Broken in two

By Diane Montanez

Many Napa streets that have lengthy breaks in them. How do police and emergency responders deal with the potential confusion?

In a five-minute newsroom conversation, Register staffers identified the following Napa intersections and areas that could be covered by this question: Clay Street, which runs from California Boulevard to Randolph Street, then disappears entirely before appearing again off Silverado Trail; Oak, Laurel, Pine and Elm streets, divided by Highway 29; Linda Vista Avenue, a major thoroughfare in northwest Napa, but also a sliver of a street south of Napa Creek; Coombs and Randolph streets, where the north and south portions are walled off from each other by the Napa Town Center; and Brown Street, which is broken in two by the super block with the jail, criminal courthouse and county administration building.

In addition, we noted that Laurel Street and Kilburn Avenue meet twice, once at Freeway Drive and again on the western edge of the Westwood neighborhood; that Laurel, Browns Valley Road and Third Avenue take sharp 90-degree turns (as do Donaldson Way and James Road in American Canyon); and that the Napa Valley Yacht Club is not actually in the neighborhood known as the Napa Yacht Club.

City of Napa Fire Chief Tim Borman said another issue is street names that sound similar. “ ... Meadowbrook, Meadowlark. At 2 a.m., you really have to pay attention,” he said. Meadowbrook and Meadowlark account for four separate streets in Napa: two courts and two drives.

Also, there are both avenues and streets named First, Second, Third and Fourth. (This takes me back on a driving nightmare in my early days in San Francisco. It was a little worse there, though, as the city’s streets go up to 30 and avenues nearly to 50. At least gas prices weren’t so high then.)

Napa streets divided by creeks, freeways or structures, Borman said, “pose a problem in the sense that you have to be much more cognizant of getting your cross streets.” He said it is a training issue — one the department takes seriously. “We really make sure that people know and study our streets,” he said.

Napa Police Sgt. Tim Cantillon said the department trains officers early and often on “cross streets and where the break is.” For example, he said, everyone in the department knows that the 2500 block of the tree streets is west of Highway 29, while the lower numbers are in Old Town. Plus, he said, officers on patrol get the good word from the dispatch operator. “When dispatch dispatches, they always give the hundred block and the cross street.”

Technology also gives our protectors a helping hand. Sgt. Debbie Peecook said police vehicles have computers showing a grid that indicates the nearest cross streets of the address requiring police attention. She said one source of confusion stems from residents who don’t indicate clearly that they are on South Jefferson Street or South Freeway Drive, as opposed to regular old Jefferson or Freeway.

With my track record of getting lost, perhaps I should invest in one of these devices.

What is Glad You Asked?

Glad You Asked attempts to answer readers’ questions. Lost? Send your questions to dmontanez@napanews.com or call me at 256-2224 and I’ll steer you in the right direction. Editor Bill Kisliuk contributed to this week’s column.

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