“If you have my gun, can I have it back?”

I made good use of the pleasant fall weather this afternoon and worked on clearing  my front garden and getting it ready for winter.    As I was piling leaves and stems into my wheelbarrow, a guy walked up my driveway.  He told me how his friend had tossed something in my yard because he thought he’d be stopped by the police.  They’d come by my house earlier and knocked on my door as well as my neighbor’s looking to find what the friend had tossed.  But I guess they couldn’t find it.

I told him I’d been clearing the garden and hadn’t come across anything.  What was this “something” that had been tossed in my yard?  It turns out it was a gun.

I suggested maybe the police saw the friend ditch it and they have it?  No, it seems the gun was ditched before the police got to the friend.

All I could say was that I’d cleared my garden and hadn’t come across anything.  Of course, I hadn’t gone around my barberry bushes.  I said he could look around them if he wanted, but there were thorns, so he should be careful.

He walked away.  This happened a few hours ago, and I’m wondering if there really was a friend.  Did the guy think because he couldnt find the gun that maybe I had it?  If so, did he expect me to pull the gun out of my pocket and just hand it over to him.  Sure, let me hand over this loaded gun to you, Mr. Complete Stranger.

Dreams: Missed Keys and Chases

I dreamed about an ostracized woman involved in a small town scandal.  She wants to return to her church and play the organ again.  But this stern woman in charge of the church tells her that she’ll have to prove she’s truly sincere by playing a particular song.  It’s sort of test.  Only someone who is sorry for what they’ve done can play this song without making a mistake.

The woman plays, but she misses the keys.  But here’s the thing: the woman isn’t trying to play the song the other woman told her to, but one she thinks is appropriate.  This is all about the woman wanting to be heard and understood for who she really is.

Then the dream changes and it’s like I’m watching a cat-and-mouse thriller involving high tech gadgets and chases through hallways and stairways in order to capture a criminal mastermind.

The River Flows South (Just Like Downtown Progress)

Got up this chilly morning and went downtown for the Greater Dayton Downtown Area Plan Update.

I believe in downtown. I believe the city and region need a dynamic center if the Miami Valley is going to succeed and prosper again.

But, seriously, wake me up a year from now. After the interstate, bridge and other infrastructure projects are completed or near completion.

I’ve attended three townhall meetings and two Urban Nights this year and have seen these same conceptual drawings.

I get it. We’re sitting atop a huge water source; need to attract young professionals; green buildings and sustainability; renovate historic buildings; bike-ability; walkability; and all the other abilities that will make downtown (and I’m getting tired of the over use of this word) vibrant.

All hail the urban playground that will come!!! May its many amenities be sufficiently pleasing for members of the beloved creative class to migrate here and deliver us all unto greater prosperity! Amen.

But you have to build it first. Everyone is anticipating great things, but this seems so premature, like looking at blueprints and already planning the menu for the first house party.

I would’ve been okay with this as a little progress update or a brief detour on my way to Second Street Market if this had focused solely on downtown. But when the attendees broke off into little discussion groups, I listened to a city planner go over a large map with a colored highlights marking areas of renovation and future interest. Fine. But what bothered me was how far south the city planners’ vision extended while highlights west and north of downtown were confined to just along the river.

True, building accessibility between the University of Dayton campus and downtown would be important. Yet all the south end neighborhoods in between were highlighted as well; and the city planner started using a marker to detail additional projects that were all slated for-you guessed it-south of downtown.

And as a north-of-downtown resident I felt excluded…again. For years I’ve been hearing about plans for improving downtown and the surrounding areas, but the greater percentage of them all seem concentrated south of 3rd Street. I would’ve felt better if the map included highlights of all the park land and bike paths stretching north along the river and all the way up to Triangle Park.

After all, green spaces are supposed to be an important part of the downtown vision and it does run along the river. Also, considering all the infrastructure projects west and north of downtown targeting improved traffic flow, I was looking for an indication what positive impact this might have on major streets such as Salem Avenue, North Main Street and Riverside Drive; and how far north might it spread.

So I voiced my lack of enthusiasm. Then I went back and forth with the city planner who kept insisting there were plans for northside neighborhoods like Five Oaks and Santa Clara on another map. And then he tried throwing the argument back on me by asking what have I done to improve my neighborhood.

I’m already aware that a great percentage of the scheduled vacant property demolition slated in northside neighborhoods hasn’t started yet. Nor do I expect revitalization to spread uniformly in all directions. But after our discussion, my impression is that the city planners haven’t put much thought into North Main Street beyond the interstate project.

Perhaps the northside is seen as a little too ghetto to be included in the yuppified playground of a new downtown and will remain a casualty of a shrinking population until companies locate here and new residents look for cheap real estate.

I had a little better time at the table discussing downtown’s green future and efficiency projects. My suggestion that landscaping from many of these soon-to- be demolished properties be salvaged and reused in the dozens of proposed parks and public gardens gained a favorable response. (Well, except for this one woman who followed me from the other table and didn’t seem pleased with how I had spoken to the city planner.) There are many fully grown boxwood, barberry and other bushes and shrubs that would each cost well over fifty dollars apiece at a garden center. Why let all those healthy plants get crushed and ground up by bulldozers?  The same equipment that tears through brick walls and beams could easily scoop out a large bush or shrub and set it aside for transplanting elsewhere.

But I’m tired of talking. Just build it already. Then we’ll talk.