Cell Towers

I read in the local rag newspaper, better used to wrap rancid meat than to get the news, that there is a balloon test this Friday to see if the proposed height for a cell tower will have a profound effect on the "visual beauty" of the area. I already posted about this on the "Price of Progress or Apathy" post from awhile back, but I'm going to reissue my stance on this.

This cell tower will be 140 feet tall. It will be located near Woodstock, NY. This is the same Woodstock, NY that allowed a television station erect a television transmission tower on top of a mountain, not a hill, but a mountain. You can see the red lights on it from 50 miles away. Do I care about that? Not really. We needed a local station at the time. This tower is substantially smaller than that TV tower and it isn't going on a mountain.

It seems to be vogue to fight all these things and throw up roadblocks to all this things. There are so many "dead spots" in cellular service throughout this "Tech Valley" corridor, that you might as well pull over and light a fire to send a smoke signal. But then we'd be polluting the air and they'd put up a "Stop Polluting Our Air" sign.

While were on that kick, let me say something. I'm not for progress at the price of the environment and I am not an unabashed advocate of tearing down old buildings or polluting the water. As a matter of fact, I recently questioned one of those "stop the (add name in here now)" signs. The answer that I was given was (finally) a good one. They want to build a mine, but its in a very scenic area and is close to some water supplies, some of which directly or indirectly serve about 8.5 million people, last time I checked. As we know from experience, mines and water supplies don't really go together too well. I'd be opposed that just for those two reasons and I'm sure there are more than that.

I like old buildings, but just because the buiding is old does not make it a candidate for historic preservation. I think people just want to maintain the status quo and say "oh when I was young..." Well, maybe your old now, but you can yank out a cell phone when you have chest pains or you can get your wheelchair into the Post Office, because the new one doesnt have 55 steps in front. Or maybe, just maybe, you've lived to this ripe old age, because some plant in Indiana makes the petroleum derived plastic and rubber that is in the valve that was implanted in your left ventricle last fall. What do you think of that?