Slowing traffic on Cross Street is a priority for some city officials and business owners.
Tom Perkins | For AnnArbor.com
Ypsilanti's Cross Street corridor recently underwent a complete makeover with multiple projects costing millions of dollars aimed at improving the street’s appearance, accessibility, infrastructure and buildings.
Local leaders all agree the stretch between Prospect Road and Washtenaw Avenue was transformed and vastly improved over what it was just three years ago.
Still, some issues remain - dating back as far as four years - and that has some business owners, city council members and a neighborhood group upset that a lingering list of small problems won’t be addressed.
“There is a whole bunch of very small things that keeps coming up all the time and all of the sudden it’s not small stuff anymore. It gets on peoples’ nerves,” said Council Member Pete Murdock, who represents Ward 3.
In 2011, Cross Street was repaved and crosswalks were installed throughout the strip. Some include a faux brick crosswalk, but Murdock said part of the plan was to add additional cross-hatch striping that would make it more apparent to motorists that there was a crosswalk.
Murdock said signage ordering motorists to stop for pedestrians also was to be installed, but never was. He said the markings and signage is first about pedestrian safety and second about "traffic calming.”
"It's no secret that people speed through there," he said.
Several employees and business owners in Depot Town said is a legitimate concern.
Mark Teachout, owner of Café Ollie at 42 E. Cross St. and the Depot Town Merchant's Association's press czar, said he regularly sees cars speeding through the corridor despite the high volume of foot traffic and a median with a clock tower in the center of the commercial strip.
"There aren't speed limit signs or signs posted for pedestrians, so people are nervous about crossing the road," he said. "Maybe I'm wrong and there's a whole bunch of red tape, but some of this really does seem like; 'Just put the sign up. Just send someone out and put it up.' "
Murdock said suggestions for the additional signage and crosswalk striping have been discussed for at least two years, but no action has been taken by city staff.
“It never really got proceeded on. I guess somebody is having another meeting about it,” he said.
Murdock and Sandee French, owner of Aubree’s Pizzeria & Grill at 39 E. Cross St., both expressed frustration with a “sitting wall” installed to the east of Aubree’s as part of the streetscape project. The low wall divides the area’s only public parking lot from Cross Street and serves as a place where people regularly sit during festivals or events.
A sitting wall in Depot Town that is regularly falling apart.
Tom Perkins | For AnnArbor.com
But several cars have repeatedly crashed into one section of the wall, and a business owner has reported seeing kids knocking over what remains of the wall.
The city attempted to repair it with what Murdock said was “literally glue” instead of mortar, and he and French say the wall continues to crumble and looks worse now than it did before.
“It looks horrible,” French said. “A year ago we spent a lot of money to make Depot Town look nice and to have the wall look like that is really sad. When you spend that kind of money you expect the result will last more than a year and it will continue to look fresh, neat and clean. The city hasn’t been able to keep it looking that way.”
Murdock joked that a one-drink limit at the local bars is probably the best solution to saving the wall, but added placing bollards inside the wall is a practical alternative. He said there has also been discussion of installing bike racks, but he is afraid cars “would crunch bikes too” if they are already hitting the wall.
French said she is also upset about that the city won’t help with the issue of cars parking in front of Aubree’s dumpster, which at one point last summer caused her trash to go uncollected for a week because the garbage truck couldn't access it. She has requested the city put up additional signage and help address the large trucks that park in and tear up the freshly paved lot.
“None of this is expensive or labor intensive - they are just areas in Depot Town that need to be observed," she said.
“If it was your own personal property you would make sure it was taken care of so you didn’t lose value of something that’s nice.”
Council Member Pete Murdock has questioned why a Depot Town water fountain has remained broken for four years.
Tom Perkins | For AnnArbor.com
Murdock pointed out a public drinking fountain on the west side of Aubree’s that hasn’t worked for around four years, and he said the rain gardens installed in Depot Town aren’t maintained and have become trash cans and ash trays instead of gardens.
“Those have been a nightmare,” he said.
Murdock has also spent several years asking city staff to swap a handicap spot in front of Jimmy John’s with a spot in front of La Fiesta Mexicana for safety and practical reasons. He said that idea has been discussed for four years, and was supposed to part of the repaving project, but never happened.
Murdock said he met with City Manager Ralph Lange and other city staff around a month ago to discuss the issues, though nothing has been done since.
During the city manager communications portion of last Tuesday's city council meeting, Lange said staff was "looking into it."
“We're really trying hard to address those things," he said.
Lange assured Murdock via an email shared with city staff that the issues would soon be addressed.
"Promises, promises," Murdock responded.
View Cross Street strip in a larger map
Tom Perkins is a freelance reporter. Contact the AnnArbor.com news desk at news@annarbor.com.