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Resident renews plea for street light and crosswalk at Baltimore Drive intersection after fatal crash
Summary
A La Mesa resident told the council the streetlight at Baltimore Drive and Lake Parkway has not been replaced eight months after a pedestrian fatality and urged traffic calming, crosswalk painting and brighter lighting to prevent another death.
La Mesa — During public comment May 12, resident Andrea Beth Damsky urged the City Council to replace a median streetlight and install traffic-calming measures at the Baltimore Drive and Lake Parkway intersection, where a pedestrian was killed in September 2025.
Damsky told the council the light pole was destroyed in the crash and the hole remains filled only with traffic cones and memorial flowers. She said she has raised the problem with multiple council members and staff in recent months but that the light and requested crosswalk repainting have not been completed. “This section of Baltimore Drive has become a speedway,” she said, asking the council to act to reduce speeds and improve pedestrian visibility.
Damsky cited the city’s Neighborhood Traffic Management Program and asked council to treat the death as an eligibility determinant for traffic-calming measures rather than requiring the standard petition process. She invoked California Vehicle Code requirements that drivers yield to pedestrians and asked for painted crosswalks and other measures to slow traffic.
Council members acknowledged the comment during staff follow-up and noted public‑works and traffic programs; staff did not announce an immediate remediation schedule during the meeting. The resident’s request raises a near-term implementation question for Public Works and traffic engineering staff.
What’s next: The council did not record a formal action on this item during the meeting. Staff follow-up and a timeline for replacing the light and considering traffic-calming measures were requested by multiple speakers during the meeting.
