How Schwarzenegger got on side of Springs sidewalks

I was on the local ABC (Channel 7) evening news a few weeks ago. I was kind of disappointed, because I didn’t think anyone saw the piece, but as it turns out, the right person saw it. This is how the story goes….
A couple of months ago, San Francisco’s ABC 7 (KGO) hosted a meeting at the Sonoma Community Center looking for local story ideas. My husband and I attended the meeting along with about 25 other people. We all signed in and waited patiently for our opportunity to pitch our Sonoma Valley news story. One at a time, the pitchers stood and explained their particular issue or angle. Somewhere in the midst of the pitches, it was my turn to talk about The Springs, Highway 12 and sidewalks.
Now, I must begin by saying that I don’t think I am the best public speaker and it’s not my favorite thing to do. I don’t generally plan ahead, my whole head usually turns scarlet and I say “uh” a lot. But on the upside, when I am passionate about a subject, I can get my point across. As many people know by now, I am passionately opposed to the lack of sidewalks along Highway 12 in The Springs.
So, I stood up straight and tall and I began to weave the story of (uh) the unincorporated area of Sonoma County that is strung together by a state highway that is unsafe due to a lack of sidewalks, gutters, curbs and lighting. I described the reality of children walking to elementary school along gravelly soft shoulders, just inches away from cars whizzing by. I highlighted the high number of pedestrian accidents in our highly pedestrian neighborhood and tried to give an accurate account of many bad situations that I had seen first-hand.
I also explained that as a member of the Springs Redevelopment Advisory Committee, I had with my fellow committee members recommended to the county four years ago that we move forward as quickly as possible with funding and completing the improvements to the state’s highway. I went on to say that when we made the recommendation, the cost estimates for the project were around $6 million, and after all of the years of waiting, the estimate was now in the neighborhood of $13 million. Now, I am sure that The Sun readers know by now the reasons for the stalls on the improvements, but for the benefit of the Channel 7 visitors, I took the liberty of pointing my finger at CalTrans.
The station was interested in our issue, and within a couple of weeks a reporter, Heather Ishimaru, contacted me. Over the phone, I went through my rant again. She agreed that a story might help shed light on our problem. I contacted the RAC chairman, Rich Lee, and hoped that he might want to talk to the camera. Neither Rich nor Steve Cox was available for the interview, so it was up to my scarlet head and me. Heather and her cameraman made the trek up to Sonoma a week or so later. They interviewed our county supervisor, Valerie Brown, in the morning and filmed the kids getting out of Flowery School and Sonoma Charter School and I met up with them in the afternoon. Once again, I spoke too much and said “uh” a lot, but got my point across. I thanked Heather for her time and asked her to let me know when the piece would air.
I followed up with Heather in the coming week and she said she was having trouble getting CalTrans to respond to her phone calls. I was shocked by this information! Eventually they got back to her and the story was finished.
A couple of weeks passed with no word from Heather. I wondered if our story had gotten shelved. I imagined our unfinished story sitting in a dark corner of warehouse filled with interesting and relevant news stories. And then, I got an email that said, “I just saw you on the news…”. Wow. I missed it. Thanks to the wonder of the Internet, I was able to watch the piece on the KGO website. It was a great news story. It was balanced and compelling, and even had impressive graphics. There were interviews with Valerie Brown, a CalTrans representative and yours truly. I waited for more calls, but received only a couple.
“Darn,” I thought. “No one watches the evening news anymore. No one even saw the piece and the whole thing was a waste of time and effort.” I was disappointed.
And then, another story broke.
As it turns out, someone was watching the ABC 7 news that night. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was watching the news, and he saw the story and he was moved by the images of the people walking along the side of the state highway! The next morning, he called Supervisor Valerie Brown’s office and offered his help. He followed that phone call by calling the director of CalTrans to offer his encouragement in speeding the project along.
Who knows if the Governor’s calls will actually help move things along any faster, but I hope that they will. Today I noticed a number of people standing on the side of the highway at West Thompson sporting the tell-tale orange vests and digital cameras. An official CalTrans vehicle sat parked behind them in Plain Jane’s parking lot. Let’s just hope that those people are working diligently to approve the county’s plans for making our neighborhoods safe.