Herban Sprawl

12 November 2009

I seldom get into the battles being waged by friends unless I think I can be of genuine help. I know I’m not going to be doing that, but this one is definitely worth mentioning.

BGF has noted the broken handicapped entrance at the Roanoke City Courthouse. BGF is mostly pretty dense about stuff, but when it comes to ADA standards in public buildings, he’s on his toes. He has a vested interest in accessibility because his eldest gets around via a motorized wheelchair. After a pretty long period of time, he decided to get pushy and contacted the folks he felt were responsible for keeping up with such necessities. He got a terse reply that said they indeed took these things seriously and would be getting to the bottom of it asap.

The Star City is, like many other public entities, in a budget crisis. They are sloppy about maintenance when they do have money, so imagine what it’s like now. The courthouse, in particular, is looking mighty shabby what with the carpet squares they put down with duct tape to deal with the parquet flooring that isn’t holding up to the foot traffic. BFG took a swipe at the exiting city manager about all this, which is understandable. She is one fine lightning rod.

But it goes beyond the city manager because council is supposed to be keeping up with these things. Where I used to live, one crossed the alderman’s palms with silver and things got taken care of lickety-split. The Star City doesn’t work that way, which is probably why it doesn’t work.

Let’s take the current situation in our neighborhoods: fall leaves. The daily paper has had articles about this issue in which a city employee is telling residents to mulch mow the leaves and a resident has written in to say that idea is ridiculous in the heavily forested neighborhoods. She is right in the sense that many yards in this town are far too steep for mowing, but the leaves still need to be cleaned up so the ground covers can grow. The city has cut from the budget the annual swipe through town with the big leaf vacuum. If we had dry weather, it wouldn’t be a problem, but right now we are in the middle of a monsoon.

Yesterday I needed to put in some provisions for upcoming meals. I went to the Food Lion near Tanglewood Mall, and to get there, I threaded my way through a winding, hilly neighborhood that is notable each fall for the prodigious amounts of leaves that patiently await the once a year vacuum. It was pouring rain, and all those leaves, which had not been raked to the curb because no one wanted to be ticketed, were wet and matted. In a neighborhood that has a hard time growing grass because of the shade, all those leaves had to be causing no small amount of heartburn among the residents. Indeed, the road itself was treacherous because wet leaves on pavement cause slick spots. It’s a little scary. I made a mental note to stay off that road for the time being.

The city has long had some skewed priorities when it comes to its money. For example, the council is ready to spend a lot of money on a public golf course, but what we really need are sidewalks along busy thoroughfares, and increased bus routes to encourage use of public transportation. We need major swimming pool renovations in some of our neighborhoods and we need a new public library that is accessible and set up for technology advances that are yet to come.

Our residents in thickly forested neighborhoods are to be commended for their tree canopies which contribute to the overall health and well-being of the city. The least the city can do is run the vacuum in those particular areas.

Fixing the broken handicapped doorway at the courthouse is the tip of the iceberg. I know there are budgetary considerations, but a golf course?