Mathy, who lives four doors away, said she watches people dodge traffic there all the time as they cross Catalina Boulevard to reach the park.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe intersection is the frontage road to Point Loma Park and the Point Loma Little League fields, and I see kids on bikes, people with dogs, kids walking by themselves, seniors \u2014 I see everything,\u201d Mathy said. \u201cAnd they just have to wait until traffic stops to get across. And sometimes traffic just doesn\u2019t stop.\u201d<\/p>\n
Campbell\u2019s office has heard from constituents about the intersection, according to Margaret Doyle, Campbell\u2019s communications director.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Peninsula Community Planning Board sent a letter to our office late last summer asking for traffic-calming at the intersection and we worked with the city of San Diego\u2019s Transportation Department to have a traffic survey done in the area,\u201d Doyle said.<\/p>\n
The PCPB letter was written in July 2024 and requested a flashing beacon crosswalk for Catalina, according to board member\u00a0Mandy Havlik.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat location has a long stretch \u2014 a quarter-mile \u2014 with no crosswalk. It\u2019s by a public community park, a school [Sunset View Elementary], there is a fire station next to the intersection, and \u2026 the Point Loma Summer Concerts are held there,\u201d Havlik said.<\/p>\n
![\"Point](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Point-Loma-Park.jpg\")
Point Loma Park at Catalina Boulevard and Varona Street is the home of Point Loma Little League and Point Loma Summer Concerts. (Bing Maps and Point Loma-OB Monthly)<\/p>\n
The board noted that the speed limit on Catalina is 35 mph but said traffic tends to travel faster on the wide two-lane street.<\/p>\n
Initially, Doyle said, traffic-calming measures including a marked crosswalk and pedestrian-activated flashing beacons were planned.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut concerns were raised about installing the flashing beacons in close proximity to a tree in the area,\u201d Doyle said. \u201cThere was the amount of pruning needed to install the beacon and the ongoing maintenance of keeping the tree trimmed so as not to block the beacon.\u201d<\/p>\n
Doyle sent Mathy an update about the Transportation Department\u2019s stance in an email dated Sept. 8.<\/p>\n
\u201cRemoving the tree is not an option, but the intersection did qualify for two \u2018crossing treatments,\u2019\u201d Doyle said.<\/p>\n
With the flashing beacon crosswalk no longer a choice, one option would be to install a radar speed sign. One such sign already is in place in the northbound direction, so another would be needed for the southbound side.<\/p>\n
Another option would be changing the road striping, such as narrowing lanes, painting medians or other speed-reducing efforts.<\/p>\n
But funding remains a factor. Doyle said the office would include the intersection in a list of community priorities for funding in the upcoming budget cycle.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis isn\u2019t a guarantee of any funding or prioritization, but it\u2019s one more thing I can do to support this project on my end,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Mathy said she\u2019s grateful for those efforts but is disappointed by the options.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat sign is not what is going to help people cross safely. They do not install [speed] feedback signs to get people across the street \u2014 crosswalk signs get people across the street,\u201d Mathy said.<\/p>\n
![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Crosswalk2.jpg\")
An online petition calls for a lighted crosswalk at the intersection of Catalina Boulevard and Varona Street in front of Point Loma Park. (Sarah Mathy)<\/p>\n
Mathy said there is precedent around the community for a lighted crosswalk, with ones installed in front of Plumosa Park on Chatsworth Boulevard and at Del Mar Avenue and Chatsworth, as well as near the joint use field at Dana Middle School on Chatsworth.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are putting in lighted beacon crosswalks all over. It\u2019s a pretty frequent process,\u201d said Anthony Santacroce, spokesman for the San Diego Transportation Department. \u201cA lot of these projects go on unfunded lists, and waiting for funding can take a fiscal year or two, depending on what else is in the queue.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mathy pointed out that Jason Shelby, president of Point Loma Little League, posted about the issue on social media with the title \u201cSafe steps to home plate,\u201d asking for people to sign the petition for a lighted crosswalk.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe use of the park Little League fields has grown by leaps and bounds; we have 400 families using the fields,\u201d Mathy said. \u201cAnd the kids are shorter than many of the vehicles. They don\u2019t hear the electric cars and they are trying to get to the fields, often without their parents.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mathy, who has lived on Catalina Boulevard since 2011, said \u201cI\u2019ve always wanted some way to cross so I can go running on that side of the street. Also, my son played Little League there at the Point Loma Little League fields, and there\u2019s a lot of kids who come to practice without their parents and have to cross on their own.\u201d<\/p>\n
Traffic subsided in the area during the COVID-19 pandemic, Mathy said, but in the past couple of years, especially with many people returning to in-person work, \u201cit\u2019s been very intense.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many of her neighbors have lived there at least 50 years, she said.\u00a0\u201cThey\u2019re older than me and won\u2019t \u2014 or can\u2019t \u2014 cross the street.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to ignite the community,\u201d Mathy said. \u201cWe want to see the government act before the need is drastic \u2014 or tragic.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than 400 signatures on an online petition, plus support from San Diego City Council member Jennifer Campbell\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":218615,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,14524,14525,3549,7264,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-218614","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-point-loma-ob-monthly","12":"tag-point-loma-ob-monthly-news","13":"tag-san-diego","14":"tag-sandiego","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115186642862294490","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218614\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}