The There Goes The Neighborhood Edition 5/16/05

[ericcoleman]

Ok, I don't have links, but these two have been much in the news around these parts lately. I suppose these are the same sort of folks who say "but the volcano USED to be so pretty".

Take Your Freight Train Away From Here.
They're building apartment buildings in downtown Des Moines. They're rehabbing old warehouse space into living space. This all in the old warehouse district. Now what is the most common thing that you would find in old warehouse districts? Yeah, train tracks. The trains that go through Des Moines on a daily basis still travel on the same tracks, the only tracks, that go through Des Moines. It's not like it was a secret they were there. It's not like the buildings got built and then they snuck in the tracks one night. No, everyone knew. So what do they do now? They complain about the noise. Yeah, ... TRAINS ARE LOUD !!!SURPRISE !!!. So this nomination goes to the folks who moved into these apartments, and then demanded that the trains be quiet.

I'm So Touched By Your Presence, Deer.
On the same track, as it were. There are all these new housing developments north of Des Moines. They're cutting great big holes in the middle of lovely forested areas and building these little neo-gated communities. In the meantime they are trying to force out all the previous occupants of the area. Except they don't want to move. So the new occupants wonder why, why, why, since they now live right in the middle of these lovely wooded areas, why do they have deer in their backyard? I dunno, baffles me too. Could it be that you moved into their neighborhood. Now admittedly no one wants a rutting deer in their backyard (well, almost no one), but what did you expect? A bunch of deer with U-Hauls driving away saying "screw it, we're outta here".