Naturally, An Artificial Solution For Earth Day

Why do I have to do all of the creative thinking for this City Hall?

It is not that I even get a "thanks" for my efforts. Rather, several Councillors ask to be deleted from my subscriber list, even one of my Ward Councillors if you can believe it. I'll remember that when I am voting next time around too!

I was driving north on Dougall earlier in the week. The sky was so gray and dreary. No flowers blooming yet in the million dollar medians and landscaping near the overpasses, nothing spectacular to welcome all of those tourists and to make them say WOW upon entering our City!

In fact, the grassy areas where the new plantings had been done last year were a disgrace already. And with the strike, who knows when they would be fixed up.

To make a long story short, I was driving there again on Sunday morning and all of a sudden the medians were ablaze with this rich green colour. What a remarkable transformation! The grass had grown overnight it seemed. I had to go and photograph it for you.


Moreover, I had to find out what magical seeds were used that grew so quickly since my lawn needed a bit of upkeep. I wanted to use the same ones. I knew it was not sodded since it was too early for that. I just had to go up to it and feel it, imagining walking in its lushness in the summer.

The grass had a strange feel to it. It did not seem real. Hold on....I got it!

I think they planted artificial turf! Yes, that had to be it. Then I remembered this item at Council:

Someone had figured out a fantastic idea. Cover all of our parklands with artificial turf! This clearly was the pilot project for it, to see if it would work. With artificial turf, there would be no weeding or messy grass as I had photographed above and no complaints from outraged citizens. Why, I bet this turf must have a 15-20 year guarantee too.

Parks Employees---who needs so many now. No need to hire students any longer in the summer. No fertilizing using dangerous chemicals, no grass cuttings... just the odd-time vacuuming of the turf to keep it spotlessly clean. There would be no need for watering either so we would be saving a valuable resource especially since we are near Earth Day!

Taxes would go down, down down as well!

I knew what was coming next so that we did not have to worry about "stresses" to trees in the medians

And if we wanted some "natural" birdlife, what could be better for the only City south of the US:

Now here is the genius part that I came up with. Remember that the Mayor claimed that there was only $100M differnce in price between Greenlink and the DRIC Raod. How he arrived at that number I have no idea, just like 30,000 trucks on E C Row. But let's take it as true.

If the Feds and Province put artificial turf on those 300 acres of new Parkland that the Mayor says we will get, the initial cost of putting in the artificial turf and the savings in maintenance over the 15-20 years of its life means that the $100M is nothing!

Now we can have Greenlink, Eddie can be our hero and the border file can get started immediately.

And please, someone should thank me this time for the originality!