As many of you know, I live in what I like to refer to as "The Bubble". You know what I'm talking about - a small suburb of Dallas where weekends are consumed by parents shuffling children from event to event; where neighborhood block parties are a regular event; and, where a big night for our local police department consists receiving a call about someone locking themselves out of their house. It's your typical Normal Rockwell meets Gordon Gekko kind of neighborhood. You know, a "bubble".
Now don't get me wrong - we live here for the same reasons I'm sure everyone else does.....it's safe, beautiful, complete with good schools, great shopping and picturesque environment in which to raise our kids.
So, now that you understand how jam-packed our streets our and how insane our traffic must be, imagine my confusion when, while sitting at the park today with my two year-old (yes bubble behavior at it's finest), I happened to notice a new set of traffic signals being installed. Now keep in mind that this particular set is being plopped two city blocks away from one set and one city block away from another set....so it's not like anyone could even get their imported car up to a dangerous speed to even warrant another abrupt stop.
I found this particularly unnerving on several levels. First, there hasn't ever been a wreck at this intersection in the three plus years I've lived in said "bubble" (shock that I've lived in one place over a year aside please). Secondly, why would a neighborhood such as ours suddenly require the traffic control power of three separate sets of traffic lights within about a 3 block radius.
I think it's the "duh" answer to the second one I landed on that really irked me, if we're being honest here. You see, the town recently tore down EVERY large, blooming tree that lined our beautiful thorough-fair and replaced it with new and improved, scrawny little saplings. Why? Well, because they could I guess. Because, based on the same display on intelligence of three sets of traffic lights within a three block radius on a very suburban bubble street, they have more money than they know what to do with.
No worries, I'm not about to get all Andy Rooney on you, but seriously, this has to raise a few eyebrows in my little league loving town, doesn't it? I mean, I can't be the only one who finds this behavior a bit odd, can I?
It just makes me wonder if we, our sleepy little "bubble" in West Dallas, have this much money to throw around and time to kill, couldn't we find something better to do with both? I can think of a few local causes and neighborhoods who could surely benefit from our need to spend money the bubble-fashion way......"we burn it."
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