In my phone, the autocorrect software turns Dracup Ave. into Dracula. The first time this was amusing, but I’m beginning to wonder if my phone knows something about the street that the rest of us don’t, as it continues to suck the blood from the city.
I’m not going to blame the city’s administration for all of the problems facing the street as they attempt to reconstruct it. They were correct that reconstruction was necessary, the street’s underlying infrastructure was a mess and the street itself could be an adventure as drivers tried to avoid the encyclopedia of broken pavement that faced them. Fixing the street was, rightly, a priority.
The project is also an example of how everything that could possibly go wrong, has gone wrong. The weather has been wrong at every step of the project, it seemed to rain from the moment the project began. Which delayed it enough that having the wrong gravel accidentally used in building the road pushed the project over winter. Then, when the project was set to restart, it snowed, at the end of April.
One wonders if the more superstitious members of the administration are going to put out tenders for an old priest and a young priest to perform an exorcism.
The city itself has done a few things very well in their effort to rebuild the street. The large, easy to read signs are a benefit for anyone trying to get to the businesses on the street. They have also been better about communication on the status of the street than they have in the past. Then again, this is coming from someone who once didn’t know that there was construction on his street until city crews were preparing to dig up the area behind his car. I do not know if they are perfect in this regard, but I know they have improved, mainly because I also knew what was happening in advance.
It’s difficult to know if this project caused the wholesale replacement of council in the most recent municipal election, but the inherent annoyance of having the street out of commission could not have helped them. It’s also difficult to know just what else is going to go wrong this year, since the project has already had the traditional weather issues before shovels hit the ground.
One hopes that this year will see an end to the array of misfortune that has afflicted the street as they tried to put it back together.
If not, perhaps they should listen to my phone and just rename the entire street to Dracula. After all, it sucks.
