Tracy Press

A Hidden Lake homeowner tips off police to a perfect place to ticket.

EDITOR,

With all the talk about a budget crisis, I believe that I can solve two problems with one idea.

I live in the Hidden Lake community, and after taking a walk around my neighborhood, past the public park where Little League practices, I experienced for the hundredth time that this has become the Indy 500 speedway. Drivers cutting through my neighborhood to get to their neighborhoods were easily going 45 or 50 mph. This is a posted 25 mph street.

Members of our homeowners association have contacted the police, sat at the City Council meetings and conducted speed studies — the result of which was an average speed of 45 mph in the winter, even in rainy conditions. 

So here is my solution: To the city of Tracy, you could solve part of your budget issues and makes a neighborhood safer by having police officers, who could give out tickets by the fistful, near the park. If you had one officer posted from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m., I would bet that you could give out 50 speeding tickets in a day. So 50 tickets at, say, $75 per ticket would equal $3,750. Now, do that two times a week, and you’d have $7,500, and for a whole month, you would have about $30,000.

That seems like a pretty easy way to pay for some budget shortfalls. That would also make it safer for me, my neighbors and all the kids that play in the park.

— Stewart McLean, Tracy

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written by concernedmom , April 02, 2008

and then when they leave the park and head out to Valpico Road between McArthur and Chrisman any afternoon between 4 and 7 they can catch tons of speeders and as an added bonus they can catch all the impatient people who illegally pass down the middle of Valpico Rd. Most of these people just use this road as a commute, but hey these out of towners should contribute to our budget shortfalls if they are going to use our roads and especially in an unsafe fashion.

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written by The Infidel , April 02, 2008

Hidden Lake doesn't have speeding issues or gang problems, ask the Tracy PD. Nor do they have private property trespassers who park on private property to walk their mutts on private property.

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written by Buck Savage , April 03, 2008

Sorry about hijacking the tread, but The Infidel has a point: we need at least a couple of checkpoints set up around the lake so the cops can check the dog licenses and approve who can walk around. Who's willing to pay more taxes to pay for that operation? More importantly, what cop in his right mind would sign up for that assignment?

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written by maybenotdumBcommenT , April 03, 2008

Good one Buck savage, I live on a busy street too but I'm specialer and need those cops here more.

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written by Gary , April 03, 2008

Why don't you talk to your neighbors I'm sure they are the ones speeding in that area, rushing to get home.

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written by Bill Johnson , April 03, 2008

Then the cops could give themselves a ticket since most of them are driving around Tracy just as reckless as the people this letter writer is citing...

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written by two cents worth , April 04, 2008

This won't work because the Tracy PD is either unable and/or unable to enfore the speed limit in the city. The only real option seems to be to put in more stop signs.

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written by two cents worth , April 04, 2008

oops, I meant unable or unwilling to enfore the speed limit.

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written by maybenotdumBcommenT , April 04, 2008

Gary, you should see the parents taking their kids to school. We all have them. The late ones are the worst. I live just before a curve and have thought about putting a cement wall or those pillars,(yellow ones) up. I have been waiting to have a car come thru my living room some day.

Not enough cops to stop them all.

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written by blame the right people , April 05, 2008

So then when the people plead not guilty and force an officer to go to court, we can pay the officer overtime if it's on their day off. Or take them off the street and unable to deal with crimes like husbands stabbing wives, pot houses, or thugs leaving ice cream vendors on the ground after robbing them. You think your solution is simple to raise money, but really, it's not.

Those of you complaining about speeders, can you honestly say you NEVER speed? You are all such hypocrites. Everyone speeds. Nobody drives the speed limit all the time. You just don't like it in YOUR neighborhood.

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written by maybenotdumBcommenT , April 05, 2008

I only go fast on the freeway. People can drive normal you know. There is a few of us who leave early enough and respect the law.

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written by Gary , April 05, 2008

Only a fraction of the traffic fines paid by violators goes back to the cities, most of it goes to the state. So Stewart, that $30,000 to fix the city's budget is most likely $30.00.

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written by c johnson , April 05, 2008

How about if the HOA throws some speed humps around East Lake AND Dominique? They take enough money from those people every month, and they sure aren't using it to maintain the many homes lost to foreclosure.

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written by Stewart McLean , April 07, 2008

So I thought it might be good to chime in on this blog since I wrote the letter. First off The City does not allow the HOA to put in speed bumps or any other things so that is out of the question. Second there are speeder everywhere we all know that, I was trying to add solutions to problems. I see police waiting for people to run a red light at 4am....what good does that really do? I see people complain all the time about this and that but its not often that anyone offers a solution to anything. Lastly, All I wanted to really point out was that as homeowners we have actually done our due deligence and tried to address the problem and things have gotten worse, I guess it will take something serious to happen like a small child getting hurt crossing the street to get the city to take notice. There are lots of problems all over the city we know but unless people speek up and can contribute some sort of solutions then why speek up at all.

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written by maybenotdumBcommenT , April 07, 2008

Stewart, sit out on your lawn with one of those speed radar detectors and take pics. I heard the cops at one time had an offer to show people how to do it. Don't know if it's still going on tho. You can turn them in.

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written by justcurious , April 07, 2008

Stewart, thank you for your input. Interesting that speed bumps are now allowed by the city. I've seen them put in elsewhere (perhaps not in Tracy, but other towns) and it seems to do the trick. What WOULD it take to get a little bit of police monitoring over here to remind people that this IS a residential neighborhood??? And speeders are taking that turn near the park, a haven for little ones no less, at double the speed limit.