The Cupertino Courier

News

School neighbors want help with traffic, graffiti issues

By Cody Kraatz

Several residents at the end of Imperial Avenue near Monta Vista High School attribute the traffic, parking and graffiti headaches they're experiencing to the nearby schools.

They say solutions should be based on parents and students changing their behavior or the school districts coming up with the money for busing.

"The district has never dealt with the impact to the neighborhoods. The district has been avoiding mitigating this problem for years," said Steve Malan, a 12-year Imperial Avenue resident.

"The traffic down there is terrible when school starts," Malan said about nearby McClellan Road.

He and his neighbors take a roundabout way out of the neighborhood at that time of day, going north on Orange Avenue instead of passing by the schools.

"There's a solution, but people don't want to hear it. Your kid has two legs; why can't they walk?" said resident Stan Espinosa. He doesn't think an expensive new bus is the answer to traffic congestion in Cupertino's tri-school area.

"But in days like this where kids get snatched, it's not safe," said Linda Kizer, whose father bought the house she and Espinosa live in at the end of Imperial Avenue in 1963. She has lived there about 12 years.

"The problem is parents do not want their children to walk to school because they are afraid of their daughter or son getting kidnapped," said Malan, who walked his daughter to Lincoln Elementary, Kennedy Middle School and Monta Vista High School.

Parking is also one of Malan's pet peeves. "The teenagers always want to bring their cars," he said, "but there is not enough room in the parking lot.''

Residents pay $22.50 per household for a two-year parking permit that is valid on their own street.

Malan was cleaning up some graffiti on a small fence at the front of his driveway when he spoke with the Courier. He had already ripped out flowers he had planted there because people make U-turns at the end of Imperial Drive. They drove over them regularly and even hit the fence several times, he said.