A note from Gertrude Stein….
Remember Miz Stein’s comment, “…..is that when you get there, there isn’t any there there….”
I don’t know how much is this is about my getting older? How much is mis-placed proprietary or provincial thinking on my part (take your best shot), but I continue to find fault with some of the new subdivisions in this valley. Yup, for all sorts of reasons. Bad landscaping, bad names, bad notions. Bad planning.
To wit: Saguaro Canyon? Why Saguaro Canyon in Boise, ID?. There isn’t a saguaro anywhere. And, none have survived in this subdivision either. Wrapping them in black plastic won’t save them from the elements of a Boise winter.
Here’s another one that kind of rubs me the wrong way: the ad for Corrente Bello Estates in today’s real estate section. Touted as “ben refinito,” or to translate, “very refined,” and providing “the satisfaction and sophistication felt in this otherworld location”. Here is my two cents worth on the this idea of refinement. If you want to live in another world, please go there. Why on Earth (pun intended) do you want to bring Italy to Idaho? Isn’t Idaho ENOUGH? Puhleeeeez, take an Italian vacation, eat some pasta at home tonite, crank up Puccini on the MP3 or the CD player. Watch Big Night on the DVD.
And this one: Heceta Head? Heceta Head? Hear me shriek. Heceta Head is one of the most famous lighthouses/points on the West Coast. Please tell me why you want to call a subdivision in the Rocky Moutains/high desert/Snake River plain, Heceta Head? Complete with the notion of big piers and a sandy beach. In case anyone didn’t know this, we have some really cool beaches of our own in this state. Our drop dead gorgeous lakes have lovely beaches. No, not the reservoirs which have been renamed as lakes to make them seem more attractive, but the LAKES. How about the beach on the Salmon River at Skookumchuck above Riggins? Better yet, get in the car and go to Skookumchuck and have a picnic. Enjoy it in situ.
What about honoring genus loci? It means, honoring the spirit of the place. I am going to seek and find all the subdivisions that are named after, designed in honor of, pay homage to………Idaho.
Amen, sister Mary Ann. This is happening everywhere and I attribute it to out-of-area, or national, developers who are too lazy and unimaginative to invent new names for every new development.
As chair of our local environmental commission, I have the (?) pleasure of seeing the plans for every new subdivision prior to them coming before the planning board. Not so long ago, people at least made the effort to make SOME connection with our area, Sussex County. For example, Dorset Farms (England and sheep relate to Sussex in Great Britain) has street names like Cambridge Road, Oxford Road, etc. Mixed up, but still relevant.
Street names in older developments relate to our area role in the Revolutionary War, early colonial times, or well-known families whose decendants still live here.
Our most recent pox upon the landscape came in with street names that have no relevance to our area whatsoever. The model home names all reek of Floridian and Californian town names, and the houses themselves are examples of the worst type of Florida construction — all of those gaping-maw garage doors facing the street, forward of the front door.
They build it, they’re gone. They don’t really care what they’ve done to your town.
Each municipality has to deal with this type of aesthetic abomination on a case-by-case basis in its own back yard. it can be changed, if you elect people with the political will to put their foot down.
Regards,
Lois
I just had the misfortune of running across Saguaro Canyon this thanksgiving weekend. Talk about out of context….when did saguaros start growing in Idaho. As an Idaho native, a landscape architect and a community planner, I am disgusted with this poor example of landscape architecture. How on earth, other than replacing the plants each year, do you even maintain these plants in the cold Boise winter? I hope city and county planners notice this development and vote down future proposals of this type. We are in Idaho…not california, not Florida, not Tuscany, and certainally not Arizona.
Abe
I drove through Saguaro Canyon yesterday and it appears the landscaping on N Red Horse Way is still alive a well. Whoever designed this really studied the climatology and horticultural possibilities of the Boise area (zone 6b). (Also they may be gambling that global warming won’t go into sudden remission.) Some of the plants they selected actually come from colder areas. I have seen similarly large specimens of Opuntia imbricata just south of Colorado Springs in zone 5. Many kinds of yucca have proven reliably hardy in Boise, including the high-altitude variety of Yucca brevifolia (Joshua tree) from southern Nevada. Some of the agaves they planted are hardy in the Denver area, but I would have picked Agave utahensis, proven hardy in Boise. If we have another winter like December 1990 (once a century event), they could replace any cacti that don’t make it with the red flowered variety of Opuntia phaeacantha (huge, spectacular, and extremely hardy), and Echinocereus triglochidiatus (equally spectacular and hardy). The latter is native as far north as Elko County, Nevada (zone 5). Pediocactus simpsoni var robustior is also a great choice. It grows to softball size and has survived central Washington winters for countless thousands of years. Out of context in the Evergreen State? Complain to the landscape architect! And Pediocactus is also an Idaho native. To the designers of Saguaro Canyon I say congratulations! Continue to think “outside the box”. My only concern is that the plants may have come from unprotected public land or other areas not slated for the bulldozer. But if they are refugees from rampant development in other states, or are nursery stock, no problem!