I AM NOT IN A very good mood to be honest. After the hacker made it
impossible to access my other blogs, I wonder what is the point of sharing whatever cross my mind, usefull/less for the reader for myself and mental sanity.
But the show goes on...For the last two days I have been walking again
down these mean, ugly, cracked, uneven, too narrow, with architectural barriers, water leaks of used or drinkable, garbage and something never mentioned before: water meters without lids, stolen or broken some are perhaps eight inches long others eighteen. If you are not careful you could pass away in a fall if a senior or brake your neck if younger.
However, much more scary is to cross avenues or streets with traffic lights since puercoricans may pass the red light without much remorse
or stop at the green to answer their mobile phones. At any rate, it is a pain in the ass to walk down the sidewalks of this piece of shit island.
This empirical, and above all objective statements may explain why our backyard 'environmentalists' defending the salty, fresh and in between water streams, garbage collectors in water/terrain, mad tree planters/huggers, agro chicks, ecological markets, edible gardeners,
never approach the issue of NATURE in the URBAN CONTEXT,
since all these zealots are afraid of WALKING.
My walking habits are old and I will mention some historical landmark walks done in the past with my other half. In that
marvelous WALKING real, reachable place for walkers, New York:
From 186 St/Broadway on the West Side, our former residence in Manhattan, to 59 St. Columbus Circle, a beautiful memorable walk, for ever young.
In Puercorico, USA, from Miramar to the University of Puerto Rico and last but not least from the predominantly black town of Loiza in the north, to Pinhones, Carolina City. These strolls took place decades ago when the isle had not reached the 2,000,000 vehicles mark. Imagine it! 100 miles concrete/asphalt long isle and 35 wide, with over 4,000,000 inhabitants of which over five percent are illegal ultraislanders from nearby territories.
Getting close to the end...On top of those observations please add
the concrete/asphalt heat, the damn dust from Africa or nearby volcanoes, the sofocating
humidity, more adequate for Virginia or any state in that region, the noise, mutilated trees left and right, too many people in parks, roads, highways built without any thought or maintenance. This is hell, live,
from Puercorico with love?
Which reminds me, in the sixties, the intolerant fools to real/not imagined criticism created a bumper sticker: Puerto Rico love it or leave it! To those
in that school I respond: Screw you, reality bites. Time to go..
I've had my share of walking these last few weeks. I keep thinking on the banking system that won't give me a loan unless I pay an exorbitant interest rate or declare bancruptcy. My car is still pending to go to Shop because of this so I was forced to rent a car to run some errands this week (a resented leg made me limp a bit and forced me to reconsider my decision of not renting) but is return time afterwards.
ReplyDeleteWhen I think on the issues with traffic, the awful state of the AMA Bus System (now they will fracture M1 into 2 sectors by Sagrado Corazon), walking within the ghost town of Bayamon and the awful traffic of Roosevelt avenue makes me wonder why I even bother to walk. I guess this crash course in reality is what makes the environmentalists stick to the green and forget the urban context.
I'll keep being an idealist, and hope all is for the better. Even if it is not true, it will spare me the ulcers...
All these arguments are unquestionable, but why can't
ReplyDeletewe improve the concrete/asphalt reality with maintenance, planting the correct vegetation?
Well you know what, I should stop dreaming. It will not happen, except in OUR residence...