Until recently, I didn’t realize that the exercise plan, as part of the Blue Zones Project, included jumping out of the way of drivers careening at unsafe speeds, drivers dodging through parked cars, drivers making a lefthand turn in the righthand lane, all the while on their phones, or eating, or to make it even more interesting, playing a game of chicken with oncoming traffic.

I live on Massee Street, a one-way street that intersects Cedar Avenue. Now that a portion of Lakeview Blvd by our neighborhood is closed, the traffic has been rerouted to Cedar Avenue. Many of the residents in our neighborhood walk down Cedar Avenue to get to Fountain Lake. The lake is really close, perhaps a block and a half at most. There are no sidewalks in our neighborhood, so we walk by the curb on Cedar Avenue to get to the lake. I can be seen every day walking my two, little, black dogs to the lake and/or back to my home on Massee Street.  I’ve seen other residents walk with dogs, children run to play with friends, moms with strollers and elderly who walk hand-in-hand.

Our residential neighborhood has become a danger zone.

To those of you who take proper care, thank you so much! To those of you who don’t, please, please, please take care before you kill or seriously injure an innocent person, young or old, who is walking on Cedar. We are no match for your vehicle.

 

Rosemary Ludowese

Albert Lea