Is my memory already failing me, or were the streets of the Crescenta Valley much wider 30 or so years ago? Then again, maybe it’s all of the vehicles lining both sides of most of the streets in these fair foothills. I mean, drive through any neighborhood either above or below Foothill Blvd. today and you’ll find very few linear feet of curb space that isn’t occupied by cars, trucks, dumpsters, trash cans and an odd assortment of other wheeled vehicles or objects.
It’s gotten so that many local streets are in danger of becoming impassible (impossible?) at certain times of the day. As evidence, your Honor, the people introduce Exhibit A: Orange Avenue between Pennsylvania and Ramsdell. I challenge anyone driving anything wider than a Razor scooter to maneuver that particular section of Orange Ave. on a school morning or any late afternoon without feeling like they’re a contestant on an episode of American Gladiator on Wheels.
Long gone is the time when a car going west and one going east could pass each other without slowing down dramatically, or worse, pulling over into a gap between parked cars to let an oncoming driver squeeze by. I’ve even seen drivers heading opposite directions on Orange approach each other, stop, roll down the drivers window to fold in their side mirrors. They then proceed cautiously ahead. This delicate dance reminds me of our family’s often harrowing off-road adventures on steep, bolder-strewn terrain where the rules of the rocky road dictate that the 4X4 going uphill has the right of way in any tight spot. The driver going downhill must back up until finding a wide enough spot in the trail to let the uphill driver pass by. I fear we’re getting close to needing this sort of motoring etiquette on our own residential streets.
I could be hallucinating from breathing too many exhaust fumes while waiting in local traffic, but it seems as though nearly every address on that long, very heavily trafficked block is home to at least five or more vehicles – all parked on the street. Doesn’t anybody use their own garage or even their driveway any more? I can remember the ballet of Buicks we’d do at my humble childhood home whenever one of my brothers or parents wanted to run an errand. Our driveway looked like a railroad switching yard as first one car and then another was backed out and into a temporary spot on the street. Finally, when the car to be driven was moved out, the others cars were moved back into position in the garage and driveway, leaving the streetside curb open for guests, neighbors, etc. Somehow, even with a few cars and a couple of motorcycles in our family of six, we managed to park all of them on our property, not in the street.
That certainly has changed. Increasingly, residential garages today are merely mini-storage facilities in which to keep all that have-to-have stuff we’ve all bought with our two-income families (most of it almost never used, but that’s a topic for another column). Another contributing factor is certainly all the kids who already have their own cars at the ripe-old age of sixteen. When they were in high school, there wasn’t a week that one of my kids didn’t come home with a tragic tale of yet another friend whose parents care so much about their happiness and well-being (unlike yours truly, of course) that said Wonder Parent went out and bought their oh-so-deserving child a brand new car as soon as they were licensed.
Or worse. The other day while grocery shopping, for instance, I spoke briefly with an acquaintance who casually mentioned that he had just bought his daughter a brand new, showroom shiny, bright red Mustang. “Wow,” I said. “I had no idea she was already driving age!” He gave me a puzzled look and said, “Oh, she’s not. But she’ll be driving in the next year or two and her mom and I wanted to be sure she had a new car of her own car when it’s time.”
Well of course. Silly me. Because what this town really needs is another car on the road – parked, driving or otherwise. I tell ya, it’s driving me crazy.
[NOTE: A version of this column was originally published in the April 10, 2008 edition of the former Crescenta Valley Sun newspaper, an LA Times-owned publication.]
This version © 2011 WordChaser, Inc.
No comments:
Post a Comment