The constancy of change

I made a stock pot of Split Pea Soup, enough to last a week, to counter the cold weather this weekend.

 While the soup simmered I had some spare time, so I decided to peruse the latest updates to Google Earth.  There has been quite a bit of development in South Euclid, the suburb where I live.  My sisters and I spent nine years living on Queen Mary Drive, 1971-1980.  There was a wooded area behind our house.  I vividly recall climbing very high up a tree in those woods one day, only to have the branch I was on snap.  Had I not grabbed branches to slow my descent as I fell, I surely would have been seriously injured.  Now those trees are gone.  

My childhood neighborhood as it appeared in 2023.  My parents' former house with the reddish/brown roof is just above the wooded area near the top of the photo.  The wooded area along with the large grassy area was sold by four homeowners on Trebisky Road (the north/south street at the right of the photo) to a developer a few years ago.  Queen Ann Court dead-ended at the field.

The developer built 16 homes on the land he acquired and here's the neighborhood as it now appears.  

This is not the only development in this area since my parents' house was sold.  While we were there, a small farm owned by the Whigam family stood just west of Trebisky Road.  We would walk there and buy corn on the cob and other produce when it was in season.  In the 1980s the family sold the farm and the land was developed into Daryl Drive.  

Here's another example of development, closer to South Euclid's central core.  Two empty lots are being developed into townhouses.  The upper lot is off of Francis Court, a one-way street that connects Prasse Road with South Euclid's main drag, Mayfield Road.  The lower lot is off Sheffield Road, behind the post office.  My sister Sarah and I both have memories of the lower area.  My sister was a pitcher on the SELREC softball team, which played on this field.  Years later, when I was a high school student, my friends and I used to hang out here after hours and sneak beers.  One time we saw a police car in the distance and booked it out of there.  This was in 1984 so I assume the statute of limitations has long since passed.

The large green area at the lower right is the former SELREC ballfield.  SELREC disbanded years ago and, as both South Euclid and Lyndhurst have recreation centers along with plenty of parkland, they had no use for the land.

 

The area in 2025, the open areas at the lower right and upper center being prepared for construction.  The projects are expected to be complete by the end of 2026.

With all these developments, those who live on the adjoining streets may feel inconvenienced.  Their lives are being disrupted by construction and once complete, the neighborhood will have a higher density than before, to say nothing of the tree loss.  But the nature of our capitalist society is that whoever owns the land, whether an individual or a developer, has the right to do what he wants with it - subject to certain zoning limitations.  Sure, the city could refuse to issue a construction permit, but the city would then be sued and lose.  Finally, it must be pointed out that these developments will bring property and income taxes to the city and the local schools - and given that the city's population has dropped by about 27% since its peak in 1970, the city needs the income to maintain infrastructure like roads - maintenance which doesn't get cheaper with less population.