Why Not, Florence?

I went downtown to Coolidge Park today. It is Chattanooga's version of a "Central Park" you might say. It is on the North Shore, which is a trendy strip of restaurants/bars/coffee shops on the, you might have guessed, north side of the river. The park itself is really just a big open space along the river, though there is a carousel and a "splash pad" (an interactive fountain that kids can control). However, on nice weather days like today the place is crawling with people. It is a fun place to go and just watch people, take pictures, or sit down for a while and read a book. There were a lot of people today working on their sun tans, walking their dogs, or tossing around a frisbee or a football. Also a good place to meet people I would imagine.

Now of course, being a lifelong resident of Florence until 2008 I have a certain attachment to the Shoals area. Even though I don't live there I really want to see the area thrive. Under the right circumstances I certainly wouldn't mind to go back one day. But being in Coolidge Park today emphasized to me a point that often seems to be lost on Shoals area leaders.

People in the Shoals complain about having "nothing to do". Meanwhile, the politicians are busy trying to figure out what sort of tourist trap they can put in at Veterans Park. To me, Coolidge Park is the perfect example of something Florence doesn't have that would be so easy to create. As an added bonus it could be done without being a drain on the taxpayers.

Look at McFarland Park for example. It's not exactly deserted, but so much more could be done. When the golf course was closed (a decision I still oppose), acres of land just became wasted. They say it's camping grounds, but when I drive by there I never see it being used. At least part of it should be turned into an open space like in Coolidge, just for people that want to get out and throw a football or lay in the sun. Of course, unlike Coolidge, McFarland doesn't have an area with restaurants and nightlife. Florence is always talking about building an "entertainment district". How about putting it in McFarland Park? Take the money for the supposed "tourist attraction" at Veterans and use it to build some interesting shops/bars/restaurants at McFarland. Yeah, it's in the flood plain, but that just means these buildings could be an architectural challenge. Build them on stilts and put parking underneath. It wouldn't be that cheap, but it could be done.

I realize there are challenges. The Shoals is mostly scared of any kind of change. Bars in particular are almost forbidden, and I can imagine there would be an uproar about putting them in a public park. There are also not as many people in the Shoals, both living there and visiting. Obviously a park full of people requires there be a large number of people that actually want to use it. Perhaps the scale of the project would have to be smaller than Coolidge. The idea would remain the same though.

I just don't see why, if Florence is serious about an entertainment district in East Florence or anywhere else, this sort of idea couldn't work at McFarland. There is already a good number of people coming in and out of Florence Harbor and using the small park on the east side of O'Neal Bridge (which reminds me of something from Chattanooga actually). I think it could work. FWIW, I say McFarland because I really don't think any other park in Florence or the Shoals could work. Veterans doesn't have enough river access in my opinion, and Riverfront Park in Sheffield is... well... in Sheffield.

On a completely unrelated note, it's not big enough for its own blog but I thought I'd share another thing that annoys me. It's people that stop at red lights when they want to make a right turn. Now, I don't mean coming to a stop and then proceeding to turn. I mean the people that stop, have their blinker on so you know they aim to turn, but simply sit there until the light turns green. Even if there is nothing coming in any direction. People, unless their is a sign posted forbidding you, it is still legal to make a right turn on red. I'm not sure why some people do this but it's just downright stupid.

If you want to see some pictures I took at Coolidge today check out my album on Picasa. Otherwise, until next time...

Things That Annoy Me, Volume 1

I would say that overall I'm a pretty happy guy. However, my five years at Wal-Mart provided me with an intense burning hatred of ignorant people. Okay, maybe "hatred" is too strong of a word, I don't know. I do know that I hate the stupid things that some people do. In what is sure to become a recurring feature of my blog, I will take a look at things that annoy me, and the mouth-breathers that are guilty of causing my frustration.

