Today, another banner flies on the same blank wall on that same subdivision bunker...except there's a small change:
Now $60,000 cheaper! Actually, cheap isn't a politically correct term...I should have said "more cost effective," or "less expensive." Cheap sounds better, however. But I'm wondering, what do all the earlier entrants who paid a whole lot more think about all these cheaper units?
What you can't see behind this fence are about sixty additional SMUD underground hookups that SMUD paid designers to design, installers to install, but there ain't no houses connected to them yet. You don't have to wonder why SMUD is raising rates -- we gotta pay for all that shit but we don't have any customers installed to pay for them.
The wooden fence is an interesting addition. I suppose the residents would say that it's to keep malfeasance out. As an outsider, I suppose it's to keep the residents in. To prevent them from leaving their compound to mingle with other neighbors. Why else would the crossbeam be on the outside on every panel, a perfect ledge for someone from the outside to get over? This isn't a good neighbor fence -- the developer is saying "fuck the neighbors. If they want a good neighbor fence then they'll put one up on their side." This, of course, prevents all residents from walking to the corner store, instead forcing them to drive.
The wooden barrier at the sidewalks' end is also an interesting addition. I wonder if the city requires developers to post such barriers to prevent the wheelchair bound from inadvertently assuming they could wheel themselves to the corner store along the sidewalk. Imagine the litigation that would ensue if this barrier wasn't erected, how our tort-happy society would deal with a crippled woman falling off the edge at 1:30 AM who thought she could make it to the liquor store at the opposite corner before closing time.
The rounded concrete curb encasing the obligatory seven foot wide ornamental lawn and cheap trees is also an interesting addition. That the developer took the effort to round the concrete curb is a clear indication that they never expect nor do they give a shit about any other development that would extend this all the way to the street corner. Extend it only as far as they are legally required to, they say. Fuck the community; we're our own neighborhood encased in a gated compound so to hell with you and anything and anyone else. We've got our own little park so our residents should have no reason to leave except by motorized vehicles out our gates to their places of employment or procurement.
The chain link fence is yet another interesting addition. Keep transients out of the brownfield. This fence serves another important role as a vertical trash rake, keeping all the Burger King wrappers and Mike & Ike candy boxes in the public realm, not on private property.
The unstaked tree is another interesting feature of this development. In another five years this tree will be permanently leaning east, hanging over Franklin Blvd., right alongside the few hundred thousand other suburban trees who's developers failed to stake them correctly or who's owners failed to keep them staked correctly until they could withstand our delta breezes. Permanent lean. That'll sure look good, won't it?
One other interesting feature you can't really see is that this development forced the bicycle lane to make a severe left-hand jog right into traffic, because the development, in an effort to shoehorn in as many fucking housal units as they could, forced the curb on Franklin Blvd. out an additional six feet. This is a wonderful feature for anyone willing to ride a bicycle to or past that compound; have to deal with the five out of six cars who drive right into the bike lane instead of jogging left to stay in their lane.
We are living on the cheap. Buying one of these cheap housal units comes with the loss of living with dignity in a correct environment. Any new resident will probably not care a whit about anything I bring up, only that they got a cheap home. That's all that matters to them.
No comments:
Post a Comment