Mugging at Gunpoint? Turn Valleybrink Into Cul de Sacs

IT'S BEEN A bad year for Valleybrink Road in Atwater Village, and this past weekend was another shameful example. Reported on the AV Forum and from a Newbie reader: "The story is that a friend was leaving a house on Valleybrink (just north of Sunnynook Dr.) on Sunday around 1:30pm. He walked to his car ... when a small vehicle rolled up filled with gangmembers (I don't have a description of them) and they put a gun to the waistline of the guy and took his wallet. They quickly drove off leaving the man unharmed, thank god. But this is some scary SHIT! Middle of the day on a Sunday!" Valleybrink gets more than its fair share of breakings and break-ins, and I think I know why. This narrow residental street offers nearly 1,600 uninterrupted feet of drive-by potential. I'd guess it the 'hood's longest stretch sans intersections, stop signs or speed bumps. It's way too easy to do the deed on Valleybrink and then hop on I-5, long gone before anyone calls 911. How about we blockade Valleybrink and turn it into 2 dead-end streets? Landscape the new back-to-back cul-de-sacs. Call them pocket parks. Have 400 community meetings about it. But do something. Cut off the flow.