Traffic thumb removed after year of complaints

Removed weekend of July 30, 2006 (photo Aug. 10)


"[...]
At least 6 speakers addressed the concrete “tongue” or “thumb” endangering traffic flow at Cherry Avenue, Willard Drive, and Cleveland Avenue.

Fry’s Spring Neighborhood Association president John Stankowski said the thumb was installed in August 2005. He recommended removal of the hazard and installation of stop signs or stop lights.

Bob Archer, trustee and deacon at the Cherry Avenue Christian Church at this intersection, said he’s been following this issue all along and has been unable to get a response from city government.

Johnny Parks, elder at the church, said the traffic tongue has hurt parking for weddings and funeral services. He said Teague and Hill & Wood funeral homes have sent letters to the city regarding this issue. The church is also the voting location for the Jefferson Park Avenue precinct.

Joe Mooney is on the board of directors for the Fry’s Spring Neighborhood Association and lives 2 blocks from the notorious tongue. After asking Council to forgive him for what he was about to say, and reminding Council members that he has supported them in the past, he declared the thumb to be an “astonishing example of bumbling bureaucracy.”

Mooney said the minister looked out his window one day and saw the construction and that was the first time anyone knew about the street modification. He further said no one in city government knows who ordered or designed the tongue.
[...]"

("An inconvenient truth": Report from Housing Authority: Update on archives, HUD request, July 17, 2006)