Danger removed from Santa Cruz parking garage

After 2 months of inaction by the City, I posted this web page and informed City staff.

Two weeks later, the problem was corrected! The wheel barriers and this hazard were removed from the garage.

Santa Cruz, California: The problem: Improvements Needed. Time line.

The Problem

Before posting this, I wrote a 2-page letter detailing the injuries sustained in the city's River Street Parking Garage and recommending immediate and specific actions to abate the hazardous condition.

On September 10, 2008, I delivered copies of the letter to:

Santa Cruz City Manager, Richard C. Wilson.
Santa Cruz Council Mayor, Ryan Coonerty.
Santa Cruz City Public Works Director, Mark Dettle.

I received no response from any of those people or offices.

On October 14, 2008, my request appeared on the Santa Cruz City Council agenda, when it was dismissed. On that same day, I was told both privately by a city clerk and publicly in the 4 p.m. open council session that the council would direct the appropriate department to paint the wheel barriers.

As of November 10 (two months after the city was informed), the city had made no visible response to reduce the dangers in the parking garage. So I posted this page and informed the mayor.

Accident in Santa Cruz City Parking Garage

I tripped and fell in the center of the main (ground) level of the Santa Cruz Parking Lot No. 10: River Street Garage on August 22, 2008 just after 2 p.m. The cause was a city-installed low cement barrier (2 feet long and 4 inches wide) intended to block a driver-side car wheel. The barrier was effectively invisible to me because:

The barrier was the same raw-concrete color to the floor of the garage.
The garage was unlit and dark, shaded from the bright 2-p.m. sunlight outside and by the shadows of many parked cars.

Adding to the hazard, the barriers are irregularly spaced when (as where I was tripped) parking spaces on one side of a row face spaces of a different width on the other. This difference in spacing adds to the danger of barriers appearing where unexpected. In some places there is a safe route for a pedestrian; in other places there is not.

Time line

Date Months since problem reported
(September 10, 2008) Status of
wheel barrier painting Status of
wheel barrier placement

11/25/2008 2.5 No longer needed. Problem fixed: wheel barriers removed.

11/10/2008 2 Failure to correct No correction. No correction.

10/10/2008 1 No correction. No correction.

9/10/2008 0 No response from notified city staff. No response from notified city staff.

8/22/2008 -0.5 Found others (including my doctor) had tripped here. Failure to correct —

[Thanks for visiting.]

Date	Months since problem reported (September 10, 2008)	Status of wheel barrier painting	Status of wheel barrier placement
11/25/2008	2.5	No longer needed.	Problem fixed: wheel barriers removed.
11/10/2008	2	No correction.	No correction.
10/10/2008	1	No correction.	No correction.
9/10/2008	0	No response from notified city staff.	No response from notified city staff.
8/22/2008	-0.5	Found others (including my doctor) had tripped here.	—