More houses in our neighborhood

I'll start this post off with a disclaimer. I am not one of those NIMBY people and I'm not totally against cutting down trees (I have cut down my fair share already). I don't want this post taken out of context and if I see that it is, I will be rather upset with the out-of-context-taker.

The sub-division in which I live, has one last set of houses to be built. In the last few weeks, they have started to clear the woods to build the final release of houses. They have been subtle, not sneaky or underhanded, but they have left a border of trees and you can hear them working in there. Chain saws and trees falling, construction equipment rumbling. You can't see them unless you explicitly look, but they are there.

On one hand, I can understand why this is happening - living in the suburbs where there is still "developable" land, it is inevitable. My neighbor John says that he doesn't have enough money to buy up the land and just sit on it, and probably neither does the owner. It was part of the long term plan for this neighborhood, so we knew it was coming.

But at the same time, there is a feeling of sadness that accompanies it. There were bears supposedly that lived in that section of land. In places where you could once see nothing but trees, you can now see the sky. I have this feeling that the view of the sky will be replaced with views of houses.

On a related topic, there is also a new cellular tower. It was built right off the sidewalk on the other side of the street. It seems out of place and I can see the top of it from my home office. On the good side, hopefully it was put there by my carrier and I'll get an improvement in coverage and signal strength.

I think what I hear in the background is progress, the inevitable, unstoppable change which accompanies progress. I'm not totally sure how I feel about that at this point, but I know it is coming.


There are some more photos in my Flickr account.