The purpose of this charming decision is a holiday event for shoppers. It starts on Friday afternoon at 4:00 and ends with fireworks around 8:00. Meanwhile, people are trying like hell to get home from school and work, but the streets are shut off. My daughter and another friend both live on a street that gets shut down every time something happens in town. They are both in the medical profession, so getting out of their homes in an emergency is key.
Except, of course, when there's a 5k, holiday shopping, street fairs, town celebrations, seasonal celebrations... In other words, pretty much all the time. Not to say that these things aren't fun, but this one, this holiday shopping event -- is it really the brightest idea to do this on a commuter afternoon? Probably not so much.
I need to get to the bank, so I circle away from my own neighborhood, wait in a line of traffic that is only about 20% as horrifying as the one between my house and the bank (the other direction from which I am currently heading to avoid the jam), make it into my driveway, then walk to the bank, instead. As I am walking, I pass vehicles that have been in line since I drove past them going the other way to make a huge two-mile out-of-my-way arc. Finally, I make it to the back door of the bank, safe and sound.
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| (I found an out-of-focus picture to go with the out-of-focus event.) |
Nothing. No lights, no music. Nothing. Oh, the streets are all shut off by huge dump trucks, and there are people milling around on the sidewalks, but, other than store lights on inside display windows, this looks like any other normal Friday afternoon at 5:30.
This is bullshit.
If you're going to block traffic and inconvenience hundreds of commuters, you damn well had better show something for our trouble, and you damn well better entertain the masses with your so-called holiday cheer, especially if you expect me to open my wallet..
Don't feed me the line about this act showing up later or that act getting set up. If you block the streets for 4 p.m., then by 5:30, you sure as shit should have something "happening" at your Holiday Happenings. I am not shopping or milling around if nothing is doing.
So, fresh with a couple of hundred dollars in cash in my pocket, I head back home, crossing in front of the same damn cars that were stuck in the same damn place on the same damn road when I passed by five minutes earlier. I do not spend one single dime uptown at the "event," nor am I remotely convinced that anything is happening other than perhaps a gas leak on Main Street requiring all the town trucks and a few police saw-horses.
Perhaps the town is so busy paying the workers and the police overtime that they didn't have any money left for decorations. I guess that means the 7:45 p.m. fireworks will be a few firecrackers and a couple of road flares. Oh well. I suppose I could go to the mall. At least Santa, the decorations, and some holiday music will be there.
