With safety in mind, Collier County is bringing sidewalks to Naples Park but many residents are not excited about this change.
Naples Park is located between US 41 and Vanderbilt Drive, both popular roads year-round. Michael Tisch, sidewalk project manager, says their research found that there have been 14 crashes involving pedestrians or bicyclists since 2018.
“I can’t tell you how many times, myself, I’ve been driving, and I go to pass one of these landscape trucks and unfortunately, I don’t see somebody walking the other direction,” said Stephen Buchalter, a Naples Park realtor and homeowner. “I know there have been several injuries in Naples Park from people getting hit and I don’t want to see that happen again.”
However, people like Sally Ryan who are against the projects, say it is not busy enough to justify the added concrete.
“The foot traffic doesn’t warrant the sidewalks, and in fact, our neighbor told us that the studies prove that the population in Naples Park is actually going down not up,” said Ryan. For instance on this street, right here on 106th, they painted over the crosswalk so obviously they don’t think there’s enough foot traffic on this street where they want to put sidewalks for a pedestrian crossing.”