VENTURA : Petitioners to Seek to Reopen Poli Street

About three months after the City Council decided to block off a section of Poli Street at Ventura High School, residents today will begin circulating petitions for a November ballot initiative to reopen the street.

Ventura City Councilmen Jack Tingstrom and Jim Monahan said they will be the first to sign the petition in a noon ceremony on Sunset Drive, which has also been blocked off to detour traffic that resulted from the closure.

The council decided in December to use metal gates to block off a section of Poli that cuts through the campus during school days to lessen the chances of a drive-by shooting.

The decision angered many residents of nearby hillside neighborhoods who object to the increased traffic in their areas and want voters citywide to decide the issue. Parents and students at Ventura High School are pushing to keep the street closed for safety reasons.

“The perception is that we’re just a bunch of whiners, and this only affects 400 to 500 people,” said resident Dave Gladstone, who is helping to organize the petition drive. “But the situation is that we have a main east-west artery in the city that is closed during the day. It is a citywide issue.”

City Clerk Barbara Kam said the residents must gather a minimum of 8,588 signatures of registered Ventura voters to qualify for the measure for the ballot. The petitions are due June 25.