Many residents of a small section of north Coconut Grove are frustrated about the failure of a neighborhood push to close off two one-way streets for safety reasons.
They're also asking for help from the city, citing concerns that the mail-in balloting process decided upon by the city and county, which yielded 148 votes for and 186 votes against the closures, was unfair.
''We want the streets closed because it's dangerous,'' said Grace Carter, a lifelong North Grove resident. ``People zoom through here at 60 and 70 miles an hour to avoid traffic on U.S. 1 and 27th Avenue.''
Over the past few years, as increasing population led to worsening traffic, motorists frequently cut through the area's streets -- several of which are closed in places or are one-way.
''Lots of people speed while going the wrong way,'' said David Ralph, another resident, Thursday. ``Some will even go up on the median or someone's yard to zip around a driver who's going the right way.''
In early 2004, neighbors approached the city about barricading Southwest 27th Lane and Southwest 28th Street where each meets Southwest 26th Avenue.
Per the city's instructions, Ralph added, residents wrote up a petition and circulated it, collecting 257 signatures from other closure advocates.
Marlin Engineering conducted a traffic study, concluding that closings were warranted not due to traffic volume, but to speeding and wrong-way driving, said Mary Conway, Miami's director of Transportation and Capital Improvements.
''The guy living across the street has several kids,'' said Jorge Piñon, who lives on Southwest 27th Lane. ``A car almost hit one of them a few months ago.''
The city mailed ballots to residents and businesses beyond the immediate area of the closures. Conway said that city and county staff designated the affected area ``based on anticipated changes in traffic patterns.''
In the area closest to the streets in question, streets are numbered. A bit further south, streets are named. Most votes against the closures came from the named-street area.
Neighbor Amy Block said Friday that she voted against the closures mostly for fear that some previously closed streets would have to reopen.
''At community meetings, we told people that no other streets would be open,'' Conway said. This was also printed on the ballots mailed out.
Conway added that streets could be reopened in the future in case of emergency, but she doesn't know of a case of that happening.
County Commissioner Carlos Gimenez said Friday that appropriate procedures were followed at all times.
''I had no personal stake in this, as I don't live there,'' Gimenez said.
The county is involved in all street closure procedures, he said. He also explained the vote counting procedure. While the county originally intended to count unreturned ballots as being against the closures, Miami-Dade instead followed the path of a recent vote in the Gables and only counted the returned ballots. Two-thirds of returned ballots in favor of closures, or one-third of returned ballots against, whichever was reached first, would decide the issue.
''I thought that was the most equitable way,'' Gimenez said. Mail-out ballots and public hearings are the two methods used to settle street closure issues.
Commissioner Johnny Winton's chief of staff, Frank Balzebre, who attended a community meeting last November where neighbors showed support for closures, said Friday that this is an issue the city will have to revisit.
''We'll have to see if there is some way to satisfy the residents on the safety issue,'' Balzebre said. ``City staff is considering the use of alternative traffic calming methods.''
