16- Curious Timing... and a New Challenge!!

I posted the first entry of this blog on Saturday, October 24th. On the afternoon of Sunday, October 25th, Jeff Moran rang the bell. He was campaigning. He did not know me. I told him about this blog, which I said would be going live during the next few days. I also told him that I had already voted absentee, since I would be away the entire week of the election, Nov. 2-6.

After YEARS of inaction, with the playhouse itself in more dire financial health, on the morning of Nov. 2, moments after I departed on a business trip, the bushes in front of the playhouse came down. Coincidence? Maybe, maybe not. I'd like to think so.

When I returned, I saw the bare berm and the no parking signs, which were placed such that cars could now legally park to block the sight line along Route 212. I wrote about that in my blog. Nothing happened. Then, on Thursday evening, I appeared on Cathy Mararelli's TV show, and within HOURS, the no parking signs were moved to prohibit parking along the north side of Route 212, east of Playhouse lane. Coincidence? Maybe, but this time, I really don't think so.

(see next blog post, #17, to see how the powers that be, whoever they are, moved the signs, and we'll discuss why it took them two attempts to get it right. )

So, let me ask the town supervisor's office, and the planning board, and the Department of Transportation and Ulster County, and RUPCO: why is it that the RUPCO study reports a speed limit of 30 MPH at the intersection of Playhouse Lane and Route 212 when any person over the age of about 4 could figure out, by reading the ENORMOUS digits on the speed limit sign, that the speed limit is 35 MPH? (see photos below) But that's not the challenge. The challenge here, Saturday December 12, 2009, is this: how long will it take for this discrepancy to be addressed, explained away, justified, or quietly changed? Let's all pay attention and see how much of a coincidence the timing is this time around.

This photo shows the speed limit increasing (from 30 MPH) to 35 MPH west of (before) Playhouse Lane.

This photo is taken from the parking lot at Violette, which is just to the west of Playhouse Lane. As you can see, the speed limit DEcreases (from 35 MPH) to 30 MPH after the bridge to the west of Playhouse Lane.

For dramatic effect, here is a photograph of the actual Draft Environmental Impact Study, which tells us that the speed limit increases from 30 to 35 MPH to the east of Route 375. This is false, as I indicated with lavender magic marker on my paper copy.