Culver City : Street Barricade Removal OKd

The City Council voted Tuesday night to remove the last of five traffic barricades that divided and embittered the city’s Sunkist Park neighborhood.

The barricades were erected in the single-family neighborhood just northwest of the Fox Hills Mall last September to close a potentially dangerous intersection at McDonald Street and Sawtelle Boulevard and to discourage commuters from taking shortcuts through the area.

But the barricades divided the neighborhood physically and emotionally. Bitter arguments erupted between neighbors inundated by the rerouted traffic and those whose streets became quiet cul-de-sacs. Hundreds of residents flooded City Council meetings to vent their rage.

Responding to the protests, the council dismantled three barricades last December. On Tuesday, after a two-hour public discussion, the council voted to follow its traffic consultant’s recommendations and dismantle the remaining barricades at McDonald Street and Sawtelle Boulevard and Culver Park Drive and Segrell Way.

“There must be relief for the other streets (bearing the diverted traffic),” Mayor Paul Jacobs said.

The council also voted to follow the consultant’s recommendation to restrict right turns from Sawtelle Boulevard onto McDonald Street and left turns from McDonald Street.