I believe that the time is long overdue to change the name of our city from Red Deer to Apathy. I am referring to the potholes, folks. Doesn’t anyone care enough to do anything about the situation? The citizens of this city (of which I have been one for 10 years) seem to display a total lack of pride concerning the deplorable state of the roads here.
It doesn’t seem to matter that while there are ghostly apparitions of phantom pothole repairing crews, (have you seen them?), there seems to be enough workers and material and time and money to pave the parking lot at the rear of the Red Deer Museum and Art Gallery on 47th Avenue, one of our mayor’s pet projects.
Go take a look folks. It’s beautiful. And if you don’t have time during the day, you can swing by at night and view this superb work of paving art via floodlights, which were also recently installed. Of course, it’s only used for shipping and receiving and employee parking and there are big potholes and cracks all over the neighbourhood, but hey — it’s the Red Deer Museum, folks.
Red Deer is rudderless. It lacks leadership. It lacks vision. It’s going nowhere.
It’s not as if there are no alternatives. I urge every person who lives here to get a hold of the front page article by Lana Michelin — Where’s the downtown? (Advocate May 13, 2011).
There is hope. It’s out there. But we need to get rolling folks. Get involved. Let your voice be heard. Care about your city. Take a hard look at who’s spending your tax dollars and how they’re being spent. Ask questions. Act.
Someone has to step forward with the resources and the will. It can be done, folks. Change, on all levels, can really happen. Just ask the federal Liberals.
Ron MacArthur
Red Deer