A Few Road Trip Thoughts, If You Don't Mind

Another vacation is about to be gone, but not before, it brought great memories to my life span. Besides tasting the mostly good and the sometimes average food, I've seen some colorful scenes, slept many a wink, envisioned a few visions, and even came across --- are you ready for this? --- a live snake.

I was back in Lubbock, Texas, once more, and I have spent nearly a week here. It was great just to get away from a great big city and return to a smaller city. While not a big tourist haven, Lubbock has the good things in life. All I wanted was to leave the daily grind, and for my first real vacation in nine months, I had decided the Hub City in West Texas was the place I needed to be. Yes, I could have gone to Carlsbad or Destin or Kansas City or the Rocky Mountains. Believe me, one day, I wouldn't mind seeing those places and covering them here on the blog pages. So, stay tuned. You never know.

Anyhow, you've read in Case's Column previously about my Lubbock musings. The city has a lot of work it needs to do. Roads, buildings, development, economy, vision. Lots of work. Right now, they have a freeway still under construction near downtown in which that particular phase should be completed by 2012. Sadly, it won't include direct-connect ramps, but they'll just have mainlanes with feeder roads which will intersect (in case you're wondering, it's the Marsha Sharp Freeway as it connects with Interstate 27). Other road work includes Loop 289 as bridges and mainlanes are rebuilt between Frankford Avenue and Quaker. This is being done to accommodate a new interchange with North Slide Road. If they had only done that with Erskine Street, but maybe they'll think about it in a future project. Positive things are continuing to happen at Overton Park. New apartments and townhomes are going up. Progress is being made in the south and west sides. Quaker, Milwaukee, 98th, Slide, Erskine, and other thoroughfares are being improved each day. I was astonished to see new houses built south of FM 1585 (way down south). That's a good sign of things to come. Some things, however, still need more than just touching up.

The east side of the city is still ugly, no two ways about it. Still many boarded-up buildings, few gas stations, and even fewer restaurants. Small side roads in residential areas are still not paved. This is why West Texas is remembered for red dirt roads. But inside the city?? Streets that could be major thoroughfares are not widened or extended. And there still sits a big swath of land on both sides of Idalou Road between MLK and Broadway that is just begging for any kind of development. Neighborhoods have many gaps between houses. Face it, sports fans, something must be done here. There's enough blight in more than enough places, but none more than on the long-neglected east side of Lubbock, Texas.

I've driven around downtown and this may be the only big-city central business district with so many telephone poles. I mean, they're everywhere, clustered together like giant Tinkertoys. The plan right now, from what I've read and heard, is for city leaders to, once and for all, bury the telephone wires under the ground. I sure hope so. It'd look a tad better. What I'd like to see happen are major changes with the complexion of downtown south of, say, 14th Street on down to 19th. Don't get me wrong, folks, as there are buildings all over the CBD that need tearing down so something much nicer can go in. They could use traffic signals and a conversion to one-way of a few streets. And a little streetscaping would be nice, with new signage. And how about some low and high rise buildings, if you please? The NTS Building on Broadway has no business being a focal-point icon for any city. It should be supplementary. Have you seen its north-south perspective? It looks like a giant pillar! I'm not against preservation if a building is good enough to still be used, but otherwise, it's an appointment with a bulldozer. ......... Today.

And I've mentioned the Marsha Sharp Freeway. It is a niiiiiiiice drive. Take it sometime when you can, folks. It's great. But it would be even better if city leaders could get a few people to come out and mow every now and then. I'm serious. Lubbock has a giant weed problem. Lots of tall weeds and high grass in an alarming number of places, not just along the MSF, but other spots, as well (along side streets and whole tracts of land). Heck, said weeds could have their own zip codes. And the city officials? They don't have to hire anyone to cut grass and weeds. Churches do projects all the time, so why not groups of people from those places doing special projects with the city's blessing? And at no charge to the city? Sounds like a great idea. Now, next to the freeways, well, they can leave those places up to the city workers, but away from the freeways, the church volunteers can step in.

Okay, I've harped more than enough about the negatives. To let you know, my trip has been plenty enjoyable and I've had a wonderful time. Lubbock is still a fabulous city with tons of potential to be something beyond what it is today. I intend to be back one of these days, but I'm not sure exactly when. With four weeks of vacation to take next year, there might come that opportunity again. I can't rule out an occasional weekend trip, but with Lubbock, I'd like to stay more than just two days.

Oh, by the way, that live snake I alluded to in the first paragraph? That was at the Lubbock Lake Landmark. It was writhing next to a rock near the parking lot, but from what I was told, it had meandered out of its supposed habitat. Don't worry; it wasn't poisonous and everything is fine. The problem had been addressed.