Traicy's Corner: Boardwalks, Emails, and the Good Old Days

Oh, my goodness, have you seen all these meetings popping up like dandelions in the spring? The Intercity Transit Authority’s holding a planning retreat next week, and the City Council’s got that boardwalk repair vote coming up—$1.8 million for Percival Landing, can you believe it? I remember when you could just walk right up to that boardwalk and not worry about contractors blocking half the view with tarps and cones. Back when the boardwalk was just a place to sit and watch the boats go by, not a construction site waiting to happen. And don’t get me started on the new email subscriptions for city updates—now they want us to sign up for alerts about construction and public safety? I’m telling you, if they’d just put that energy into keeping the old hardware store on State and 1st open, we wouldn’t need to be signing up for anything. I still remember when you could walk into that store and get a hammer, a nail, and a friendly chat all in one stop. Now it’s all about emails and meetings and people who don’t even know what a hardware store is anymore. And another thing—did you see that Lacey project with all those cottages? 48 homes on 6.8 acres, they’re calling it "pedestrian-focused" but I’ll bet you it’s just another way to squeeze more people into a space that used to have room to breathe. It’s like they’re trying to cram us all into a single shoebox, and I’m not sure who’s supposed to be holding the lid down. Remember when we used to have a whole block of hardware stores? Now it’s just a few fancy coffee shops and a place that sells $10 artisanal pickles. I swear, if I had to hear one more story about a new development that’s "community-focused" but doesn’t actually feel like it’s for the people who’ve lived here for decades, I might just go back to writing letters on paper. And speaking of letters, I still haven’t gotten over how they cut the number of city council meetings in half. I mean, they say it’s for efficiency, but I’ve been living here long enough to know that’s just a fancy way of saying they don’t want to hear from us anymore. That’s all for this week. You know where to find me.