“Progress”

I’ve lived in our town for 30 years, and for most of those years there was a 10-acre cow pasture with a historic home right in the middle of town. It was a joy to drive past and see the cows every day. A few years ago we went to the estate sale at the big yellow historic home, it was built on the foundation of a log cabin and the home itself looked like it hadn’t been updated since the 1940s. The kitchen cupboards were original, and the wallpaper peeling off the kitchen walls was definitely 1940s vintage! The lady who lived there used to be out tending her flowers when I would drive by, but finally she got too old to live by herself and had to go to a retirement home. The granddaughter told us that in the 1940s the lady and her husband had divorced, and he got the lower 10 acres while she got the upper. The lower 10 acres is a park.

We knew the family would probably sell the property, but I always hoped that the city would buy the property to add to the park down below. I think if the city had been smart they would have anticipated the eventual sale of the property and would have set some money aside, but then I don’t know how city budgets work. Our town has few remaining historic buildings and spaces, so I thought it would be great to keep the space as it was.

The old home was torn down and the cows relocated, and then the property sat empty for a couple of years. This winter they finally started building apartments on the property. Ugh. The last thing this city needs is more apartments, and I doubt they will be “affordable”. While I don’t begrudge the family their inheritance, I wish they could have gotten it another way.

“Progress”. Hmph. 😒

(They are going to put a cow statue in the roundabout next to the property to commemorate the history of the place. So that will be nice.)

I snapped these photos quickly as I was driving by. It’s a shame to lose all that green space. And the traffic certainly won’t improve!

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