Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Face lift for the neighborhood.


Isn't it amazing what a new street can do for a neighborhood? Living in the city, you often find yourself driving down a street and it is in really bad shape. It makes the whole neighborhood look shabby. Broken sidewalks, pot holes and cracks. I think it affects the way people think about where they live. Maybe deep down they think keeping their place up won't make much difference, because from the sidewalk on, it looks so bad anyway.

Then something amazing happens. The crews come in, remove the broken sidewalks, repave the street and voila, the whole neighborhood has a face lift! People start to take pride in their homes again and a transformation takes place in a very short time.

I must say, I live in an area where the streets don't get all that bad and most everyone keeps up their property, but this week moved in the BIG TRUCKS! Everyday you patiently (or not so patiently, depending on your personality) wait for one or two pieces of the heavy equipment to move out of your way as you leave for work, or are coming home. Then you navigate very carefully the side of the road that you can drive on, dodging occasional rubble and unintentional holes where something broke up before intended.

There's also the wake up call, and you better heed it or you will be stuck for awhile. Jack hammers at 6 AM. What a lovely sound to get up to. Like Beethoven. Even though they told you the evening before that they were going to dig out in front of your drive at 6 AM, for some reason or other an ambitious worker (I know, you don't believe there is an ambitious road worker. I wouldn't have believed it myself if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes) decides to go to work early and starts digging out in front of the drive at 5:30 AM.

Now, I didn't run out and start ranting and raving about how they told me 6AM and it's not even close to that and how did they expect me to drive my little sports car over a 3 foot deep ditch. I don't have one of those super trucks in the shows at the dome. Someone did it for me. So they refilled the ditch with lots of gravel, making a bridge just wide enough to maneuver. And they were really nice about it! One of the workers always sees that the way is clear for me when I come and go and with a smile on his face. I feel special! And even better, the port-a-pot is in someone elses front yard!

2 comments: