Oakland Tribune Article 11/8/2000 back to Stairs website

Montclair residents want broken hill stairways fixed
November 08, 2000

STAIRWAYS ON some of the steepest woodsy parts of Montclair have been used to get up and down the hills for as long as anyone who lives there can remember. Kids use them to walk to and from school instead of dodging cars on narrow winding streets. Fitness buffs use them as an outdoor stairmaster under the pine trees. Some folks like them because they're much safer than walking on the roads.

As an alternative to sidewalks that don't exist and on the tested theory that a straight line is the shortest distance between two points, hill residents have found stairs over time have served them well.

But in the last couple of years, despite volunteer attempts to get them repaired, some 75 stairways by city count -- particularly in the Merriewood and Oakmore neighborhoods -- have become unusable and in some cases dangerous.

Now residents are imploring the city's public works department to fix the stairways.

The city has responded strangely. Shortly after the residents complained, the city posted large signs proclaiming "Stairway Unsafe, Do Not Use."

"I guess the city thought it could lessen its liability by posting the signs," said one resident.

For whatever reason -- and liability exposure seemed most logical -- residents got more upset than ever. After all, they already knew the stairways were unsafe and moreover, that many were unusable. Some folks said the signs insulted efforts. Instead of having signs made and posted, the time of city employees could have been used fixing the stairs.

Public works' reaction has approached incredulity.

Do people actually use ordinary wooden stairs to walk up and down hills? What a concept.

Maybe those hill people don't know exercise might be dangerous to their health.

One who has found the opposite to be true is Ted Schlink, who lives in the Merriewood hills, and has used the 357 (count 'em) steps for keeping in shape for the 25 years he's lived there.

And Schlink says there's a reason the Merriewood steps are in disrepair.

"They've been abandoned. About two years ago during a big storm a big tree fell, wrecking an entire flight of stairs. This broke the link," he says. He explained there are three flights of stairs that go straight up the hill, beginning at Thornhill Drive and Merriewood. The first flight goes to Doncaster Avenue, the next to Valley View Drive, and the next to Merriewood again, which appears again at the top.

"In due time the tree was removed but the stairs were never repaired and since then they've been abandoned," says Schlink. "Later there was an attempt to camouflage the broken stairway by piling eucalyptus leaves on it." Schlink called the fire department because he was concerned, but nothing happened. "From then on, things went downhill."

Hills councilman Dick Spees says of the public works department's reaction: "They just don't get it. "Fixing some simple stairs shouldn't be such a big deal and should not cost the city huge sums of money," Spees said after the council public works committee received a report last week estimating costs at $237,000 to replace the wooden stairway serving the Merriewood section and the cost of a concrete stairway there at $875,000.

And that wouldn't count the work that needs to be done on the stairways in the Oakmore neighborhood, which has an equally energetic stairway campaign led by Virginia Lew. She and Pat Webb, were among about two dozen hill residents who appealed to the public works committee last week.

With that kind of replacement, the project of fixing the stairways could cost up to $6 million or more. But Spees wants the city to make the repairs in simpler fashion. "Concrete steps?" asks Spees. "I don't think the people of Merriewood and Oakmore even want concrete, which costs about three times the amount of wood, which would be far more appropriate."

Whatever the expense, fixing the stairways would cost a whole less than other pedestrian safety measures, like speed bumps, bulb-outs, and sidewalks found in most other parts of the city.

The public works committee will take on the issue again at its Nov. 14 meeting when public works staff will present a list of the 10 most dilapidated stairs needing repair.

Residents have a Web site developed by professional Webmaster Kirk van Druten, who documents each new step mounted in this campaign. To read it go to www.lansharks.net/stairs

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