Perhaps it’s because this particular school is located on a state highway, or perhaps it’s because one of its six-year-old students was run over on a crosswalk next to the school three years ago. Most likely both factors have contributed to a strong feeling among many parents at Malcolm X Elementary School that pedestrian safety needs to be improved on Ashby Avenue (State Highway 13), in particular at the point where it intersects with Ellis Street.

Promised improvements, they say, have been a long time coming and many problems have still not been addressed. In response, the city cites the particular difficulty it faces with green-lighting work on Ashby which, because it is a highway, comes under the jurisdiction of Caltrans. “It is very challenging for us, because any work we want to do involves submitting an encroachment permit to Caltrans, and, with state budget issues, Caltrans has been very slow to respond,” says Farid Javandel, Berkeley’s transportation division manager. … Continue reading »