Mytown is in a semi-arid desert area situated on a river valley, with lots of hills. The only thing the downtown core has going for it is the park along the river, which the city "fathers" grabbed a huge hunk of a few years ago to build a glorified hockey rink that also serves as the venue for big groups that come to town (they cover up the ice with plywood). They originally named it "Riverside Coliseum" because it's a coliseum by the river. But a few years later, when it wasn't paying for itself, they solicited corporate funds and named it after a big donor. The one-acre sized parking lot is between the coliseum and the river. So anyway, that was a few years ago.

Now the latest plans - finalized last month by the city politicians without permission or consultation from the public - is to dig up this parking lot and build a Motel-cum-Convention Centre between the Coliseum and the river. No alarm bells are being rung by anyone regarding the fact that the land is on 200-year flood plain, which means every 200 years it floods. Nor is any ruckus made about the fact that the foundations for this 11 or 13-storey "fancy motel" are 270 steel pillars that will have to be pounded a hundred feet into the river bed. The pounding will take months. I could go on with the rest of the gory details but you probably get the picture - and the sound. ~ Jackie Jura

Note: Not long before the plans to build a motel by the river were announced to the public, a delegation of government officials and businessmen from Communist China were given a tour of the Coliseum. I wonder if they eye-balled the parking lot at that time and if they, or other businessmen from Communist China, are who is behind the company "Pacific Hospitality Inc" which is the one to whom the park-land was sold.

Note 2: To replace the parking lot that will be lost so that a Motel can be built on it, the city politicians have purchased an empty lot across the street from the Coliseum which they will turn into a parking lot. They paid MORE for this future parking lot than they sold the existing river-side one for.

DIRT ROADS

Reader says my story about a motel being built by the river reminds him of the song BIG YELLOW TAXI

IT'S HEDGE GRABBING, THOMAS and ODE TO FRUITLOOPS and VISITORS FROM CHANGPING and 15.Life in Oceania