TouchAmerica: Putting the Arm on our Neighborhood?
I have been listening to a books on tape version of Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance this summer, most recently as I pulled weeds out of my scraggly "flower garden" out front of 1010 E. Gorham. It's a cool way to read or reread books because it allows one to do rather mindless work and still be amused or edified. So I was really hunkered down, ever mindful of traffic as I let it all hang out (or some of it) perilously close to both the usual Gorham Street racetrack and a bus stop, but also concentrating on my work and my book when the Official Telephone
Taggers began marking "their" territory one more time. I watched as the tagger dude worked his way toward me with his spray-paint unicycle brimming with ugly orange. With a sinking heart (not to mention creaking knees) I arose and inquired very politely which utility was being marked this time. As I suspected, it was the phone company. I further inquired why they felt the need to do all this graffitus again, since my section of the street has been painted up like a circus wagon with dits and dashes of orange, blue, red, and yellow for several weeks now. The sprayer didn't know much, but said he thought it was TouchAmerica ("putting the touch on you and your neighborhood!") requesting their services once again.
I prodded, he shuffled. Knowing that the more crowded the "corridors" in our terrace with pre-existent cables and lines and pipes and wires the less likely Touch is to choose our street for their drilling, I JOKINGLY offered to slip him a couple bucks to make lots and lots of colorful dits and dashes in front of my properties so that it came out looking prohibitively crowded and thus a very inappropriate choice. He looked appropriately shocked and I confirmed that I was JOKING!! He went on pushing his paint wagon and I began to muse about what I was hearing from Robert Pirsig in my ear and what I had witnessed at a public meeting (Thursday, July 13) with our city engineer and spokesmen from the TouchAmerica company.
For those who remember, Pirsig's entire pursuit in Zen and the Art is to try to discover the meaning of the abstraction called Quality in daily living. His book is far too complex for me to summarize (or even understand at times) here, but what I think I do understand is that while it may be a totally subjective judgment and thus does not lend itself to an Objective examination, the quality of Quality is still alive and well among us-that we know what it is when we are in its presence.
And Quality of Life is one of Madison's (and our neighborhood's) richest assets. So when some entity -any entity, really-whether it be the proposed Arts District or the done-deal Convention Center proposes to make changes, I think we are wise to examine these Trojan horses, even looking them in the mouth (to carry a metaphor) when they threaten to influence the Quality of our life. And if the entity is a for-profit private enterprise, we had better look even deeper down the throat of the beast.
At that steamy first meeting, I was very proud of ourselves. Tim Olsen and Richard Linster were sort of tag-teaming the running of the thing and each made forceful and yet very civil remarks to the representatives of TouchAmerica. At one point, Richard responded that we had shown ourselves to be intelligent and capable people and did not appreciate the condescending tone of one representative of the company, who apparently believed that we are all still chipping messages on stone here-very content with our quaint lack of technological know-how. The "L-word" (Luddite) even came forth. Richard was quick to point out that we're NOT technophobes or Luddites. He went on to point out that our resistance to their plan to jam their cable down either Sherman or Gorham didn't mean that we have no use for the marvels of modern engineering. TouchAmerica parried with a description of how much money they are being forced to spend to buy top-quality grass-seed and on restoration of those very few squares of concrete which will have to be removed. And of course, all of this will eventually be improving the QUALITY of our existence. To which I say, whoa, I'll be the judge of that.
For example, part of the quality of my life recently has included bicycling. I have discovered an exercise I not only can tolerate, but one I could develop a passion about. And, to fully engage my passion, I like to take the RBH (really big hill) route to State Street on Gorham. It's just murder when one is out of shape, but it's a little easier if one rides the bike lane and doesn't have to jostle up and down on the sidewalks. If one catches the light at Hancock right, one has a head of steam for the long haul. Or at least one DID until TouchAmerica started their work up and down those blocks. Now, one has to take one's life in one's hands and dodge giant work trucks and barricades, veering perilously close to the banshee drivers of the Racetrack. In places, the sidewalk is no longer an option either. So, the Quality of my life is already been affected and they are not even on my block yet.
I know that there has been at least one more meeting about the way in which these decisions concerning our neighborhood and our Quality of Life have been discussed. I have learned a few things about the shocking way in which all of Wisconsin awards permits without even getting any (or much) money back. And that work can proceed BEFORE any residents have been contacted or notified. I know that TouchAmerica has conceded one point and hired a local engineer to help site the project. But nobody still seems to know where they intend to route it now. And if somebody does know, he or she isn't willing to tell those of us whose Quality is already being affected. Let's keep asking those nosy questions, shall we? We pay lots of money to try to catch and clean up after the outlaw taggers who take it upon themselves to "beautify" our neighborhoods nightly. Let's not allow OFFICIALS to foolishly do the same thing in the name of progress without asking whether this is a Quality decision.
Besides that, Day-Glo orange and yellow just don't go with my color schemes.
Gay Davidson-Zielske
1011 E. Gorham