Random Thoughts

May 1, 2002

There‘s an old saying that when you “cross the Rubicon,“ you‘ve reached the point of no return.
The saying refers to an action taken by Julius Caesar in 49 B.C. Caesar had conquered Gaul (today‘s France) and he was leading his army back to Rome. The Roman senate feared that he‘d grown too powerful, however, and ordered his army to turn back at the Rubicon River in northern Italy. Caesar took the dare and crossed the Rubicon to become master of Rome.
We‘ve reached our own Rubicon in Northern Michigan with such projects as the proposed Hartman-Hammond Bridge, discussed at length in this issue. Will we cross that river? Will the proposed $22 million bridge take Traverse City to the point of no return with urban sprawl?
If you read Jane Louise Boursaw‘s interview with Road Commission Manager Mike Dillenbeck, you‘ll find encouraging comments about protecting wetlands and wildlife, and controlling sprawl near the bridge by purchasing the adjacent land.
Still, you have to wonder.
Across Northern Michigan, every town is facing its own Rubicon these days. We‘re busy creating our own versions of Sterling Heights, Kentwood and other downstate sprawl zones which have zero charm, but plenty of traffic, chain stores, parking lots and crime.
There‘s something new each week:
• Gaylord, a town which is apparently governed by strip mall developers, has approved a new 450,000-square-foot shopping center, including a Wal-Mart Super Center. This on top of a new 109,000-square-foot shopping center on 28 acres and the 800,000-square-foot True North Crossing development. The March issue of the “Northwest Michigan Business News“ headlined the events with the statement that “Developers get through approval process without a scratch.“
Hello?
• After drawing a “line in the sand“ on sprawl last year, Bear Creek Township reversed itself and torched its master plan with approval of a 90-acre big box store development. Last week, the developer stated that Petoskey would benefit by having “more retail“ at the site. No doubt through the creation of a strangled, lackluster downtown on par with such sprawlvilles as Gaylord and Cadillac.
Happily, there are some bright spots out there. Benzie County has become the Cinderella story of Northern Michigan with new developments which seem respectful of nature and the landscape, rather than the hellbound course of wreck and ruin found elsewhere. The redevelopment of Building 50 in Traverse City and a “new urbanist“ housing development in Empire offer some forward-looking solutions to sprawl.
Back in TC, the ugly truth is that urban sprawl is going to occur in the Boardman River Valley whether there‘s a bridge or not.
But as noted by author and new urbanist James Kunstler, sprawl creates “the geography of nowhere.“ It creates places which don‘t feel like home; places which no one can love; “nowhere“ places in which crime thrives because no one cares; places like Colombine, Colorado, where alienated kids have no sense of community because they‘ve never experienced anything but strip malls, traffic and parking lots. That‘s the river we‘re crossing here, the Rubicon of sprawl.

Last Rites
You have to wonder what the Pope and his cardinals have been smoking by refusing to adopt a zero tolerance policy on sex abuse.
The new rules: If a priest is “notorious and is guilty of the serial, predatory sexual abuse of minors,” he’s outta’ there, but if he’s simply “not notorious,” then the local bishop can decide if he’s okay to stay in the Church.
This is like saying that adults may get a free pass on molesting teenagers as long as they don’t overdue it. Can you imagine any court in the land buying this notion if you seduced a teenager?
Regular folks aren’t simply defrocked for such behavior; they earn a jail cell.
Molesting a child is a sex crime. Period. And even 17-year-olds are children in terms of sexual innocence. Can you imagine any other organization in the world which would be tolerated for even one second for sheltering someone who has sexually abused a teenager, much less a child?

The INS
Hmmm... the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) has been scuttled and our national parks are on the ropes... Could it be because funding has been slashed to the bone through the years, making it impossible for them to operate in the first place? Republicans reportedly even denied the INS enough funds to purchase computers. Pretty hard to keep tabs on terrorists under those circumstances.