This is the 2nd or 3rd year in a row that Romeo has canceled school the day after the Super Bowl. It would be irresponsible of the school district to schedule classes the day after the Super Bowl in 2008. I don’t know what they should call it, but it’s clear that the administration, students, and everyone else anticipated that just about any weather phenomenon would lead to schools being canceled.
Legitimate
That said, it’s currently -4 F at our house. (Not inside) That’s just about as cold as it gets around here. I don’t want to be that old man who says, "When I was a kid I walked to school in snow waist deep, uphill, both ways, with no shoes on." Nah, but they didn’t cancel school in South Bend very often. (They are today) And if we did have school when it was this cold I didn’t have to walk to school because someone would give us a ride.
Dirt road excuse
One thing I heard some murmuring about at church yesterday is "the dirt
roads are in bad shape." I would empathize with that if there were a
three conditions. People didn’t intentionally buy property on a dirt
road. People wanted their dirt roads paved. People living on dirt roads
were poor and couldn’t afford an assessment.
This is going to sound rude, but it’s just my observation as a
foreigner to suburban Detroit. The dirt road thing is all about vanity.
People intentionally buy property on dirt roads "because it decreases
traffic"so they have no room to complain or to slow commerce. Over all,
people on dirt roads don’t want their roads paved because they think it
will increase traffic. (Which is silly since if all roads were paved
there would be a net balance of traffic) People intentionally living
rurally in our area could stomach an assessment. In fact, I’m 100%
positive it would increase their property value.
As an outsider, the dirt road thing just contributes to the feeling
that Detroit is backwards. Newcomers like me just shake their heads at
this "vanity dirt road" thing. I simply fail to see how public safety
(road impassable for emergency vehicles, damage and accidents to cars)
and destruction of commerce (Closing businesses, schools, and people
calling out "snowed in") can possibly be trumped by a false feeling of
living rurally. If there were just farms on those roads I would buy
more likely to buy that. But the fact that there are $500,000 homes,
subdivisions, and golf courses makes that clearly "suburban" and not
rural.
If something effects commerce and public safety, why is this left to
voters to decide? I think they should just pave every road in the
county and allow people to pay their assessments over a 10 year period.
OK, I feel better. Whined about my least favorite thing about our area!
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