‘Slow down’ painter in Bird Rock turns to stickers – San Diego Union-Tribune

Now that she’s been banned from spray-painting and chalking “Slow down” messages on the sidewalk on La Jolla Boulevard, Bird Rock resident Nicole Hadfield has begun creating and distributing stickers with the same challenge.

In recent weeks, stickers have been placed on street signs and poles, utility boxes and more throughout the Bird Rock business district. They include messages such as “Slow down,” “Slow down Bird Rock,” “Slow down La Jolla,” “Slow down, everything’s OK,” and “15 mph speed limit.”

Driven by the desire to place a stop sign on La Jolla Boulevard in Camino de la Costa, the bike path was painted green to improve its visibility, and the speed limit was reduced and uniformed the entire length of La Jolla Boulevard up to Bird Rock, Hadfield said she ” “He’s not putting down his pitchforks yet.”

“I want to remain aware that people need to slow down,” she told La Jolla Light. “I’m an artist, so I made some stickers, put some up and gave them to my friends to give away. People took them off and I got a few threatening letters, but that doesn’t worry me. I want to raise this issue.”

Hadfield said she would stop using stickers and other methods to draw attention to her message if the city of San Diego conducts a traffic study to determine whether a stop sign and speed limit can be placed.

Earlier this year, Hadfield spray-painted “Slow down” on the streets surrounding her home, including La Jolla Boulevard.

The city sent crews to cover the paint with slime or patch it. Due to the costs involved, Hadfield was arrested on vandalism charges.

After her arrest, she began writing her message in chalk.

San Diego Police Lt. Matt Botkin said last month that using chalk “does not qualify as a new crime because it is a temporary measure, unlike paint, which is permanent.”

But Hadfield said the judge ordered her to stop writing on the street, including with chalk.

Some of her chalk drawings outside her home were washed by city crews.

“It doesn’t make sense to me that the city can spend money on electrocuting my chalk, but it can’t spend that money on testing traffic for speed limits,” she said.

City officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

When she was unable to continue working with chalk, Hadfield switched to stickers.

While she has faced fierce opposition from some neighbors over the “Slow Down” signs on the street, the reaction to the stickers has been more lukewarm, she added.

“I haven’t heard much from Bird Rockers about the stickers and haven’t noticed them,” said Joe Terry, Chairman of the Bird Rock Community Council.

However, he stated, “it is illegal to place posters, stickers, etc. on road signs, utility poles, etc. (…) Damage to road signs would be a problem and an undesirable expense if the stickers were on the signs and not just on the poles. The cost of removing stickers is an issue, even if the road signs are not damaged.”

“Some Bird Rockers fans were irritated by the ‘Slow down’ signs painted and chalked on the streets for aesthetic reasons or because they did not want to be reminded to speed,” he added. “There are better ways to deal with this and other traffic problems (e.g. ignoring stop signs and no restrictions on who can ride different types of e-bikes).

“Unfortunately, some have become frustrated with what they see as the city’s slow and inadequate actions and have implemented their own solutions, which may be wrong.”

Bird Rock Conservation Assessment District Manager Matt Mangano said MAD, city officials and landscape crews are removing any illegal signage in accordance with San Diego city regulations and MAD’s contract with the city.

If law enforcement approaches Hadfield again and says the stickers constitute vandalism, she could consider other methods, such as filing a petition or speaking out at public meetings, she added.

“I want to get involved,” she said. “I want to draw more attention to the issue of speeding.”

Bird Rock resident Harry Bubbins has started a petition campaign in 2022 to reduce the speed limit to 35 mph on La Jolla Boulevard toward Bird Rock.

Bubbins, now president of the La Jolla Community Planning Association, told The Light that the “Slow Down” message “addresses the dangerous conditions created by speeding drivers and the widespread local perception of the need to address this problem.”