Advocates for safe streets asked the City Council on Wednesday to include safety improvements to San Diego's 15 deadliest intersections in the next city budget.
The council is in the midst of a weeklong marathon of budget hearings that comb through Mayor Todd Gloria's proposed funding levels for each city department. He proposes maintaining funding for road repair at levels comparable to recent years.
But advocates from the nonprofits Circulate San Diego and Families for Safe Streets San Diego said the budget fails to fund safety improvements at locations where pedestrians and cyclists have been seriously injured or killed.
Among the public speakers at Wednesday's budget hearing was Katie Gordon, whose husband, Jason, was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver in January 2020. Gordon said the intersection where the crash occurred, Market Street and 19th Street in Sherman Heights, is just as dangerous today as it was on the night he was killed.
"At the time, I had two twin girls that were a year old," Gordon said through tears. "I'm here to advocate for safer streets for them and others in our community."
In 2015, the City Council adopted a "Vision Zero" resolution, setting a goal of eliminating all traffic deaths and serious injuries on city streets by 2025. Gloria, then a city council member, strongly supported the resolution. Now, with less than seven months until that self-imposed deadline, traffic deaths remain stubbornly high.
Will Moore, policy counsel for Circulate San Diego, suggested funding small interventions at the "Fatal 15" intersections, such as audible pedestrian signals, pedestrian countdown timers and high-visibility striped crosswalks.
"They are relatively inexpensive fixes, and they can save lives," Moore said.
The mayor and city council face the daunting task of closing a projected deficit of $171.9 million — the result of high inflation on everything from paying city workers to filling up the gas tanks of city vehicles. Federal COVID-19 assistance has allowed the city to avoid major cuts in recent years, but that funding is now exhausted.
Later Wednesday, activists packed the council chambers for an opportunity to give public testimony on the overall budget. Many decried Gloria's proposal to defund programs meant to help historically disadvantaged communities deal with the impacts of climate change.
"This is not merely about balancing books — you are shaping futures," said Geneviéve Jones-Wright, executive director of the nonprofit Community Advocates for Just and Moral Governance. "Our city's Black, brown and low-income communities have suffered from chronic underfunding. A financial deficit does not diminish the need for equity. It intensifies it."
