urban ku # 69 ~ a band of brain-dead brothers
Monday, June 4, 2007 at 09:29AM 
Everyday drama and beauty • click to embiggenIt never ceases to amaze me how many people never take the time to 'see' what is all around them. A case in point is the parking lot at our local supermarket - a place which I am picturing on a surprisingly regular basis. By scenic landscape 'standards', it would be ranked somewhere between ugly and more ugly - there's not much in it glamour-wise ... except for the sky, which on any given day can put on quite a show, albeit subtle rather than grand.
When I was picturing the above scene, together with another variation thereof, people were staring at me in confusion - they were even peering out of the front window of the supermarket. The camera was not obviously pointed at the sky so there was consternation regarding what in the blazes I was picturing. Apparently, they don't look up in this locale.
That said, I'd like to mention a somewhat similar phenomena - this by Janet Duprey, seconded by Teresa Sayward (both are Republican state assemblywomen representing different districts of northern New York), and a group of local citizens.
It was reported in the local newspaper that, at a town-hall meeting of sorts, Duprey/Sayward made points to M. Patricia Smith, the new New York state labor commissioner regarding the fact that "... the North Country has a set of problems, as well as a set of treasures, that are all its own ...", which, as a statement that plays fast and very loose with the words 'treasures' and 'problems', is true enough.
Singled out as a particular circumstance is the presence of the Adirondack Park Agency, which enforces rules designed to control development. Sayward noted the palpable drop in activity (Ed. - development-wise) when crossing the Blue Line (Ed. - the park boundary line as drawn on a map long ago with a blue pencil) into the park near Lake George and the resumption of activity when crossing the line again, out of the park, near Plattsburgh.
Duprey remarked on the difficulty people inside the park have trying to infuse life into a business or industry when the area is so regulated. The subject struck a resonant cord with the gathering, as Sayward was roundly applauded for making the point.
Not that Seyward or Duprey read this blog, but I would like to respond directly to 2 points.
1. re: ...the North Country has a set of ... treasures... - yes it does. Those 'treasures' are incredibly obvious to anyone with half a brain - the area's natural resouces and their undeveloped wilderness character together with the small-town character of its villages and hamlets. Those treasures are why, every year, millions of money-spending tourists visit the park. Those treasures are why, every year, a significant number of money-spending people retire to, move to, or buy second homes here.
Is there something about this that you (Duprey/Seward) don't underdstand?
The area is simply not suited for large-scale industrial development. The typography and the infrastructure (dictated by typography) will not support it. And, in case you haven't noticed, there is no ready labor force to support large-scale industry.
Get it? The only way with which to change the infrastructure/ready labor force situation is one that is sure to devastate the 'treasures' which are now the drivng force behind the region's only 'large-scale industry', i.e., tourism.
2. re: the Adirondack Park Agency, which enforces rules designed to control development ... - it's a very short and very simple set of connect-the-dots between the APA and the area's treasures. Eliminate the APA and, in very short order, the so-called free market will eliminate the treasures. Without a doubt, history, past and recent, tells us this.
IMO, Seyward and Duprey are glad-handing politicians who parrot a vote-getting 'populist' view - we'd all be rich and living like the famous, if only government would just leave us alone. In this case, the bogeyman, in the form of the APA, is alive and well.
What I want to know from them is simple:
Define 'treasure'.
Define 'industry', specifically, what kind of industry, do you believe is suitable for the area?
Define a detailed plan for attracting such industry.
Define an actual plan for working with the APA to protect the region's character. One that goes beyond your thinly veiled and oft-stated attempts to dismantle/neuter it.
If you can't do this, you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.
gravitas et nugalis
Featured Comments: Tim Atherton wrote: "I think that's maybe topography not "typography"... ? - Okay, I'm trying to imagine some giant phrase in Times Roman being cut into the landscape :-) Rather like the Cerne Abbas Giant."
my response: Good one, Tim. I've been working like a madman for last 2 weeks on - guess what? - typography. Guess it was an typographic slip.
Brett Kosmider wrote (in part): "I dream of something like the APA to come into the area up in 'dese here parts known as Door County, undoubtedly Wisconsin's premiere vacation/retirement destination. I say "vacation slash retirement" because recent unchecked development of retirement homes, condos and high density housing is destroying the very character that makes Door so unique..."
Reader Comments (4)
I dream of something like the APA to come in to the area up in 'dese here parts known as Door County, undoubtedly Wisconsin's premiere vacation/retirement destination. I say "vacation slash retirement" because recent unchecked development of retirement homes, condos and high density housing is destroying the very character that makes Door so unique.
It is often called the "Cape Cod of the Midwest" though it is larger and less populus than the Cape, but I've been to the Cape, and I want Door to be nothing like the Cape. For starters, whats up with wall-to-wall residential development from Sagamore to Eastham? It took the Park Service to halt some of that development or squirrels would be jumping from roof top to roof top all the way up to P-town!
So I, for one, would love to see an autonomous agency oversee the (un)development of Door County, much like Cape Cod has the Park Service to preserve what makes the place special, but more like the APA where people can live and work in a place that won't get paved over by those who don't understand.
Sorry for borrowing your pulpit, but this struck a chord with me.
Great post, and don't let em kill what you have up there!
Brett
I think that's maybe topography not "typography"... ? - Okay, I'm trying to imagine some giant phrase in Times Roman being cut into the landscape :-) Raather like the Cerne Abbas Giant
Why would the locals react so vigorously to these Republican town meeting statements? Do they not realize what keeps their livelihood "alive?" If they want more development, could they not move out of the Blue Zone? Who's keeping them where they are?
That'd be scenic (not secenic) and locale (not local).
I get the same sort of weird looks and incomprehension when I'm out taking pics too.