Coral Gables Historical Archive
The Times
Saturday, May 1, 1976, page 2 (of 30)
The page
The text of this pageRead by computer from the scan, so some words may be wrong. The page picture is the original.
-people poll- What do you think Mom would like for Mother's Day
"Mom would like a silver bracelet with little bells and things around it." Benjamin Pittman, 11 10100 Bahama Dr. "My Mother wants a dinner table and some chairs and a sofa." Patricia Cabrera, 7 5411 SW 10th Ct. "My mom would like a gold necklace with a cross on it." Eric Van Schaick 9270 SW 41st St. "All she ever wants are plants - cactus plants. She'd like a nice giant one." Gary Braver, 10 6904 N. Kendall Dr. "My mother would like a cactus and a spider plant." David Braswell, 8 15445 Old Cutler Rd. "My mother would like a little girl, but I don't want one . . . I want all brothers." Raymond Prendiville, 9 Miller Drive "My mother wants a hamster, perfume, a bracelet and some flowers. She cooks a lot, so she would also like a helper." John Starkweather, 7 Coral Gables "My mommy would like pots and pans and she would probably also like some tennis rackets." Cynthia Gonzalez 4950 SW 127th
Once quiet street, it's now dusty thoroughfare
By ERICA MEYER Staff Writer Shaded by old trees and rimmed with wide lawns, LeJeune Road was never just a neighborhood street, but once, at least it was quiet. Now it is choked with trucks and crowded with traffic, according to residents living between South Dixie Highway and Ingraham Highway. An arterial street, a border between Coral Gables and Miami, LeJeune has become a commuter passageway and a direct route for trucks carrying landfill and construction material to Tahiti Beach and Cocoplum. "We have bumper to bumper traffic here from 7 to 9 in the morning and from 4 to 6 in the evening," Mrs. Jean Kitchens, of 6710 LeJeune, protested. Mrs. Kitchens said she keeps her doors and windows closed on the side of the house facing LeJeune. "You have to do that to keep it clean, to keep the dirt out," she said. "They put in some new water pipes and they haven't replanted the grass on the parkway, so there's even more dust." Only two of 10 residents contacted said they are not bothered by traffic, noise and dirt. And, they have either wide yards or homes that front on side streets. Mrs. Edmund Medinger, 5810 LeJeune, rose in last week's city commission meeting to protest a zoning board order telling her neighbor, Jose Lopez, of 5800 LeJeune to take down his fence and trellis, which was built without a city permit. "The fence and trellis keep Jose buffered from the noise and the dirt," Ann Medinger said. "I wish I had them and his hedge too," (The commission, incidentally, upheld the zoning board ruling.) "We have to put on the air conditioning and wear sweaters in the house, just to keep the dirt out. And, if the windows are open, you can't hear the television over the traffic noise," she said. "It's not simply dust," she added. "It's road dirt, all greasy and oily. You can't just wipe it off." The Medingers have lived on LeJeune for almost 15 years. "It was a quiet little street," Mrs. Medinger stated. "There was some traffic because it's an arterial road, but not like it is now. It was a clean, pretty street." Much of the current truck traffic, as Mrs. Medinger and other neighbors guessed, is generated by Cocoplum. A spokesman for Crow, Pope and Land, the company developing the property, said the landfill trucks will have their job completed within 45 days - if good weather continues. "If it starts to rain, it will slow us down," the spokesman stated. "We have to put on the air conditioning and wear sweaters in the house, just to keep the dirt out. If the windows are open, you can't hear the television over the traffic noise." Ann Medinger 5810 LeJeune Rd. But, he said, the other 15 to 20 per cent of the Cocoplum truck traffic is carrying construction marterial for private homes being built in the once controversial development. And that work will continue as long as people are buying lots and building houses. "If you try to get out of your driveway, the trucks honk at you," said Mrs. Carl L. Peterson of 5521 LeJeune. "It's noisy and dirty. I lived here for years and now I have to keep the doors and windows closed. It's mostly bad now during the rush hours. On Saturday and Sunday, it's still delightful. "I've seen some changes," Mrs. Peterson added. "But this is our home and we still like it here. If you stay in the back yard, it's nice. Perhaps some of these people could go on Douglas Road, but there are a lot of buses and a lot of people who live south of here. They have to come through." LeJeune is a dividing street. On one side, 17 City of Miami streets feed into the short stretch of roadway from South Dixie to the Coclum Circle. On the Gables side, 20 streets with names like Spanish poetry - Barbarosa, Garlenda, Aurelia, Vittorio, Blanca, Amalfi - enter onto LeJeune. And each side street generates its own traffic flowing into the already constant stream. John H. Dunnavant lives at the corner of LeJeune and Vittorio. The traffic starts going by his house at 7 a.m. and he keeps the windows in his bedroom, which faces LeJeune, closed. "Sometimes it backs up all the way to Miller," Dunnavant said. "Those big trucks rumble past here in the morning. You can't even drive down the street." "If you mix them with the buses and the school kids trying to cross, you really have a mess. Some of the cars are going 80 m.p.h. it seems." Dunnavant said, "and the kids try and try to cross to school. They sit on their bikes just waiting. Some of them hitch hike. The solid line of cars just backs up. "I've been here five years and it's getting worse," he added. "Just look at all the 'for sale' signs down here. People want to get away from the noise. They're scared to let their children out of the yard. "Maybe all they need is more traffic lights," Dunnavant guessed. "But then there isn't anything they can do. The Gables says it's Miami's problem and Miami says it's up to the Gables."