THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 27, 1995 TAG: 9508270073
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SHAWN M. TERRY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: Long : 108 lines
A little 500-foot road - about 10 bus lengths - stretched between two stop signs is dividing the two neighborhoods it was supposed to join.
Traffic wasn't that bad 53 years ago when a small wooden bridge - the predecessor to today's causeway - connected Westhaven and Waterview, on the south side of western High Street.
But today, the high volume of traffic that races across the Caroline Avenue Causeway each day has inflamed the two neighborhoods to hotly debate its existence. About 9,000 cars a day use the causeway, one of many in Portsmouth neighborhoods.
The debate has roughly split along neighborhood lines, with Waterview residents seeking to close the causeway because of noise, safety and congestion, and Westhaven residents trying to keep it open. Westhaven residents say what is an inconvenience for some is a convenience to others.
For two months residents have come to city council meetings wearing causeway buttons. Half the buttons read ``Keep the Causeway Open''; the others are emblazoned with ``Close the Causeway.''
``If the traffic condition is allowed to continue, it will lower the property value of our homes,'' said Fred R. Brusso Jr., who has lived in the Waterview neighborhood north of the causeway for 14 years.
For years, Brusso and other residents have pleaded with the City Council to close the causeway between King and Shenandoah streets. Brusso said he wants the causeway converted into a park for pedestrians.
The problem, Waterview residents say, is that it is a short-cut between Churchland on one side of the city and Park Manor, Hodges Manor and Simonsdale on the other.
Yet it is also the most direct route over Beaton Creek, a narrow tributary of the Western Branch of the Elizabeth River, Westhaven residents point out.
``I'm not in favor of closing the causeway,'' said Louis Whitehead, president of the Westhaven Area Civic League, who has lived in that neighborhood south of the causeway for 43 years. ``It's an arterial road, and the traffic is something we've grown to accept.''
Waterview residents say they are concerned about their children's safety because of speeding motorists and a lack of sidewalks on the causeway.
LeAnn Amory of Waterview fears for her 6-year-old son, Michael.
``I definitely support the closing of the causeway,'' she said. ``I can't let him ride the bike through the neighborhood.''
Still, some say the real issue isn't the heavy traffic zooming through Westhaven but a desire by some Waterview residents to keep people out of their neighborhood.
``All citizens use that causeway,'' said Carrie J. Byrum. ``You can't stop traffic for high, swanky residents who want it. Who do they think they are? A bunch of retired doctors and lawyers. It's the taxpayers I'm concerned about. I don't think the tax-paying citizens should be denied the use of a public street.''
Byrum, a long-time Waterview civic activist, is one of the few in that neighborhood who have opposed the causeway's closing. She spearheaded a petition drive against the closing three years ago.
Ann Laura Brown, who has spent 53 of her 75 years on the causeway, doesn't want to see it closed down. She owns Brown's Grocery, the small country store on the causeway.
``The traffic bothers me too, but I don't complain,'' she said. Brown estimates that 90 percent of her business comes from motorists. She lives in a few rooms in the back of her store.
Should the causeway close, she said, it will force her out of business and onto welfare. On average, she said, she makes about $300 a month in sales. She also receives Social Security, she said, but that ``isn't enough to pay the bills.''
On Saturday, Aug. 12, 38 Waterview residents marched to the grocery store, bringing their children to spend their pennies on confections. Organizers of the morning march said they wanted to show Brown that they don't want to put her out of business.
The children bought about $40 worth of Tootsie Rolls, candy corns, blow pops and sodas.
``That's probably the most business she's had all month,'' said Lori Ahuna, president of the Waterview Civic League. Ahuna and her husband, David Hall, moved into Waterview 27 years ago.
City officials had planned to close the causeway in September 1992, then decided against it. They opted to wait a year until other road projects in the area were complete and to allow traffic engineers to study alternate routes for the traffic.
A 1993 traffic study reported that on Grayson, Orange and Shenandoah streets, 63 percent to 89 percent of the vehicles exceeded the 25 mph speed limit.
The 1995 traffic study, which will include the volume of traffic making turns onto King Street from the causeway, should be completed in the next few weeks, said Councilman Cameron C. Pitts.
Pitts wants to leave the causeway open and close the Clifford Street Bridge in City Park for a few months: ``I think it would be very wise to barricade it and run a traffic evaluation test.''
Pitts said the city could save $1 million in capital improvement funds if the Clifford Street Bridge remained closed.
Pitts said closing the causeway would delay fire trucks and other emergency vehicles 2 1/2 minutes by forcing them to use the longer Rodman Avenue route. He did say the city would consider cutting in half the 25 mph speed limit in Waterview. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
GARY C. KNAPP
Residents of Waterview march to Brown's Grocery, a small store on
the causeway. Children bought about $40 worth of candy and sodas to
show support for the store's owner, who depends on causeway traffic
for most of her business.
by CNB