Tuesday, August 23, 2011

4 Deaths on Washington Blvd: An Avoidable Tragedy.

I have avoided commenting on the deaths in Highland park because it just felt positively unseemly to speculate about causes and culpability in the face of something so concrete. My heart goes out to the victims and all who knew and loved them.

In the coming days and weeks we may learn more about what was or wasn't done and how more could be done in future. However, I was in the East End for the flooding in July and it was clear then that when Washington Blvd became impassable the rest of the area was thrown into chaos. No police directed traffic at the major intersections that lost power, no real detours seemed to be in place to handle the disrupted traffic flow. In short, the city didn't seem to have any plan at all!

Having seen that, and now seeing how dire the consequences of having no plan can be, I can't help but agree with the sentiment expressed at WWVB - just close the road at times like this.

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