Shinn the Writer

Our Biggest Problem?

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This could be my essay for my Homeowner page, because it concerns the Kensington Property Owners Association, or KPOA. If it were the Kensington Home Owners Association, it would be a lock, but I wanted to talk about the annual Kensington Cleanup there.

 

Anyway, some time ago I had paid all my annual discretionary payments for 2026. All the charities, political organizations, all the stuff that generates 95% of the mail I receive. You know the ones. “Thanks for giving last year but it wasn’t enough so innocent kids / animals / politicians are still suffering because of you.” “Please fund this Nebraska congressional candidate because you don’t have enough California candidates to donate to.” And the rest. Thanks to my thoughtful giving I will never have to pay for address labels again. Such a deal.

 

But I had neglected one, my dues to the KPOA. It would be late but that was okay. Along with the donation form, they asked what I thought my top issues were. I wound up donating online, but sent my pet peeve in anyway. It’s quite apparent that we have overbuilt the neighborhood. Houses that were once two-bedroom units are now three. One story houses are now two stories. New rooms get built because families grow and folks would rather build than move. This results in more cars and often fewer garages to put them in.

 

The cars wind up parked on the road. Many of the roads were designed as two-lane, but are now effectively one-lane but bi-directional. Far more often than we all bargained for, two cars approach each other on such roads and just have to figure it out on the fly. As everyone knows, in such a situation the car going uphill has the right of way. Well, not EVERYONE. I had to look it up. And what if the road is flat? And when does a level road become unlevel? 2% grade? 4%? 

 

There’s no question on Berkeley Park Blvd which rises straight up from the traffic circle at the west end of town into the hills. As if there aren’t enough cars on it already, on Sundays, we have a “farmers market” and the road, already somewhat of a busy street as Kensington streets go, is packed with parked cars. I’ve often had to pull over to the side two or even three times to get up that quarter-mile stretch of road.

 

But a bigger problem is that roads here often bend sharply. One road that I use often (Beverly) is a great example. There’s often a van parked at that bend and there’s no way a driver coming in either direction can see a car coming the other way on this now one-lane road. When this occurs, I slow down to about 10 m.p.h. and am often glad I did. Cars coming the other way are generally either cautious or know the peril, but I think it’s a disaster waiting to happen. Two cars not knowing the road taking it at full speed could easily have a head-on collision.