they say, take a degree in engineering to figure that out.
Apparently, the city's Engineering/Traffic Director, Carlos Lastra opted to bypass the process of constructing a new sidewalk and curb and instead, he had his traffic workers install a section of 2- inch high, yellow speed bumps. Any vehicles trying to park there can easily drive on top of the plastic speed bumps, and wind up hurting someone.
That would not easily happen with a conventional roadside curb.
The residents say it's obvious that the city decided for a quick shortcut without considering the safety of pedestrians and the exposure of the city to legal liability. Will the city will properly fix the problem before someone gets hurt and sues the city?
The offensive "Mickey Mouse" curb is located at 1100 E. St. Charles Street. There are over 900 on-street parking meters, and all have standard size concrete curbs. The city, ideally, should have had the bus driveway removed and replaced by a standard sidewalk and curb.
And just is case some may think this is much ado about nothing, one can see tire marks on the top and the other side of the speed bump. Included is a photo of a meter adjacent to the cheap curb the way it should be installed with a standard sidewalk and cement curb.