Paving Over the Problem

I have followed the exhaustive debate over the proposed paving of Mulholland Drive. Madeline DeAntonio, president of the Encino Hillside Traffic Safety Organization, is right when she says that something must be done to deal with the serious traffic problem in the Encino Hills area, and she has been lobbying for the paving of Mulholland Drive as the only solution to the problem.

Environmentalists and other concerned Encino residents are also right when they say that paving Mulholland Drive is not the answer, that paving will add to the traffic problem in the long run by inviting further development.

As each group fights for and against paving Mulholland Drive, more time passes while traffic and tempers build. It’s time to stop fighting and work together. A group composed of people from both sides needs to be formed, and its members must make a commitment to search for a win-win solution.

Both sides agree that local streets are not engineered to be used as alternative freeway routes.

Working together to get selected streets modified to discourage through traffic could be worth exploring. By creatively implementing traffic-impeding and restrictive measures, the benefit of using the local streets of Encino as a freeway alternative by through traffic could be eliminated. This could be done at a fraction of the cost of paving and implemented in a relatively short time.

Working together with energy focused at the problem instead of at each other is what our community needs.

BILL DAVINO, Encino