For better or worse, Derenne is one of the east-west corridors that has to be considered as an alternative truck route to Bay Street. At a minimum, it would be shortsighted to embark on a Derenne project that would have the effect of reducing its ability to handle increased truck traffic (and adding more trees, which can be low hanging, and cutting back center turn lanes can both do that) without affirmatively thinking about how doing that might impede our ability to solve the Bay Street problem.

No one wants to pit one neighborhood against another, but as a community we need to decide overall what our priorities are. And it could be a reasoned decision that in order to reclaim a key element of the Historic District from endless roar, banging and congestion of dump trucks and semis, we may need to let a street that already is a commercial artery remain so, instead of trying to prettify it into another Liberty Street which it just isn’t going to be no matter how much we try.