by Radek Aster
I was going through my filesystem and I came across a story I wrote last year, prior to the opening of the HWY 85 extension from South San Jose to Cupertino. For those of you not from the California Bay Area, HWY 85 is probably the last freeway to be built. It's a disgusting monstrosity (aren't all freeways), 3-lanes each way with 15ft. sound walls for most of its length -- a sewer conducting motorized feces.
Yesterday I got a glimpse of what the bay area might look like without the pollution, social alienation, and other problems that come with automobile overuse. I rode my bicycle on the as yet uncomplete HWY85, between Quito Rd. in Campbell and Stevens Creek Blvd. in Cupertino. Not only that, but I got to ride on the left hand side. :-)
I saw families out for a walk, squirrels running across the road bed, children playing with the gravel and bits of concrete. These two boys were the ones who really got my attention. They probably live nearby, in one of the houses "shielded" from the future freeway by 15 ft. high "sound barriers". Today they were playing by themselves, building structures from gravel and discarded concrete. Tommorrow their open space playground will be reduced to another sewer.
The papers are full of stories about children turning to crime because of alienation from their families and society in general, about having nowhere to play, about having no place to explore and sit in silence. What will become of these boys, I wondered, when their temporary playground will become off-limits, when the relative quiet of their neighbourhood is shattered by freeway noise and yet another piece of the outside world will become unsafe and dangerous.
Will the drivers who will come zooming down this road consider, even for a moment, the effects of their convenience ? Will anyone even consider that on a bright day in May, the open world seemed a pretty safe place for two small boys.