Sunday, April 6, 2014

Ramble 34: Nostalgia

Sunday, April 6th...and Marge could not get off the island today. Normally, as you know, Marge would rather be boiled in oil than drive her vehicle. But, sometimes, one must drive and, today was one of those days.
It was the kind of day that reminded Marge why she promotes alternative transportation.
For, both Webster Tube - driving off the island - and Park Street bridge were jammed packed with traffic. The Tube was worse - likely  because it is closer to the antiques show that may have brought the traffic.
At any rate, having spent some small part of the day moseying around on foot, when Marge got into her vehicle to do the do and get off the island, there was little escape without spending hot and sweaty time lined up with hundreds of other hot, sweaty, and annoyed drivers.
Marge did try a few traffic work-arounds. One of them brought her to Target; the other work-around brought her to what was once Chipman on Clement near the old Del Monte building.
Then Marge waxed nostalgic.
Then she worried.
Here's a sample of her interior monologue. 
"We're giving away the store; we'll only recognize what we've lost once it is gone, gone, gone. Then we'll wonder why our kids have so little spiritual connectedness to the land, the environment, and the communities in which they grew up. How can young people, who tend to be idealistic to the core, relate to acres of concrete? Well, they can if they must...and they must if that is all that surrounds them. So, why must they?"

Do you remember what the island was like before Target? Scroll through this blog for earlier posts and pix on Target. Here are 3 pix of what will soon be gone... and replaced by "development".




Now let's look at what was once Chipman. This will be a Lennar Corporation development - first pic has some contact info in case you want to express something other than glee at Lennar Corp. running off with profits they make in our city. (Remember how City Councilmembers and City Manager urged residents to "shop local" over holidays? They did not mention that City-encouraged corporations given the go-ahead to set up shop in out city will pull out any and all profits they make in our city and leave us just the city's portion of the sales tax - that amounts to less than one percent (1%) of our "spend".)



Orient yourself: standing with your back to Clement Street looking towards downtown Oakland with Del Monte building on left. (former) Chipman to the right.