Spend That Money!

Meg, from the All Point Bulletin, says we want trails.  Well, she doesn't say that's what we want, she says that's what the people at the Community Advisory meeting said they wanted. 

Maybe we didn't go to the same meeting.  Certainly there was some considerable talk about putting culverts in the ditches on a couple of streets and then, ideally, covering over the ditches with some kind of walking/biking surface.  And certainly Chairperson Reber is enthusiastic about doing that on Benson and on a couple of other roads.  Nevertheless, what seemed to me to be the underlying themes of the meeting were 'we're frightened, and we need life to be safer in Point Roberts' and 'we're lonely (or un/under-employed) and we need to give tourists more to do in Point Roberts so that more tourists will come to Point Roberts.'

People kept saying that something had to be done because it was so dangerous to walk or ride bikes on the streets here.  Although some other people said that compared to the bike riding they had done prior to coming to Point Roberts, they had never had such safe riding conditions as they had here.  Some people said that the traffic on Gulf was so fast (average speed: 34 mph in a 25 mph zone) that it was only a matter of time until someone was killed or badly injured.  Some people said that the traffic on Benson was so bad because of the narrow shoulders that it was only a matter of time until someone was killed or badly injured.  And also, the RV park down on Marine, I believe, was said to involve such dangerous walking out into the street practices that it is only a matter of time until someone is killed or badly injured.  The parking lot located across the street from the church?  Only a matter of time, and here you go to the chorus.  I almost forgot to mention the dangers of Goodman Road.

So I guess we're all nervous wrecks about the dangers of living in Point Roberts.  It's a wonder we live here, considering how dangerous it is.  The most recent injury I know of from traffic problems was Marco on a bicycle and the deer.  Maybe we should be getting rid of the deer in Point Roberts.

On the other hand, though, we could be using that money to build some kind of entertainment system for tourists.  (This was mostly about bike lanes/bike markings/bike racks/bike lockers.)  With these amenities, people could ride their bikes through the border, thus eliminating the lineup difficulties and spend vast numbers of dollars (collectively) in Point Roberts, thus perking up the economy.  Eco-Bicycling: an economic development plan.

I didn't hear anyone suggest that they just save the money for a rainy day.  It may be that telling people they have access to $386,000 dollars for traffic/roads improvement inevitably brings out their consumerist side.  Maybe I've been here too long and thus am jaded.  Nevertheless, it seems to me that we're safe enough and there are already enough tourists here and Point Roberts is unlikely ever to have a lively domestic economy and this money reminds me of The Man Who Corrupted Hadleyburg, by Mark Twain.  Well, I doubt if corruption is what is in store for us, but I also doubt that whatever this money eventually goes to will make us either safer or richer. 

And the speed limit on Gulf?  Maybe raise it to 30 mph? 

Addendum: You might think it would be worth painting new lines on the roads to spruce up the currently disappearing lines.  But it turns out that there is a national shortage of street line paint, and thus, new paint lines are unavailable.  The triumph of capitalism, or something. 

At the End of a Long Day

We had a long-ish day in medical care land today, and at the end of it I went to the meeting of the Point Roberts Advisory Committee which is, among its many other possible activities, fossicking about in the $370,000 fund for improvement of roads and transit in Pt. Roberts, a fund made possible largely by the Canadians who come cross the border to buy, in large quantities, our (relatively) cheaper gasoline.  (According to Wikipedia, "Fossicking is a term found in Cornwall and Australia referring to prospecting. This can be for gold, precious stones, fossils, etc. by sifting through a prospective area. In Australian English, the term has an extended use meaning to "rummage".")  Whether the committee is prospecting or rummaging is surely a matter of perspective.

The committee has put out a survey and the 49 responses received so far are enthusiastic about trails and walking paths.  And a bridge to Blaine (or maybe Bellingham, I forget).  And more street lights.  And fewer street lights.  There seemed a good deal of talk about 'what people wanted,' but it is not clear to me that 49 responses provide much evidence about what people want.  Perhaps the 1, 451 non-responses indicate that the people want nothing at all.

