33rd and McKee

On the corner of 33rd and McKee in San Jose, you'll see a sign with a Dolphin that says "Be Safe, Be Caring, Be Ready to Learn."

Those words can't be seen from the corner because they're on the back of the sign that tells you this is Anne Darling Elementary School.

What you can see from the corner is graffiti on the crosswalk pole and a hole where the pedestrian button used to be.

The pedestrian button to press to cross the street has been missing for over five years.

This stretch of McKee is particularly dangerous (for some reason, drivers appear to appear more edgy and aggressive) and this corner is where school children cross every day.

When school lets out, there are a couple of crossing guards at the corner, but many students stay at school after the crossing guards have left. 40? Maybe 50?

(And even when the crossing guards are there, many students will jaywalk across 33rd by themselves. Nobody says anything to them as they dodge between cars that are temporarily waiting for the light to change. Not the crossing guards, not the two teachers on their 10 minute yard duty.)

Having the pedestrian crosswalk button fixed isn't going to directly solve the problem of jay-walking, but when something so important like that has been left broken for so many years, and when graffiti on the traffic poles remain for years, it sends a message, "You're on your own. We don't care." When four adults see the jaywalking on this dangerous corner and say nothing about it, it sends the same message. "You're on your own. We don't care."

I don't see anything at the corner of Singletary and Park that could have contributed to the death of that schoolgirl a year or two ago, but the corner of 33rd and McKee is clearly an accident waiting to happen.

Of all the places in the city where a pedestrian crosswalk button should work, this is the place.

The button is long overdue for being fixed and other measures should be taken as well.

Visit the corner when school lets out. It will make your cringe.

The life-threatening problems of drugs, crime, and gangs that are common in poor areas are problems that are not easy to fix. But to see to it that school children can safely cross the street that borders their school should be a given.

So, I emailed the mayor and told him all about it.

The good news is, somebody from his office replied within hours. The bad news is, they're not going to fix the broken crosswalk button.

They gave me some good advice, however, about seeking help for traffic calming in my neighborhood, even though my letter didn't mention my neighborhood. And they also pointed to some trailheads for the city's phone maze that might get me to a person who I can explain the whole situation to. But I've been there.

They sympathize, they praise my concern, they admire my civic awareness and they wish me luck. But they're not going to fix it.

The corner of 33rd and McKee is within the same council district as Naglee Park. The differences in housing prices is a fact of life. The differences in public saftely is hypocritical.