The city of EL just can't catch a break around here. The City Center fiasco dragged on for many years and still isn't resolved since the developer has not yet built the affordable/senior housing component, now their Evergreen property keeps coming back to bite them. Add in the small apartment development over Showroom Shine that never materialized along with the development slated for the site of the original Bigby and Crunchy's. The area seems ripe for more change, I'd think the dominos would fall eventually.
Noticed fencing around the area when I walked by on Wednesday and wondered what was happening. Apparently nothing anytime soon.
Historical comment that the EL police district that encompasses most of downtown stops at Abbot, west of Abbot is another district. Wonder if those get reworked eventually if development continues to the west.
The fencing at those lots has been up for a while now, nothing really happened after that. Nature is reclaiming the area with a lot of flowering plants [weeds] taking over the bare ground. It would be great to see those lots have perhaps some affordable and senior housing built there; I would really like it if they were six stories or less, the bank building took out most of the afternoon sun on the north side of our building. Tall buildings would block out most of the rest of the sunset view and turn more of Abbot into a shadow canyon.
I wonder if anyone has any good ideas for getting rid of the police video tower at 7-11? We hear the announcement that the parking lot is being video recorded 24/7 inside our apartment. I have never seen a tower with an announcement before, and it is a small but annoying presence in our already very noisy neighborhood. I have spoken to the owners they say the police have to contact the tower owners to change anything, I talked to an EL fireman, and he said the owners have to turn it off. I wrote to City Hall but have received no reply. To me the tower is not necessary, its presence makes the neighborhood look more dangerous that is, and the announcement is noise pollution. It is unfair to us and our neighbors that we have to hear about the 7-11 security problems all day. I can think of nowhere else that has this kind of video tower, what would you do if this thing were outside your house!
Is it one of those trailers with the telescoping arms that rises up with cameras on the end? I see those all over the place but I've never heard one that announces its presence, they usually just have blue flashing lights. Sounds like you did all the right things to try to address it, perhaps speaking in person at a council meeting? Or writing the mayor or a council member? (not sure if that's what you meant by 'city hall' but emailing the respective politicians personalized address usually yields better results)
The police video tower at 7-11 is not actually a police video tower - it is owned (or rented) by the 7-11 itself, and on their property. I doubt the city can do anything about it except ask nicely. Guess you could file a noise complaint after 10 PM. Contacting the owner would probably be most effective.
My sense from occasional police scanner listening is that they have problems there every night (actually an officer told me - "open 24/7 and they serve alcohol"). But perhaps the audio warning could be turned off.
Comments
The city of EL just can't catch a break around here. The City Center fiasco dragged on for many years and still isn't resolved since the developer has not yet built the affordable/senior housing component, now their Evergreen property keeps coming back to bite them. Add in the small apartment development over Showroom Shine that never materialized along with the development slated for the site of the original Bigby and Crunchy's. The area seems ripe for more change, I'd think the dominos would fall eventually.
Historical comment that the EL police district that encompasses most of downtown stops at Abbot, west of Abbot is another district. Wonder if those get reworked eventually if development continues to the west.
I wonder if anyone has any good ideas for getting rid of the police video tower at 7-11? We hear the announcement that the parking lot is being video recorded 24/7 inside our apartment. I have never seen a tower with an announcement before, and it is a small but annoying presence in our already very noisy neighborhood. I have spoken to the owners they say the police have to contact the tower owners to change anything, I talked to an EL fireman, and he said the owners have to turn it off. I wrote to City Hall but have received no reply. To me the tower is not necessary, its presence makes the neighborhood look more dangerous that is, and the announcement is noise pollution. It is unfair to us and our neighbors that we have to hear about the 7-11 security problems all day. I can think of nowhere else that has this kind of video tower, what would you do if this thing were outside your house!
My sense from occasional police scanner listening is that they have problems there every night (actually an officer told me - "open 24/7 and they serve alcohol"). But perhaps the audio warning could be turned off.