Annunciation Park Fence Gets Hit Again!

Big Man and I live in what we jokingly call the "Lower-Lower Garden District" -- so close to the Warehouse District and the CBD that it hardly seems like Uptown at all. The house we found to live in nearly 3 years ago is very close to (in fact, in sight of) Annunciation Park, with its graceful iron fenced gateways on each end of the park. We love this neighborhood and we like the convenience of the park.

For whatever reason, the city has never installed a big yellow sign with a black arrow pointing both ways at the curb of the park where Annunciation Street comes to an "end" at the park's gates. (It's not really an end, of course, because if you go around Race Street, there's one block of Annunciation all by itself on the other side of the park.) In the daytime, even the worst drivers can see that they're at a dead end and have to turn to the right or left to continue on their way.

But at night, in the dark, unfamiliar drivers, drivers who are impaired in some way, and drivers who are speeding for whatever reason often miss what's going on. In less than 3 years, Big Man and I and our neighbors have witnessed at least 4 major accidents (one included at least one fatality). In one instance, a drunk driver just plowed through the stop sign at Annunciation and Race and hit an SUV parked on the street in front of the entrance way to the park. (The driver tried to run away but was "captured" by some neighbors and held til the police arrived. Big Man hollered after him, "Dude, don't make it any worse!")

Another time, a driver (drunk? stoned?) sped so fast down Annunciation, that he missed the stop sign and literally FLEW into the park, knocking down a portion of the iron fence, which thus flipped the car upside down. It landed wheels up and then slid across the park almost to the other side. Obviously, that was the accident where someone got killed. A third accident also hit the park fence, but not going as fast, so the offending car was left hanging off the raised granite curb of the park, the poor fence on the ground again. (I wonder how much it costs the city to keep on fixing that fence -- seems to me that not all these drivers could have had insurance.)

Last Friday night, round about midnight, as I watched TV in the living room with our dog Keely, we heard a car motor gunned all the way and a rapidly approaching siren. Then blue lights flashed in the window, two cars whooshed by, and then there was a dull BOOM! All of us in the neighborhood on both sides of the street poured out onto our porches and balconies to see the Annunciation Park fence down again, and a police car, lights flashing, parked perpendicular to the park. Deep inside the park, we could hear angry police officers hollering, "Get out of the car NOW!!" Later, from the police officer stationed there to guard the car until hapless owner could come and get his stuff out, we found out it was a guy in a stolen car, who, on hitting the granite and fence, jammed the front wheels of the car almost to the back. He was lucky he wasn't badly hurt. The car was, of course, totaled.

I guess we ought to petition the Streets Department about getting one of those yellow signs with the black arrows for that spot facing Annunciation. We don't want to keep losing that fence.