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A decade ago, Earth Matters featured its inaugural environmental prognostications and we all enjoyed a few chuckles over the humorous speculations. I thought it would be fun to see, 10 years later, how they worked out. Perhaps we'll even learn a few lessons in the process.
The 2014 prediction: After an acre of Brush Mountain slides onto the parking lot behind Logan Town Centre following a spring deluge, owners announce a plan to reforest 25 acres that had been stripped during construction.
What really happened? Part of this actually came to pass two years later, as the hillside behind the plaza began sliding down the base of Brush Mountain in May 2016. An extensive and expensive stabilization effort was undertaken, though the sort of re-naturalization we might have hoped for never occurred.
The 2014 prediction: Altoona radio station owner Dave Barger, who had protested landscaping requirements made by the City of Altoona, receives the National Arbor Day Society's Outstanding Urban Landscape Design Award. Altoona Planning Director Lee Slusser presents the award on Arbor Day.
How did this turn out? Barger has passed away and Slusser has changed jobs, but that part of Sixth Avenue is now a tree lined thoroughfare with sidewalks. The greener streetscape has helped encourage, at least in part, the revitalization that has come to that part of Sixth, Seventh and Eighth avenues.
The 2014 prediction: Several business people attending a workshop at (what is now) the Altoona Grand Hotel, hoping to enjoy a pleasant afternoon, try to cross Plank Road to grab a light lunch. They narrowly escape being run over when they tumble down the embankment in front of the hotel. Several Plank Road businesses finally concede that sidewalks and crosswalks might be a good idea after all.
Any good news here? Not an iota (unless avoiding a pedestrian fatality is considered good news). Still no crosswalks or sidewalks anywhere in sight, I witnessed a disabled man in a wheelchair, his meal from Outback in tow, crossing Plank Road this past summer. He and other pedestrians have lived to tell the tale, but business and property owners seem oblivious to any of the benefits of sidewalks. The dangerous pedestrian environment persists.
The 2014 prediction: Two former Altoona mayors join the city's new mayor Matt Pacifico at a groundbreaking for the new Cross-'toona Bikeway. Beyond better bike and pedestrian access for Altoonans, Pacifico envisions the community becoming a bicycle mecca that will attract thousands of sandwich-loving bicyclists.
What progress has been made? Construction on a northern segment of trail in Antis Township and Bellwood could begin in the spring, but no feasibility study or substantive planning has occurred for any connecting trail in Altoona.
The 2014 prediction: After a runaway trash fire burns down 17 houses and 150 acres of woodland along the base of Brush Mountain during a dry spell, eight Blair County townships and three boroughs outlaw open burning of trash and leaves.
Did anything like this come to pass? Thankfully, no large-scale fires have occurred, but the burning of brush and trash have caused several smaller fires in the county. That said, more recycling and composting options have converted even many hardcore burners, allowing all of us to breathe a bit easier.
John Frederick (www.johnjfrederick.com) conveys a wish of a more environmentally enlightened and peaceful 2024 for his loyal readers.