The village was able to install some solar-powered electronic pedestrian signs on Madison Street last month, thanks to a state-funded grant secured by Commissioners Mark Hosty and Tom Mannix.
The signs make a nice addition to Madison Street – pedestrians just push a button and a vertical line bordering the sign lights up, letting drivers known they need to yield for folks readying to cross the street.
But, isn’t this something people should already be conscious of? For the drivers out there who have forgotten the rules of the road: When pedestrians are getting ready to cross the street – especially when there’s a pedestrian sign, old fashioned or electronic – yield!
Last week, the Forest Park Review received a letter from an Oak Parker who announced that she was boycotting Madison Street commerce because of a ticket she received for failing to yield to a police officer who “walked straight into the crosswalk.”
She went on to say that, by singlehandedly boycotting Madison Street’s shops and restaurants, “the village will lose more in sales tax than the revenue grabbed by staging this operation.”
Perhaps, but, only if she’s spending some serious coin west of Harlem Avenue. In reality, it’s likely that her singular contributions to the village’s sales-tax revenue will not cripple the town’s finances; what’s more, her call to abstain from buying products in Forest Park will probably not be heeded by reasonable people.
That being said, we commend the police department for enforcing the rules of the road, as the town’s better off without drivers who disobey or don’t know those laws.
What’s more, we tip our hats to Mannix and Hosty for bringing home the bacon to install the lights on these signs. It appears that some drivers need bells and whistles to remind them to obey the laws; although, evidently, even this doesn’t work some of the time.
9/11 should prompt solidarity
This Sunday marks the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In the wake of the terror strikes, Americans across the country, for a fleeting moment, were united in a way that has not been replicated since.
We bicker over political and social issues, and, presently, are divided in too many ways to try and count. That’s true nationally. That’s true locally.
It’s a shame that it took a tragedy like 9/11 to bring us all together, but in the days leading up to the 10th anniversary of this historic event, let’s not solely reflect on that date, let’s also consider reenacting the solidarity that was briefly on display following the attacks.
