Patch Blog: Where's Moses When You Really Need Him?

So I don’t know about you but when nature calls, I listen (especially when it’s really dark out except for the stars and my roof isn’t in the way.)

And I’m not talkin’ physiology, fiber, and digestion here. I’m referencing locusts, pestilence, and your basic, average, and customary toad invasions.

Almost a couple of weeks ago, we were lucky. My home away from home, Temple City, avoided the total wrath of the Business Universe (BU), copped a plea, and was sentenced to one night of high winds on steroids plus community service. Fearing an all-day city council meeting at sentencing, Mr. Bill was later quoted as having said, “OH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

I’m not sayin’ it could’ve been worse; I’m just sayin’ the way things have developed (or not) around here, going back to being a treeless desert might be an improvement; might be a sign from the Business Universe, Mother Nature, and the Big Chamber in the sky (BU) that it’s time to start all over.

So big thanks to The “BU” for leaving out floods and The Plague; I can’t swim to my car from the front door and rats are very creepy little critters.

I grew up in the San Gabriel valley and like I said last week; I’ve practiced dentistry in TC since Disco. I’ve been around East Las Tunas so long that I actually remember retail. And I know; research says really, really long-term memory is the last thing to go.

When I started out I thought our little town was magical. Back in The Day, I actually thought I saw Norman Rockwell walking around holding a brush. In the last twenty years however, the only magic I’ve seen was a tree flying across Rowland on the morning of Dec. 1.

Temple City is still really a nice place to live and it’s a great place for your federal tax ID to call home…as long you’re a bridal shop or a nail salon or a molar jockey.

Back at Temple City Dental Care (when you visit us, please take Baldwin), we all take this test called the Kolbe. The Kolbe generates a profile outlining the way individuals instinctively solve problems. If you’re an off-the-charts Fact Finder there is no detail too small; there are only risks too high. Please meet our local government. The opposite of a Fact Finder is a Quick Start; not much quick startin’ going on around here.

Most of the time, our local city council yokels are well intentioned folks, earnestly volunteering their time to do the right thing…at a rate of speed that would frustrate a glacier. My thoughts are the Business Universe and the Big Chamber in the sky hate crap like this when it comes to local leadership, redevelopment, and revitalization.

I think the Big Chamber blinks when it sees a downtown that looks like a freeway bordered by a swap meet on both sides — unchanged for 20 years. BC also frowns when a store burns down in the middle of town and remains a cement slab since the Reagan Administration. And when the Piazza (coming soon!), cleverly disguised as a shifting pile of dirt, has been coming soon since the Reagan Administration the BU and BC probably get more frustrated than former bruin football Coach Rick Neuheisel waiting for the needle to move. Guess on Dec. 1 it was finally time to just let the trees fall where they may.

I think what really did it was, of all places, redeveloping that stinkin’ slow road to nowhere, South Rosemead Blvd. There must be something about making a silk purse outa hog skin that really set the Business Universe off because the outskirts area is so lifeless trees with any kind of street cred refuse to grow in the K-Mart parking lot.

I guess a more positive take on the windstorm and the Business Universe is the Night of the Flying Trees followed the intro of our new Chamber CEO who is a Harvard grad. I haven’t met the new guy and I hear he doesn’t look much like Charleton Heston…but still.

And I’m not the most religious guy in the world and maybe one Ivy Leaguer can cancel out five City Council types, but maybe, just maybe, it’s finally time for miraculously developing a vision, retail, and some serious Kolbe Quick Starters. If not, I suggest investing in a big boat, mouse traps, and some serious toad repellent.