As I mentioned in
an earlier post, the Village Board is considering a plan to rebuild Wilson Drive in 2009. As the proposal is currently outlined, the road would be narrowed from 56 feet wide to 38 feet wide once the reconstruction is completed (
View ShorewoodNOW Story). Additionally, there has been discussion of adding stop signs to slow traffic. Just to be clear, I have no final opinion on whether narrowing the road is a good idea, though I am glad we are having the discussion before the plan is finalized.
I received the below letter from a homeowner in the Wilson Dr area who asked not be identified. The reader brings up some very good points about the downside of altering traffic flow in the area, and the effect this reconstruction would have on Estabrook Parkway, as well as smaller residential streets on the West side of Shorewood.
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Steve,
I’m not sure where people get the idea that Wilson isn’t a very busy street. As someone who drives it every day (our house is just about a block and a half off of it) I can tell you that it gets plenty of traffic. I think we are just so used to driving on overcrowded, underbuilt streets and highways that many people no longer recognize a right-sized road. Despite some folks’ perceptions, I can tell you that pulling in and out during rush hour can at times be a little challenging, particularly when you throw in the buses as well as the bicyclists and joggers heading over to Estabrook for some after-work recreation. It’s lively but not a hazard to life or limb—I love it!
I am a devotee of Estrabrook Park , but just don’t see how much benefit the park would get from an additional slim strip of green space at its outer edge. What I could easily see happening, though, is a greater number of cars seeking to avoid a narrowed, over-trafficked and slower-moving Wilson drive and instead heading north/south between Shorewood and Whitefish Bay through Estabrook Park, which would do nothing for the atmosphere in the park—want a little more exhaust with your workout?—or the animals who live in it. The narrowing of Wilson would likely also add to the traffic of other north/south streets in the western side of Shorewood.
Wilson is also home to a number of by all appearances decent apartment buildings. It’s more densely populated than much of Shorewood. Forcing the traffic from these buildings—which is not currently problematic—into a much narrower street would do just that much more to make Shorewood unattractive to prospective tenants, and to increase perceived tensions between homeowners and renters. I also can’t imagine that narrowing Wilson would do much good for the people who park there, who currently have the somewhat unusual experience of finding it easy to pull in and out without disrupting traffic or risking their bumpers. And I doubt it would be of much benefit to the VFW, whose patrons often make use of this street parking.
Because our elected representatives do not live on the western side of Shorewood, I suppose I should find it easy to understand why they might be very willing, even eager, to reduce our quality of life in the name of taking the oh-so-campaign-friendly ‘feel good’ step of increasing the park’s square footage (though not really adding to usable space) and claiming to save a few dollars (though once ALL of the costs of narrowing the street are truly measured, I doubt this would save any money at all). What I do find very difficult to comprehend is how you, given your ongoing advocacy for renters (which I wholeheartedly support), can even begin to consider supporting this idiotic boondoggle of a plan.
Thank you for the opportunity to respond.
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