Crews from the city of Oakland removed speed bumps from East 21st and other streets in the San Antonio neighborhood before the Memorial Day weekend. These speed bumps, installed by citizen advocates, had reportedly stopped dangerous sideshows.
Michael Andemeskel, a San Antonio resident and advocate, posted on social media about his frustration with the city for removing the rubber speed bumps:
Every night, without fail, stolen cars screamed through the neighborhood, frightening our children, robbing us of sleep, and polluting the air with toxic smoke. The city ignored these issues for several years. So, we did something about it. For the past eight months, our neighborhood was free of sideshows. Until the city decided that our streets were safer with sideshows than with these speed bumps. They removed the speed bumps without warning, explanation, or recourse. Five OakDOT employees and three truckers were involved in the removal. The removals lasted over five hours. When we protested, they called the police, two officers showed up but left us in peace. They removed over $3000 worth of speed bumps that had kept five intersections sideshow free for several months without accidents, without complaints. The city is going broke, and this is how OakDOT spends our tax dollars? Is this the most pressing thing they have to do? There were 35 people killed on International Blvd over the last five years, and our streets are full of potholes. Why don’t they address those issues?…