LOOK at redevelopment

Here's an update on Anne Marie's Pet Grooming.If the city is accepting proposals it seems likely to me that the site is already publicly owned. It may have already been foreclosed upon. My mind runs wild and leads my imagination to some sort of city bonding backed construction on a marginal piece of land next to the railroad tracks is how that strip mall got to be there in the first place.

Wasn't the real estate bubble grand?

There really isn't any reason for this picture except that I had ridden over there to get a look at the new housing development and the sun happened to come out.What's interesting about the big new houses is that the site abuts County Road C2. "County Road" sounds like it should be an important thoroughfare but in fact at that point County Road C2 is a pretty sleepy residential street. In fact, it is not even a continuous street. To the west of the big new houses is one of the earliest post WWII developments in the city (think ramblers). Even though the street was platted and dedicated to the public actual construction of pavement ended where the houses ended. Eventually there was some new development from the east side and some more of the street was paved. The story told by the people on the west side is that they were promised by city government when the east side was developed that the street would not go all the way through, that it would NEVER go all the way through as leaving it unconnected would preserve the residential character of the older neighborhood. The gap between the pavement coming from the west and the pavement coming from the east is only a few yards, such a small distance that one of those wooden barricades was erected to keep miscreants from just going ahead and driving through there anyway.

Flash forward to today when the developer of the big new houses believes, probably correctly, that it will be easier to sell the houses (and at presumably higher prices) if the development is connected to a street that goes through to the major streets of the city. For that connection to be achieved the few yards of County Road C2 need to be paved.

I am sure everyone can imagine what happened next and what has been happening since.

End of story? The developer won.

Progress marches on.

Eventually when I got home the sun completely broke through and we are now experiencing a very pleasant late afternoon, not up to the standards of earlier in the month but definitely way acceptable for March.I well recall the expedition to the Target Center to see the circus. Here's a couple more details: Emily, Yuko and Emily's Dad had the three seats one in from the aisle. I always prefer to sit on the aisle so I was a bit taken aback but figured that the aisle seat was single, most likely there wouldn't actually be anyone sitting in it.

Instead we found a somewhat seedy looking middle aged circus fan, sitting alone with a giant bag of salted in the shell peanuts. By the time we arrived he had already created an enormous peanut shell mess. I surveyed the situation and I took the second seat in, Emily third, Yuko fourth. A good time was had by all, including, I believe, peanut guy.

If I recall correctly, the exact quotation would be, "It takes strength to eat Easy Cheese".

I apologize for substituting a knock off brand of aerosol cheese. To my surprise and chagrin the nearest grocery store does not stock the actual "Easy Cheese", a Kraft product again if I recall correctly. I didn't want it to turn into a quest so I just went with what they had.

Pretty nice looking day, don't you think?