Last Friday a poster appeared on the wall of our local market informing everyone that it will soon be replaced with a new hospital. That day there were a couple of dozen people standing around reading the poster when I arrived on my beer run. And just as I got there a police car pulled up and a cop and a security guard got out. I just moved on. Nothing to see. Beer to buy. And I did the same on my way out of the market. Well, I just don’t see any sense in unnecessarily attracting the attention of anybody who looks even remotely like “authority”, and it’s pretty much guarunteed that had things turned even just a little bit ugly, or even just a little less than good-looking, I’d find myself in more trouble than I need. Or want. So it wasn’t until the next day that I bothered to have a look at this poster- there were no crowds, no cops, no trouble.
Anyway, today new posters have appeared protesting the planned new. The poster appeals to some city government rule banning the construction of new hospitals within the fourth ring road (or maybe just the east fourth ring road- either way it’s an odd sounding rule) and residents’ concern for their living environment.
Are we in for excitement around here? I hope not. I hope the market is queitly allowed to go on doing business as per usual. It doesn’t strike me as being the best location for a hospital, and besides, if it is necessary to have high-tension power lines running right through the middle of your hospital complex, there’s land on the opposite side of the road that is mostly vacant.
