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Home My WebLink AboutDRAKE CROSSING SHOPPING CENTER, FT. COLLINS CARWASH, WIRELESS TELECOMMUNICATION FACILITY (VERIZON) - PDP - 35-96C - MEDIA - CITIZEN COMMUNICATION1 Neighborhood is worth fighting for - Opinion - coloradoan.com a neighborhood swimming pool just down the street, ready access to city recreation facilities and a delightful bike and pedestrian trail extending to the foothills. Beyond the physical amenities, there's also a quiet sense of connection among many residents. Recently, for example, our block gathered to bid farewell to departing neighbors and welcome new ones. That's not to say we don't have our problems. There are a few festering lesions that we're working to prevent becoming full-blown cancers in the neighborhood. We recently organized, in part, to explore positive ways of dealing with the irresponsible who expose the neighborhood to these diseased domiciles. We also have been brought together by plans for a cellular telephone communications tower proposed by one of the big companies that wants to make sure you can hear it now. I should be plenty audible and visible if successful in erecting this 60-foot-tall fiberglass phallic symbol marring the foothills view from much of our neighborhood. It needs to go there, they say, to provide better reception for customers in this area and because no one else nearby would permit it on their property. I'm not as militant in my opposition as many. While unquestionably ugly, it's much less ugly than other such towers. Its construction will not result in the end of civilization as we know it. It will simply be another blight we're expected to accept as the price of the constitutional right to chatter. But I believe they can do better. That's why I will be at the Planning and Zoning Board meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday to oppose the variance needed to build this tower of babble. It's not out of knee-jerk NIMBYism, but because every neighborhood has to fight the blight that takes another bit of its character. The city has set its boundaries. It has nowhere else to go. There's no room for throwaway neighborhoods left behind as dumping grounds for what nobody else wants. Every neighborhood is worth fighting for. That doesn't mean neighbors should lock arms in opposition to every intrusion. But we do need to set high standards. We can welcome those who respect our neighborhoods, while asking those who would degrade them, "Can you hear us now?" Dan MacArthur is a writer and general do-gooder pain the neck. He can be reached through the Coloradoan at Qpinion@coloradoan.com. Originally published Tuesday, May 18, 2004 Emall this story Page 2 of 3 http://www.coloradoan.com/news/stories/20040518/opinion/4455 76. htm l 05/ 18/2004 s Neighborhood is worth fighting for - Opinion - coloradoan.com Page 1 of 3 Local News News Tips Sports Obituaries Nation/World Celebrations Opinion Business Lifestyle YES Columnists Extra Government Technology Space & Science Weather Windsor Beacon Entertainment Communities C I•:PV'T IoN NiAI- UANK _J ih.-w.-.� Opinion - Tuesday, May 18, 2004 (✓ SUBSCRIBE TO THE COLORADOAN Neighborhood Topic: Activism By Dan MacArthur opinion@coloradoan.com Not in my back yard? No. I haven't become a NIMBY. Not on planet Earth? Nope, neither have I become a NOPE. is worth fighting for Community Dan MacArthur is a freelance writer living in Fort Collins. He is past editor of the Triangle Review weekly newspaper. His column appears the third Tuesday of each month. Homes Customer Service `. Directories If I had to adapt a current Classifieds empty catch phrase, I'd call myself as a convert to the No Neighborhood Cars Left Behind cause. Jobs Homes I've actually been an acolyte long before it was fashionable. I bought my Coupons first tiny house in what some realty types vaguely suggested was the less - Customer Service desirable part of town. I didn't consider that so then, and it's certainly not Search true now. The forces of the market and involved neighbors conspired to make it one of the most sought-after Old Town neighborhoods. C aiorado That experience led me to an ill-fated employment as a neighborhood P'aaa ONLINE 2o601 iow advocate in the city government. I escaped after it became clear the best way to ruin a grass -roots movement is subjecting it to a bureaucracy primarily dedicated to perpetuating itself. Now I have turned my do-gooder tendencies toward my current neighborhood. It is a modest -- by Fort Collins standards -- collection of semi -customer '70s tract homes. It is the kind of place I swore I'd never live in again after growing up in such Stepford structures. So much for economic reality. ACTIVE ADUI COMMUNITY Welcome tc Sunflowei • 55• ACu» 4wnq • Cara Low Mmmta•nenca • Over Sued Garages • Soac,ous & Lc,v $go's • Ojrr!ouse • AChvdles Doke lfsr& & Laabv n�6vrt b..A• RL Fortunately, I found it to be much different from that suburban hell I feared with a sense of community every bit as strong -- if not more -- as in my funky old neighborhood. We have a shopping center with grocery, hardware, liquor stores and restaurants within walking distance. There's http://www.coloradoan.com;news/stories/20040518/opinion/445576.html 05/18/2004