Extreme Spring Cleanup
Last
Thursday, April 14, there was an apartment building standing at the corner of
Second South and First West across from the university stadium.
The
view toward Porter Park from that corner looked like this.
At
the end of that block stood four homes. The
whole block had been bought up by a developer. The time had come for some
spring cleaning.
By Wednesday,
April 20, the apartment was a heap of rubble.
Only
two of the houses were still standing. The
shade tree looked a little battered but was hanging in there.
Today
this is the view toward the university stadium.
The buildings are coming down to make way for more student housing. There will probably also be some shops on the
street level.
The homes are gone; nothing but rubble. But the shade tree has put on some new leaves.
DH
said it looked like someone dropped a bomb on our fair city. I guess the bomb went off when our two-year
college was changed to a four-year university in June of 2000. For good and ill, the town has been on
building steroids ever since. At the same time this is happening the girls' dorms are coming down for more parking space.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Just
down the street from us a four-story building is being added to an assisted
living complex.
And
around the corner from our home the last of three houses is being carted off to
a new location to make way for something else.
At least these buildings weren’t smashed into smithereens. We’ve endured enough backhoe mayhem over
the past months with the repositioning of the canal across the street.
“There
are things in life we don’t want to happen, but have to accept; things we don’t
want to know, but have to learn, and people we can’t live without, but have to
let go.—Nancy Stephan, The Truth About
Butterflies
R.I.P
Purple Prince
