I wonder if this is how the magic works. The traffic demons do a search on one of the internet map services and find a particular road with a lack of traffic and add more.
Apparently, that’s what is happening on North Atherton Street. The demons found heavy traffic at what we all call the south end, which really is the west end... but little on the north, at least between Wal-Mart and Home Depot and Lowes.
Ahah! they said. Let’s get some stuff built up and give North Atherton the same traffic jams you get around the college and over to Boalsburg.
We now have a Trader Joe, an Ulta, a Pier One and soon will be getting a Men’s Wearhouse, a
Gap and and Old Navy.
Wearhouse will be a stone’s throw from Joseph A. Bank. But close competitors in that part of town are nothing new.
Wegman’s, Wal-mart, Giant and Weis are within a stone’s throw of one another. And three different Asian groceries are clustered in the neighborhood, too.
Meantime, they’ve thrown a bunch of residents out of a mobile home park which will be developed for retail and housing... sometime this millennium. And there’s the old A&P site, just waiting for a buyer that suits the apparently difficult to please seller.
We have four dozen banks, nine dozen hamburger or chicken joints, a beautifully fancy jewelry store. But there’s only one Starbucks. That’s right, only one… and there’s no KFC. There are two Mexican restaurants, four pizza joints, four Asian restaurants and two sit-down no-alcohol eateries all within a mile or so of each other.
Well, we’re all for expanded commerce. But we’re also for 20th Century traffic management. Note 20th century. We’d settle for late 19th, minus the horses.
Oh, and any time the humidity is over 80% North Atherton floods. Don’t even need rain.
I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. (R)
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