I'm glad it's the small mountain of dirt that got placed in front of our house. Elsewhere, there's heavy machinery...
There's some noisy ripping up of everything getting started, but I'm thinking of the future. The curbs have been crumbled for the entire 30 years I've lived here. It will be startling to see sharp, intact curbs on this street for the first time.
And, no, that's not my yard sign. I don't do yard signs. I'm a distanced observer of the political scene. Cruelly neutral is my brand.
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$15K per year (IIRC) in property taxes and 30 years of hard winter crumbling curbs. I feel for you.
I bet the bike paths are in great shape though.
We got a special assessment for this work (based on the sidewalks to be replaced). We had to pay $4,000 extra!
Very often in Romantic Comedies things seem to work out pretty well.
But if you click on the player progress bar, only half the film is over.
So you settle in for a dramatic difficulty ex machina.
These are not the great ones.
1905, Louisville and Nashville Railroad, Justice Holmes decided they can special-assess you for road improvements even though you get no benefit.
Are they doing the sewers too? Because if they are you are in for a long hard summer of noise, trucks and crap falling off walls from the vibration.
Curb appeal don't come easy.
It's supposed to be over in the first week of June.
We had to pay $4,000 extra!
So, why are you (we) paying taxes?
I wonder if they charge the same special assessment in all neighborhoods....or is this some kind of reverse red-lining.
Cruelly neutral is my brand.
Hee.
When they re-did our sidewalks, we were charged $1300 -- but they didn't replace many (maybe 3 or 4 of them?). I wouldn't have replaced any, they all seemed fine to me.
I think that was 4 or 5 years ago.
They dinged our front stoop when they did it, and I'm still kinda pissed about that. Took out a nice piece of old concrete. As far as I can tell, it didn't damage the integrity of the rest of the stoop. Not yet.
The worst part was the dust. It gets in the house, because Spring is the best time to have no a/c running. And then you're dealing with that.
The road I'm on was re-done about 4 years before we moved in. I'm hoping it lasts beyond my check-out date.
Meade wrote -
"Curb appeal don't come easy."
You know it don't come easy.
And now a Ringo Starr reference. My goodness, Who's Next.
"It's supposed to be over in the first week of June."
LOL. They did our street last year. They still haven't sent us the bill.
It's funny. Not haha.
I live on a fairly-old block (60 years old)in Southeast Florida, fortunately without sidewalks. If they tried to tried to put in sidewalks my neighbors and I would raise holy hell.
When you get sidewalks here, you necessarily create a swale area that the city owns and people use to park on. It ruins the look of the street for no good reason.
And, no, that's not my yard sign. I don't do yard signs. I'm a distanced observer of the political scene. Cruelly neutral is my brand.
What does the green sign stuck in the dirt pile say? I can't quite read it.
Curbs? What are curbs? I bet you have drains and sidewalks too. None of the above in my corner of South Carolina. Lose a Civil War, marginalize half your population for 100 years and your economy has a long way to go to catch up with the victors. And I'm not kidding. The difference in accumulated and present wealth and in infrastructure between the old southern states and the wealthy northern ones is still palpable.
We have no curbs. We can't even get the streets repaired on a regular basis. So count your blessings.
No assessment would pass here, and local politicians who assessed without a vote would be out at the next election, if not before.
Anyway most of our roads are owned and maintained by the state. When they were built, the city and county literally could not afford to build paved streets.
Ann Althouse said...
We got a special assessment for this work (based on the sidewalks to be replaced). We had to pay $4,000 extra!
My late father called the property assessor the "Sesser." I think that was dialect from his Wisconsin childhood. The "Sesser" was a reviled man who came around to inspect improvements and to levy taxes. He wasn't a faceless bureaucrat like nowadays.
"We had to pay $4,000 extra!"
I don't understand the past tense. You haven't really paid yet, have you?
Leaving the dirt in your yard may have been a big mistake. It just way find its way to the backyard under cover of night.
Chickelit asked..
What does the green sign stuck in the dirt pile say? I can't quite read it.
After enlarging the photo, I believe it says "No Parking At Any Time."
I had hoped it said "Home of Cruel Neutrality" but not so.
When I moved to Massachusetts about a dozen years ago, one of the things I noticed was the curbs: They are made of granite!
They look good but I can only imagine the price.
I can visit the nice ones in our village center, we are too far out in the suburbs to have curbs or sidewalks.
dbp said...
When I moved to Massachusetts about a dozen years ago, one of the things I noticed was the curbs: They are made of granite!
They look good but I can only imagine the price.
Granite is plentiful in the Northeast and labor used to be cheap. You're probably extrapolating from over priced granite countertops.
It will be startling to see sharp, intact curbs on this street for the first time.
"Curb Enthusiasm"
Granite is plentiful out here--the granite state is only 10 miles from where we live. Labor used to be cheap but it is expensive now and new curbs use granite. The pieces are huge too, they have the normal width but are at least two feet deep. There are even curved pieces for where the roads meet.
Because of Stone Mountain, granite curbs were dirt cheap here in Atlanta.
It was the torn sidewalls of the cars teenagers were trying to park that was expensive.
Hmmm. Looks like a political sign mounted on public property. Next, renting out space on the flanks of city vehicles for political advertising.
Bare trees, scattered piles of snow. Early spring is depressing.
April is the cruelist month.
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