To Whom This May Concern:

Mulberry Avenue of Staten Island is one of the most child-populated neighborhoods in the New Springville area. Every day during the summer dozens of children gather and play on the sidewalks, driveways or in backyards. Laughing and playing with friends during the summer and after school could be heard all around our neighborhood. Although, it brings us joy to hear them, it is not with ease we find ourselves letting our children play outside. We, the parents, carry a constant fear that one day one of the speeding cars hurtling down the street may hit one of our children. Our safe street has become a racetrack for drivers.

Mulberry Avenue has no lights until the corner of Travis Avenue. This leaves a very large stretch of no stop signs, lights or speed bumps, allowing people to fly on by without stopping. It also does not help matters that most cars race down the street to “beat “the light at the corner. Or make a quick turn up a street to avoid the traffic light that stays red for a long time.

We need to install speed bumps on our street. Speed bumps will alleviate the speeding problem and prevent any accidents from happening. Let us not have a speed bump to remind us that the death of a child was the final causation for this bump.

We as parents love our community but fear for our children playing outside. It is sad that we look forward to winter so we know our children are safely playing inside. And not have the constant thought that my child may get hit by a car because of careless driving that we have encountered time and time again.

The parents of Mulberry Avenue decided to take matters into our own hands and bought a large neon cut-out of a child with a sign saying “children playing –slow down.” Ironically enough, after a day or two of it being on the street, a car sped by and destroyed the sign. Thankfully it was a plastic cut out of a child, and not a human child.

A few months ago a car was speeding by so fast that it spun out of control and side-swiped a fellow neighbor’s car. What if it was a child walking to the neighbor’s house to play? This is not the first time this has occurred. We have watched cars crash into homes, fences, trees, and other parked vehicles.

Let Mulberry Avenue take preventative action and install speed bumps before it becomes a memorial for the innocent life of a child that was taken.

Sincerely,

The Parents of Mulberry Avenue