Saturday, May 5, 2007

* How Long Will They Last?

Before


You've seen the neglected DevCorp North, street tax funded planters like this for years. Ugly, unattractive, flat out laziness by DevCorp North. This one is on Lunt, by the Morse Avenue EL. People hear me bitch and always said I should do something about it. Well, today I did. If I wasn't going to plant a tree, I might as well remove some garbage and plant some flowers.
After


Two hours later. A little under 60 bucks. New soil, new plants, and a new look. Got my hands dirty for sure, but so what.

And I know, I'm not the best horticulturist. But I tried. I didn't see anyone else who signs on my blog bitching at me help out. Not a soul.
Bonus


I even had enough flowers left over to do the fucked up looking planters on the west side of the Morse Avenue EL. Again, don't look for any planting awards, but it sure looks better than the beautification DevCorp North touts and cleans the tax payers pockets, claiming they do.

So, in all, four planters got a new look, and it didn't cost the tax payers a single dime. It didn't cost Joe's campaign contributing buddies a dime either. Although I wish it had.

As for 'Clean and Green' - Someone from DevCorp North DID drive around the block a half dozen times in a big, gas guzzling pick-up truck. Just wasting gas, driving around watching me plant flowers. Now we know how they're spending the SSA, tax payer money. Have you seen the gas prices? To keep enough gas in that big tank - for some lazy mope to just cruise around the block, must cost a lot these days.

5 comments:

mcl said...

Good work, Craig! Unfortunately, the title of your post says it all,"How Long Will They Last". My guess is, based on the lack of any consistant DevCorp upkeep and maintenance and the general conditions on Morse and Lunt they will be trashed right away.
Hell, DevCorp can't even keep the light fixtures around the el, in place and working. To bad but that's the reality!

Jocelyn said...

You're a brave guy Craig to leave those defenseless plants over there. Are you planning to maintain them also?

I saw you put a comment asking if I would help water. I could probably kick in, but in the heat of summer these plants may need to be watered every day. Is there a water source that would be accessible in the station? Do you know?

I admire your committment and sorry we didn't come today. I kind of wish I had just to show I care.

ra said...

Oh lah de dah. Should we start the death watch now? Can we get daily updates on the struggles of these poor and defenseless plants? Will you at least put a plant cam on them? Are we going to get a rail against the establishment as the poor buds kick off one by one? Ego baby. Ego.

The North Coast said...

If there's anything all these "city mopes" ought to be limited on, it's car use.

First, they should be driving extremely economical gas-sipper, type vehicles.

Then, they should drive them only when it's truly necessary and only on city business.

All city officials need to have to account for their expenses in great detail. I have a feeling they could do their jobs perfectly well with a quarter the expenses.

Listig said...

You're fighting the good fight, but I've given up. Last year I was the spearhead of the Berger Park garden buddies, but between street folk stomping on our plantings, and CPD employees pulling them up, insulting me, etc., ... just not worth the bile production. Helped my neighbors with the planters around our bld @ Granville & Winthrop last year too, but ... after seeing so many winos urinate on them, finding bags of feces strewn around... *sigh* if I want to play with plants, I'll just have to get a terrarium. (In a past life, my family had a huge garden, and I completely relandscaped our yard in StL, etc.)

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