Uneasy Rhetoric

My old boss has a favorite quote – when you point a finger at someone, three are pointed back at you. Every time I read an article about how a neighborhood is up in arms about how a new development will bring lots of traffic (think the Mercy Hospital expansion, for example), I can’t help but think of this quote.

Note to neighbors: when it comes to traffic and parking, you are part of the problem!

An article in today’s Bee reminded me of this fact. According to the article, the land sandwiched in between Capital City Freeway (Business-80) and the railroad levee is finally going to be developed. Apparently, there was a development on the table a long, long time ago, but the neighbors threw a major hissy fit about traffic and it was tabled.

Not that the proposed development should have been built. According to the article, it would have included a bunch of high-rises, a hotel, and apartments. I’m a big fan of higher density, but, given this parcel’s distance from downtown and the fact that it would be connected to East Sac and would have virtually no real public transit options, I think maybe that particular density proposal was a bit much.

The new proposal, which not only has momentum but was designed with community input, sounds like it will be primarily single family homes and apartments. Hopefully smaller homes on smaller lots like fairly significant parts of East Sac, and hopefully a fair number of apartments.

Of course, NIMBY being what it is, the neighbors will probably fight over where the “punch-throughs” for the new roads will be and the goats (or are they sheep, I can’t remember) grazing on that land now will contentedly be able to do so for years to come.