Persistent North Park neighbors get a new four-way stop at busy intersection
SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — The City of San Diego has installed a new four-way stop at a busy North Park intersection.
The new installation comes after years of neighbors pushing for better safety measures, including calling into the city and filing tickets through the city’s Get It Done app.
“I think it’s something we needed,” said Henry Spindell, who lives in North Park near the Polk Avenue and Utah Street intersection.
“This is a great idea, thank God the city did it,” another North Park resident said.
It’s construction noise that North Park neighbors are glad to hear, but more importantly, see in the form of a brand new four-way stop at the intersection of Polk Avenue and Utah Street in North Park.
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Spindell said walking in the intersection was often scary.
“Some cars would assume they would stop, can’t predict what they would do,” Spindell said.
Other residents expressed the same feelings.
“Cars go up and down Utah Street, going 50 mph and I live right here and I cross the street and it’s very very dangerous,” said one local.
Several neighbors said they have been waiting years for new safety measures.
“It feels really good and a step in the right direction,” said Dave Kelts, who used to live near the intersection, but has since moved to another part of North Park.
Kelts lived near the intersection until this January. He said he sent in four Get It Done tickets to the city. Kelts sent in the first ticket through the city’s app in 2022 for a broken street light, then later for missing dip signs and red curb paint.
“You would consistently hear tires screeching and cars bottom out on these dips, and it was a blind spot for cars to be able to cross and also pedestrians as well,” Kelts said.
It would be 42-year-old Stephen Debow’s deadly hit and run that exacerbated the concerns. Prosecutors said 76-year-old Donna Chapman Jacobs hit and killed Debow at the Polk and Utah intersection on Nov. 21, 2023.
Prosecutors say Jacobs drove approximately 30 mph, hit Debow at the unmarked crosswalk, and drove with him on the hood for 65 feet. Officers arrested Jacobs 10 days later and she pleaded not guilty to felony hit and run causing death, and misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter.
“When people die unnecessarily, it’s important that the community and the city react quickly,” said City of San Diego District Three Councilmember Stephen Whitburn.
Kelts said after Debow’s death, neighbors sent a letter to Whitburn who then sped up the process. Kelts said within the month following the man’s death, the city started handling those old Get It Done tickets.
First came brighter lights above the intersection, then crews painted missing red curbs.
“It’s a volume issue. There is just so much out there, they probably have so many thousands of tickets that some resolve themselves,” Kelts said.
On Feb. 21, 2024, Whitburn sent a memorandum stating he “respectfully request that an all-way stop be installed at the intersection of Utah Street and Polk Avenue by utilizing the Alternative Process” which is outlined in Section C of Council Policy 200-08.
The memo also stated that the North Park Planning Committee voted to support a request for an all-way stop at the intersection, on Feb. 20, 2024.
Whitburn said he encouraged the transportation department to look past the findings from their recent study showing the intersection did not qualify for a four-way stop and listen to its residents.
Whitburn said, “But the communities oftentimes know their streets the best. And the community knew this intersection needed more safety, needed a four-way, and able to override the criteria.”
“It takes times like these to step back and recognize there is things we can do to look out for one another. Glad we are able to put these safety measures put in now in to prevent other tragedies from happening in the future,” Kelts continued.
Jacobs is scheduled back in court on Thursday for a status hearing in the downtown courthouse. She has a preliminary hearing scheduled for June 11.
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