Mansfield City Council passes bill prohibiting cruising on Miracle Mile

With the advent of warmer weather, Mansfield City Council decided to vote early to pass a bill prohibiting cruising on the Miracle Mile.

Members voted 6-1 Tuesday to prohibit cruising in the designated area. Councilman Aurelio Diaz was the lone dissenting vote.

Council initially planned to hold three readings of the bill and not vote until June 4.

"I think this is something we've talked about for some time," Councilwoman Stephanie Zader said. "The police force has asked us repeatedly, and so have the people, to find a solution to this."

Diaz said he has received a lot of feedback from residents.

"Miracle Mile is really heated," he said. "... I struggle with not being able to cruise around as long as I'm going the speed limit. If you're cruising at a reasonable speed, that's where I have a problem."

The Miracle Mile has been a haven for cruisers since the 1950s. What was once innocent fun for teenagers has taken a darker turn.

Last year, then-police Chief Keith Porch described motorcyclists driving more than 100 mph and trying to provoke officers to chase them, along with "blatant street races."

Porch said he received 'hundreds' of calls about Miracle Mile

"I can tell you that in my time as chief, I have received hundreds of calls every May and every June," said Porch, now the safety service director. "Since 1960, that has been the activity. Opinions start changing when people start dying out there. When that happens, does that turn up the heat in this room?"

In July, a 22-year-old Ontario man was killed when his motorcycle struck a pickup truck as the driver was leaving a parking lot. Police estimated the motorcyclist was driving about 65 mph when he struck the truck. The speed limit on Park Avenue West is 35 mph.

Porch said other crimes are occurring on the Miracle Mile, including weapons violations and fights.

"This is where we have to put the trust in the people we hire to protect the city," Zader said. "None of our police officers are going to go out of their way to pull people over for cruising up and down the road. They've got better things to do with their time.

"This is a way to give more teeth for them when someone is not following the rules."

The designated area is bound by Home Road on the west, Trimble Road on the east, Park Avenue West on the south and West Fourth Street on the north.

Cruising will be prohibited from 8 p.m. to 3 a.m. Friday into Saturday and Saturday into Sunday.

Police will set up a traffic-control point on a street within the designated area during the designated hours for enforcement.

According to the bill, cruising is defined as driving a motor vehicle on a street past a traffic-control point more than two times in any two-hour period. The passing of a control point a third time would constitute "unnecessary repetitive" driving and be a violation.

Many people will be exempt from violations

There will be a number of people who will be exempt from violations, including police, firefighters, municipal workers, licensed public transportation vehicles or other vehicles being driven for business or commercial purposes.

Residents in the designated area going to a specific destination also will be exempt.

The person having control or ownership of the vehicle will be the person considered cruising without regard to whether that person was actually driving the vehicle past the traffic-control point.

First-time violators will be charged with a minor misdemeanor. A second offense within a year of the first will be a fourth-degree misdemeanor, and each subsequent offense within a year of the first will be a third-degree misdemeanor.

Those convicted of a third-degree misdemeanor could receive up to 60 days in jail and a $500 fine.

In September, Porch updated council about activity on the Miracle Mile. He provided a heat map showing police activity there from 2021 to late March.

Mansfield police handled 1,929 incidents in that span. There were 181 crashes including two fatalities.

The heat map showed that activity greatly increased from 8 p.m. until midnight Friday and Saturday. There were 191 calls in the 10 p.m. hour on Fridays in the three-year-plus span and 204 such calls in the same time frame on Saturdays.

Zader raised another concern.

"We're making a concentrated effort on redeveloping that area. We're trying to bring businesses into that area," she said. "If we have a concentration of crime happening in that area, it's going to be less likely that someone is going to want to move into that area and redevelop it."

Councilwoman Deborah Mount asked if the bill should be amended to add cruising over the speed limit. Councilwoman Cheryl Meier said such an amendment would delay passage of the bill, and Porch said he did not think an amendment was necessary.

Porch said four rows of temporary speed bumps will be placed on the Miracle Mile from the end of June until September. The time frame will be from Friday evening until Sunday morning.

"It (cruising) is not what it was," Zader said. "We need to protect our city."

mcaudill@gannett.com

419-521-7219

X: @MarkCau32059251

This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Mansfield City Council passes bill prohibiting cruising on Miracle Mile