I wish I had a before pic

I guess I have not walked Main Street all summer because I am sure that the last time I did, this behemoth was a few nice little storefronts topped by, well, I can’t remember what but maybe something more akin to the buildings on either side of it. We were walking past the Ark last night and I looked across the street and… What the heck? I’m gonna guess that more nice little storefronts will occupy the bottom floor. What’s above them? Offices? Fancy condos? Where will those people park? How much will those spaces (office or condos or whatever?) cost? Is this progress? I’m not so sure.

I’m trying to decide if I am a Nimby* or whatever. I am not against new development per se. But sometime back in not-so-distant history, our fair city approved some zoning requirements that I do not think have served us well. Don’t ask me for the details because I definitely don’t understand the intricacies of zoning stuff. If I WORKED for the city on zoning codes, I would become an zoning encyclopedia but I don’t, so… Anyway, someone sometime decided that we could top off our downtown buildings at 14 stories. Guess what? We know now have about a gazillion 14-story buildings down there, residential units for [rich] college students and up-and-coming Young Professionals. I don’t understand why people would want to live in these places. I guess I have never been able to describe myself as up-and-coming but I have always wanted to have a nice backyard with trees, etc. That was not some kind of pipe dream. It was what I grew up with and I knew that I needed that kind of scenario in my “adult house”, the one I wanted to raise children in. Somehow we managed to afford a [small] house on The Garden Planet Ann Arbor, one that backed up to a woods. I loved it when I first saw it and I still do all these years later. (And yes, I know that the building in the pic is nowhere near 14 stories.)

In happier news, we at Cubelandia were informed that our beloved LSCHP has landed a wonderful new job. He was a great person to work for and we are all so happy for him!🧡

Oh, and the triplet who was stuck in the yooperland last night got his vee-hickle back together and working. He is now at uMich and his vee-hickle is in our driveway for a while, which is fine with me 🧡.

Basking at the Landfill on yet another penultimate summer evening. Prior to one last summertime cruise to the north country.

*I guess I am definitely a Nimby when I see newcomers to the moominbeach cutting down big old red pines with wild abandon. But they are neighbors and children of friends and I will do my best to ignore this attempt (in my eyes) to “suburbanize” the moominbeach. When you sit on “my” deck up there, you see greeeeeeen everywhere, except for the beautiful red deck and multicolored Commander memorial impatiens.

One Response to “I wish I had a before pic”

  1. Margaret Says:

    My town/city used to be a farming community, but farming is hard and not very lucrative, so much of the rich land now has cookie cutter housing developments on it. It’s sad to see it happen. Glad that the former boss got an excellent new job!