In any case, beautification is a possibility, apparently, although there are many unanswered questions about any possibility.  Some things are not possible at all because they are not included in the narrow definition of roads and transit; some things are problematic because they would require meeting county standards that would make them very expensive.  E.g., there was at least an assertion at the meeting, that a walking path along Benson Road, e.g., would have to meet the standards of the Americans with Disabilities Act, such that a wheelchair could easily move along the new walk's surface.  Which would be a very different standard than, say, just making sure that the shoulder of Benson is regularly mowed.  It was not clear to me whether Benson was just an example, but upon pointing out that people already walk on the shoulder of Benson all the time, I was told that walking on Benson is very unsafe.  Although I"m not sure that making it wheelchair accessible would make it any safer since the cars would still be driving 40 mph and the shoulder would still be right next to the part where the cars travel.

Well, perhaps it was just the end of that long day, but perhaps I'm not really suited to small town government activity.  I felt more like I was watching a TV show about small town government meetings than actually watching anything that had to do with Point Roberts as I know it.  But maybe the Committee members all know a different Point Roberts.  They all seem to have a vision for Point Roberts.  Me?  Like the first George Bush, I don't seem to have 'the vision thing' (and don't we all wish that the second George Bush hadn't had the 'vision thing'?).

And particularly I don't have a vision of or for Point Roberts.  I like it the way it is.  And I think it will more or less continue to take care of itself in the same way that it has done for a century.  Things come, things go; people come, people go.  What I most like about Point Roberts is its uniqueness.  And a substantial part of that uniqueness either derives from or means that things are difficult here.  The vision people seem to want to make it less difficult and, I suspect, that will result in it being more like other places.  They want more services, more tourists, an economic development plan, more stability, a bigger share of County dollars.  And I suspect they don't care at all about llamas.

No More Confusing the Readers

Chaircreature Reber of the Community Advisory Committee has written me again, this time with his concerns that I am confusing my 'thousands of readers' with my suggestions that the County Supply Attic has no Border Guards that can be sent to lengthen the Nexus lane hours here at Point Roberts and no llamas that can be distributed to needy residents and no docks that can be installed at Lighthouse Park.  (Although it doesn't have those things, in fact.)

So, let the confusion cease.  First of all, let's not be confused about my thousands of readers.  Hundreds, yes; thousands, no.  And even the hundreds have shown no evidence of being any more confused than everybody else I meet, so I'd like to assert that there is at least no evidence of confusion.

But let the facts stand as Reber reports them.  There is some actual money in a Whatcom County account in the amount of $370,000 but it is not the County that won't let us use those dollars for border guard salaries or llamas or docks.  It is the State.  Those moneys are only for roads, a word whose meaning can apparently be broadened to include walking trails and bicycle paths and, perhaps, public transit, as in the return of the Blue Heron Van.  Definitely no llamas.  End of subject.

Now, my personal knowledge of lawyers (which is actually pretty extensive, having even taught once in a law school) leads me to believe that the State has a pretty second-rate bunch of lawyer/statute interpreters if they can't squeeze more meaning out of 'roads' than that.  But, I do not know that for a fact, so do not be getting yourself confused here.

And, if there are to be no border guards, no llamas, and no docks....well, what else do we need?  Bicycles is the answer to that question.  We need bicycles in large numbers lying about on the sides of the road so that anyone who wants to ride a bicycle someplace can pick one up from the side of the road (instead of from some resident's yard) and then drop it off at the side of some other road when he/she is done riding.  And it could also include some large 3-wheeled adult tricycle-like vehicles for those who have reached the age where balance issues might suggest that a 2-wheeled vehicle was not such a good idea.

And if that went well, we could have kayaks lying around at the beach for people to take rides in.  This, I claim, would be at least as legitimate a use as the Blue Heron Van (which is said perhaps to be a viable option) under the heading of 'Public Transportation.'

Next year, we'll talk again about the llamas.  You can be preparing for it by reading this.

If you wish to bring these matters up to the Community Advisory Committee, you are encouraged to do so by responding to their survey which is included in the All Point Bulletin E-News.  Llamas...remember it has two l's.