In the spirit of our times, when online prediction sites allow people to bet on almost anything (but not necessarily be paid off when they are correct) I hear that area types are wagering over which happens first, a house along Bedford Street in Dale Borough collapses, or the Inclined Plane resumes operation.
Inspired by such things, I did some multi-tasking last week while giving my brother a ride to a doctor’s appointment, taking him on a tour of our area lowlights, and there are many.
Picking him up downtown, I noted the Inclined Plane continues in a period of suspended (pun intended) animation.
Just today, I checked for an update on inclinedplane.org to see where we stand. If I am reading a timeline on the site correctly, work is done or coming close to that, and then we will be beginning a period of various testing and training that is estimated will take 150 days, that being arrived at in two 30-day segments and one 90-day chunk for said procedures.
A note on the timeline pointed out these estimates are subject to change. Color me shocked. Wasn’t this supposed to be done maybe a year ago?
So, it seems the best-case scenario is about 150 days, give or take, from here, which should carry us well into August.
After picking up my brother, we swung up Main Street to check on the progress of Central Park. It’s now a massive mud pit.
Although the numbers regarding cost change frequently, area elites are spending about $7 million to give the hoi polloi something we didn’t really want. They’ve taken what used to be a tiny sylvan setting in the center of our declining downtown and are, supposedly, in the process of turning it into yet another paved expanse.
Why are they doing this? There was grant money available to be garnered and dispensed among friends of the elites.
Denuding the area of grass and mature trees is a problem for which there is no short-term solution, at least regarding the trees. As I pointed out to my granddaughters, who currently are 7 and 8 years of age, respectively, by the time they are as old as I am (70) they might again have trees to sit under in the park.
It was onward from Central Park to Dale, where the collapsing house was found to have sagging roof line resembling the spine of a swayback horse.
The house having survived winter snows, so far, is a point in its favor. But, I wouldn’t want to be living in it currently.
From there we took a tour of various points of interest in Walnut Grove and Oakland, looking at houses we formerly lived in, or spots where such houses once stood, but no longer exist.
A bonus was trips past sites of many former schools we once attended but, again, no longer exist.
The dessert was a drive-by of a Lorain Borough house formerly occupied by our late mother.
By the end of the tour, we both were suffering a bit of ennui regarding it all. For rational types, living in this area is a daily dose of frustration and sadness.
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