Regent Square residents speak up

back into the neighborhood after 10 years away. “If the boroughs just painted lines there, it would help.”

Mr. Celento said he believes pedestrians will continue to cross at Sanders even after the signs go up late next year rather than walk a long block up to the next crosswalk at West Hutchinson Avenue, cross the street and walk down the other side to their destination. He called the signs directing pedestrians to the next formal intersection “impractical” and “just dumb.”

April Simpson, owner of the Vanilla Pastry Studio bakery near Sanders, said a new crosswalk “makes a lot more sense.” Crossing a block away at West Hutchinson will be inconvenient for patrons going to businesses on each side of the street, she said.

“I think it’s really no improvement at all if you have to walk all the way to the next intersection,” she said.

Corey Flesse, kitchen manager at the popular D’s Six Pax and Dogz, said a lot of his customers are neighborhood residents who walk from home or motorists who park on nearby residential streets and walk.

“The crosswalk is probably the best way to keep people safe,” he said. “What’s safest for the customer is what we would favor.”

Erin Kelly, who lives on the Swissvale side of the neighborhood, said the Sanders intersection is the most convenient for her to cross, but concedes controlling traffic is “a little bit of a complicated issue.”

The visibility at Sanders is bad because of parked cars and motorists driving around others that want to turn left.

“I understand the impulse” to direct pedestrians away from Sanders, she said. “But we’re not going to walk a block down to Hutchinson.”

Mr. Wilhelm and Ms. Bastianini said the boroughs can’t change the purpose of the grant to add a crosswalk at Sanders. But they stressed their hope that this is just the first round of road improvements in the corridor.

“We hear their concerns,” Ms. Bastianini said. “We think this is phase one of the project and there will be more to come.”