Exploring Charlotte

Zay: Who's it gonna be? You got two great people. One follows the rules. One likes to break them.

Lucas: Yeah.

Zay: One very blonde. One very brunette.

Lucas: Yep.

Zay: You gotta choose, man.

Lucas: I know.

Ahem. Yes. Welcome to Orientation.

Please turn in your guidebooks to page 11, entitled “The South and Snow”. It should be after the section called, “How and When to Use Ya’ll”, and before the section titled, “The Difference Between Ice Tea, Sweet Tea, and Tea”.

I’ll start please follow along:

The fireflies are back! Get ready to chase some lightning bugs!

So PNG is building a gas line off Beatties Ford on Caps Hill Mine Road and Peachtree St.  which the neighborhood residents didn’t know about... 

Makes me feel like Cristina Yang watching mall people mosey. I’m just like look he’s wearing a blue shirt and khaki pants too...

Barred Owls, Red shouldered hawks, Blue Jays?

Hummingbirds, Cardinals, Woodpeckers, and Sparrows?

Mourning Doves, Seagulls, Chickens, and Canadian Geese...?

...

Wait Chickens?

The chickens look at you like:

and you take an alternate route to get somewhere

Them: ...Are We still in Charlotte?

You: Yes.

http://charmeck.org/city/charlotte/CityClerk/CouncilRelated/Pages/Minutes%201998-2014.aspx

If you depend on N. Tryon to get anywhere in this grand city of ours then you understand that it’s not to be taken lightly. I suppose my question is why is it, that on a street that supports sizable neighborhoods on either side, there are no pedestrian markers warning drivers to slow down? Why aren’t there more crosswalks? Where are the signs?

There was yet another accident recently. One that necessitated multiple police cars, a fire truck, and a wailing ambulance. It may have involved a pedestrian. If it did then today’s accident is just one more in a series of many. How many bodies lying in the street does it take before our section of North Tryon is modified for the better?

And before you blame the pedestrians for jay walking please consider that between North Tryon and Sugar Creek and Tom Hunter and North Tryon   there are approximately 17 bus stops, a high school, a middle school, and a plethora of businesses. Within that busy 2.5 mile stretch there’s only one crosswalk between those intersections: the one at Eastway and North Tryon.

Yeah. That one.

Now, I’m not asking for a sky bridge or anything like that, but perhaps there’s a way I can grab a soda, visit a friend, or catch the bus to work without endangering my life and the lives of others. On the driver’s side I’d like to avoid possibly killing anyone on my way to/from the Plaza, WalMart, or wherever. Although I admit I’ve had some dark thoughts with regards to that train on W Sugar Creek...

Signs seem like a nice first step.

ps. Geese sometimes cross N. Tryon with their young to get to the Ecological Garden. If not signs for the people, at least consider the goslings.