Editor:

This letter is in response to Ms. Dieteman’s from the May 28 Brentwood Press. I am a senior at Heritage High School and I too have experienced the awful congestion and traffic that comes with attending Heritage. For four years I’ve driven to and from school in insane traffic, and yet, nothing has been done.

However, I would like to encourage voters to vote No on measure F.

If measure F passes, the traffic conditions will not be alleviated, they will only worsen. Brentwood is a commuter community. Heritage is at it’s full capacity. So why add 1,300 new homes and families into the mix? It doesn’t matter if the development is constructed now or later, measure F is poor planning. Sure, the traffic will be alleviated when American Avenue is extended and Balfour is widened, but when the housing development is finished and homes are occupied, we will be back to square one.

The traffic itself is an effect of poor planning. I would like to know who decided it would be a fabulous idea to build a middle school right behind a high school! There are some days where Adams does not have school but Heritage does. It’s almost astounding how little traffic there is on these days. Poor planning doesn’t fix poor planning; it only creates more problems.

On top of that, traffic is worsened by traffic violators. People will literally stop in the middle of a lane where traffic is supposed to flow so they can make a lame attempt to merge into the turning lane for American Avenue. Though drivers believe they’re cutting past all the traffic, they’re simply adding more to it. Not only that, but their violations make Balfour road extremely unsafe. It’s not even teen drivers that are driving in this manner - it’s parents too. We need police officers in this area. The only time I’ve ever seen a police officer on the way to school was the first few days of each school year. Now that is ridiculous.

Brentwood doesn’t need more housing. What Brentwood needs is businesses - people don’t want to live in places where they cannot find jobs. However, the land Measure F proposes we build on is not an adequate space for buildings of any kind, whether it be housing, retail, etc. for obvious reasons.

Measure F supporters argue that if measure F does not pass, then nothing will ever be done to alleviate the traffic on Balfour. This is incredibly narrow minded. There are always other solutions.

Ms. Dieteman, you are under the impression that Measure F will solve the problems on American Avenue and Balfour. You are mistaken. Measure F doesn’t solve any problems. It masks the current ones and creates more for the future.

Vote No on measure F.

Kiley Yeaman, Brentwood