#314 Wanderings

Yesterday I talked about the new street widening project in the City of Tumwater and how they are cutting trees they just planted in traffic islands which they just put in, so they could take out the traffic islands, so the could widen the road even wider than they did just five years ago. Planning and waste, two sides of the bureaucratic coin. It seems like municipalities plan too long and when they finally act they are already nearly out of date so then they have to plan again and act again precipitously and so on. They should have rolling waves of planners each focused on the next half decade, kind of like firefighters working their way up the hose to the hot zone. Worse, city philosophies change—different concepts of beauty and architecture all have their day. What was once an architectural keystone, the round City of Olympia Hall, now looks like someone’s idea of a inverted pie tin kid’s craft or a past futuristic diner spared by the giant grasshoppers. Visitors from other communities drive by in derision, looking for the carhops.
Back in Tumwater they’ll soon have another problem. A little further down Tumwater Blvd, they aren’t yet doing as much widening. And they won’t. The architectural committee has instructed builders to build their buildings right to the edge of the road. The long-term plan is to create a more “downtown” effect. Which effectively puts a pretty concrete cap on further widening—or lathe and plaster cap, or brick and mortar cap, or all three judging by the mishmash architecture of some of the new buildings. In any event, they’ve built buildings right to the current edge of both Tumwater and Capitol Blvds. So that urban arterial now has a permanent two way infarction. All I can say is, as I remember the ruthlessly felled trees from the traffic islands, I hope they planned better this time. But then again maybe they have a great plan. Maybe they just didn’t get the word out to the public. It’s all about marketing—that monstrosity which is the way we tell people what we have to unload on them. It’s grown steadily since the first caveman had too much meat and needed to fob some off on his neighbors before it spoiled. Here Ug, try some almost rancid rat meat. It’s um, new, and arrgh, improved. Hey, make room for Ooga, you’re blocking traffic here. I just hate the waste. Now granted, I’m a pack rat. I never throw anything away that has even a snowball’s chance in hell of ever being productively used again. I hope my kids have grandkids soon so we can use up all those aluminum pie pans and toilet paper rolls when I teach them how to make cool handmade Christmas tree knickknack things. Maybe I’m just too sentimental about stupid stuff. I’m trying to get better. I used to be a pretty strong environmentalist. I belonged to the Whole Tree Organization. Now I’m just part of a splinter group...
America, ya gotta love it.