Let's take a look at today, for example. For lunch I decided to have lunch at Moe's (WELCOME TO MOE'S!!!). I'm not usually a big eater at lunch time but was extra hungry today, for some reason. So I stroll into the door (WELCOME TO MOE'S!!!) at 11:00. First person in the place. I order my food (Joey Combo, a chicken burrito with tortilla chips and queso) and go sit down in a booth by the window that's closest to my car. Not that anybody is planning to steal a 2005 Saturn Ion, but it's just a habit. I also normally try to avoid booths if I am alone, simply because I hate it when I'm with a group of three or four people and there are no booths because they are all occupied by just one or two people. But since I was the only person in the restaurant I thought, what the hey.

So as I get settled into the booth the next few customers are already coming through the doors (WELCOME TO MOE'S!!!). I'm just getting started with my burrito when a family of four sits down in the booth directly behind mine. There are probably no less than eight booths on the wall, and I was in the second from the front, but they choose to sit in the one connected to mine. That would have been fine, except when I say family of four, I mean a mother and three young children. Like, less than six years old. Do you think they were well behaved? No. In fact, they were climbing all over the place like a bunch of caged monkeys. One even tried to pull my cap off. Now I like kids, don't get me wrong, but you know what annoys me (other than sitting in a booth adjacent to mine in an empty restaurant)? Parents that don't control their kids. She didn't even try to.

The kids were one thing, but next we have a guy that looks like he's had a few too many burritos, if you know what I mean. Remember, there are at least eight booths along the wall (and another row of booths on the opposite side of the restaurant). There are at least sixteen tables in between. There are, at this time, three "sets" of customers in the restaurant. So where do you think big boy sits? In the booth on the other side of me. Facing my direction. Looking directly at me. Ugh. The kind of situation where every time you look up, you have to see this guy stuffing his face full of burrito, and dripping cheese on his shirt when he tries to eat his chips (no lie). You can't avoid it unless you sit there and chew with your head down or turned to the side. Very annoying, and something that could have been easily avoided if he would have turned his back to me - or, you know, SAT IN ONE OF THE OTHER ROUGHLY THIRTY OPEN TABLES IN THE RESTAURANT!

Oh, and by the way... the burrito did not taste very fresh, the chips were luke warm, and the food is overpriced anyway. I've had better food at Taco Bell. That's the last time I'm going to Moe's for a long time, and I recommend you all avoid it too.

Holder OUT.

The Russians Haven't Given Us Much, But...

You know, when I think about it, I'm not really sure there's a lot the Russians have done to contribute to our way of life. Well, if you are a drinker I guess there's vodka, but I'm not much of a drinker. So I try to think about what the Russians have done for me. Let's see... I guess they were good as a "rival" to push our space and military programs throughout the Cold War. Mikhail Gorbachev's birthmark was um, pretty cool as birthmarks go, I guess. Other than that, what have they given the world? I can think of nothing but burly women with thick eyebrows, words with 17 consonants and maybe one vowel, and commies.

However, I can forgive the Russians for all of their shortcomings for one glorious video game they thrust upon the American public: Tetris. This game, even some twenty years after its initial release, stands up to the test of time. I played this game on a green-screen white brick of an original Game Boy. I played it on Super Nintendo. I played it on TI-86 calculators in high school instead of paying attention. I play it today against insanely awesome Japanese kids on my Nintendo DS and routinely get my butt kicked. But hey, it's all part of the fun. The game is seriously addictive, and if you've never played it (to which I would have to wonder the location of the rock you've been under most of your life), you owe yourself to give it a try. If it's good enough for Peter Gibbons in Office Space, it's good enough for you.

For those wondering, the inspiration for this blog comes from the fact that this past Saturday night (3/14), a gathering with four of my friends turned into a ginormous double-elimination Tetris tournament on their old SNES. You know you have reached the peak of geekdom when you are a single guy that spends a Saturday night playing Tetris until 2:00 in the morning. Oh well. FWIW, I finished third out of five people and have to admit that us three guys were all beaten by the two women we were playing against. I'll try to live with this by telling myself they were secretly training against some of those damn Japanese kids.

Now excuse me while I go get humiliated again by somebody with the screename "ラドクリフ、マラソ".