SCARS August 24 meeting minutes The meeting started at 7:15 p.m. with 11 people, including two new members, in attendance. Two additional members arrived midway. ATTENDANCE: Sam Williams, chairman Mike Tannenbaum, vice chairman Don Rosen, member Claudia Philippe, member Joan Harmon, member The Rev. William Blasingame, member Barbara Fisher, member Thomas Fisher, member Naomi -- new member Don -- new member Tina Brown, member Richard Fisher, member ITEM 1: FALL SIGN CAMPAIGN The group discussed plans for a fall sign campaign to follow up on the success of the spring "Slow Down" campaign. There was a consensus agreement that the fall campaign should stress the return to school and that the "Slow Down" message should be upgraded to "School's Open Slow Down." Thanks to a Citizens of NYC grant, SCARS has enough money to purchase between 150 and 200 signs, about 50% more than the group ordered in the spring. Mike said it would take about a week between order and delivery and that he would submit a proof of the slogan and design to the group for review before ordering. Mike also reminded the group that the signmaker only allows two background colors -- white and yellow. The group agreed to stick with yellow because of the heightened visibility. Barbara also noted that a white sign was more likely to attract taggers or discolor in the weather. To make room for the extra words in the slogan, Mike suggested increasing the sign size from 18"X18" to 18"X24." There were no objections to this plan. For the two new members in attendance, Sam reiterated the twin goals of the campaign: 1) directly communicate to drivers that they need to drive more safely. 2) communicate to the neighborhood itself and to the entire island leadership that concern over the current lack of traffic safety is a unifying political issue. Based on his own leafletting activity during the week, Sam said the only piece of negative feedback in regard to the spring campaign was that many residents didn't get a chance to participate. For that reason, the group made room in its grant request for extra signs and has expanded its flyer campaign to Broad Street in the south and Victory Blvd. in the north. Claudia asked if there was any evidence that the signs had worked in slowing traffic. Mike suggested accident frequency as a measure of success. There have been no major accidents in the neighborhood since April, indicating a successful so far. That said, complaints about excessive speeds, especially on St. Paul's Ave., remain high If the upcoming campaign fails to produce a general sense of reduced traffic speed, the group will consider an alternate public awareness campaign in the spring. For the moment, however, the signs are paid for and a good way to foster full-neighborhood participation, Sam said. ITEM 2: SLOW-APALOOZA The group spent the remainder of the meeting discussing Mike's idea of documenting vehicle speeds along St. Paul's Ave. with a radar gun. At the group's last meeting, held on July 6, DOT commissioner Thomas Curitore expressed concern that the limited overhead visibility along St. Paul's Ave. between Grand and Clinton Streets might make an automated speedboard ineffective and requested additional time to study the problem. To make sure drivers get the message that they are driving too fast in the meantime, Mike proposed, creating a human speedboard -- with one team recording a driver's speed and a second team, further down the block, holding up a "your speed is" message. Thomas expressed immediate concern that this might be seen as a hostile gesture to some drivers and lead to unwelcome "road rage" confrontations. Sam proposed making the human speedboard the centerpiece activity of an end-of-summer party event. This event would be held on the private property of St. Paul's Church avoiding the need for a permit, and the group would go out of its way to broadcast its peaceful intentions -- posting handmade signs and posters welcoming drivers to the neighborhood and reminding them to drive safely as they pass through it. The Rev. William Blasingame, rector of the church, agreed to let the church be the site of the event and suggested inviting other civic group representatives and other religious leaders. He expressed concern, concern, that the event strategy might cause drivers to slow down automatically just to investigate, making it hard to publicize the speeding problem along St. Paul's. He also noted that the worst speeding generally happens during the afternoon rush hour mid-week and that it might make more sense to monitor speeds at that time. Over time, however, the group reached a consensus that a weekend trial demonstration would be the best way to guarantee volunteer participation, full-neighborhood attention and significant media exposure. Depending on the success of the trial, the group could set up again at the same spot on a weekday. Finally, Don requested confirmation on the purpose of the event. Is the group agitating for a speedboard or is it just trying to get some visibility? Sam said the group is willing to wait for the DOT to put together a set of traffic-calming proposals. In the meantime, we want drivers, the media, our neighbors and our elected officials to recognize that St. Paul's Ave. is a residential street, not a commuter thoroughfare and that driving speeds should reflect that fact. In the spirit of both the group and the neighborhood itself, we choose to deliver this message through grass roots, volunteer activity. The group agreed to set Saturday, Sept. 16th as the date of the human speedboard trial, choosing the time period of 2 p.m to 5 p.m., because that period corresponds with the highest traffic volume on the weekend. Mike volunteered to bring both a radar gun and food. All other duties will be assigned at a preparation meeting scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 14th at 7:30 p.m. in the St. Paul's Parish Hall. Eleven people volunteered to participate. The group estimated that it needs at least four more volunteers to make the event a success. Members were advised to spread the word. http://lookingnorth.com/slowdown.html DEFERRED ITEMS The group agreed to save for later a discussion of the nighttime speeding problem and a general discussion of ongoing strategy. ADJOURNMENT The meeting adjourned at 8:30 p.m.

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