November 9, 2004 > Cabrillo Residents Campaign for Traffic Safety

by Veronica Velasquez

The members of COR (Cabrillo Congregations Organizing for Renewal) held a "Speed bumps, not memorials" press conference on October 25 to call the attention of Fremont City Council members to the need for the addition of speed bumps in their neighborhood. The event was held on the walking trail on Jacinto Avenue, the key street where the group is attempting to obtain a speed bump.

"Why are we here today? We are here to make sure that there are no memorials like this lining our streets because one of our children has been killed," Gaby Machuca, Cabrillo COR leader, expounded at the press conference.

"We have been working to get speed bumps on this street for a year, we don't want to be here a year from now, standing next to a memorial," said fellow Cabrillo COR leader Diana Palmon.

Palmon, a resident of Jacinto Street, knows only too well what a close call feels like.
Recently, a speeding car went out of control and ended up on her front yard where her children often play. The car's axle broke as it narrowly missed Palmon's house.

Palmon's son had still another horror story to tell. "One day when my dad and I were unpacking our camping trailer a car came speeding around the corner and nearly missed my brother," said 13-year-old Joel Palmon. "I don't want any of my siblings to get hurt."

In a past effort for traffic safety measures in Fremont neighborhoods, COR was instrumental in obtaining 4 traffic studies by the Fremont Police Department to determine the need for a crosswalk in front of Oliveira Elementary School on Alder Avenue in Fremont.

"According to the traffic study, completed for Jacinto Drive, nearly 700 cars traveled along Jacinto in a 24-hour period. Of those almost 700 vehicles, over half of them were speeding," stated Anne Sluuis of COR.

"The Capitol Improvements Program is one funding source for these needed speed bumps, but CIP is not the only way to fund speed bumps," said Sluuis. "Our city council has the power to make this a priority and to find a way to get this done."

COR is a grassroots, faith-based organization consisting of both congregations and neighborhoods in South Alameda County, which is dedicated to the causes of neighborhood improvement, safety, and public access to health care and affordable housing. COR is a subgroup of PICO (Pacific Institute for Community Organization), which encompasses several organizations similar to COR, and representing 350,000 families nationwide. PICO serves as a link between the COR chapters in California and their state representatives.