This is one of those ridiculous things in this world. While it’s illegal to drink alcohol in public in most places in the U.S., if you conceal what you’re drinking in something like a brown paper bag, plausible deniability will lead the police to look the other way.

Police hate this one weird trick!

Maybe we all need to wrap our delicious beers in paper bags, just in case? Or even better, maybe we all get koozies that look like brown paper bags?

And what’s with the opposing dinosaurs in the midst of orgasms? Someone is bound to correct me with a “well, actually” to inform me that they are actually griffins – a cross between a lion and an eagle – and that they are guarding the precious nectar of the gods. But this sounds about as ridiculous to me as my dueling, ejaculating dinosaurs that I now would really like to see brought to life.

It wasn’t long ago I realized developers often name the streets after what they systematically destroy in the process of development. In this case, it’s at least possible that this area was a high meadow or bluff with an elevation of over 100ft higher than the nearby Elm Fork of the Trinity River to the west.

Long gone are the beautiful prairie plants native to the area. In their place, oaks, pines, crepe myrtles, honeysuckle (the introduced variety), and seemingly endless islands of cultivated turf-grass separated by concrete.

The supposed mesas, meadows and bluffs of a by-gone era now exist as a relatively peaceful neighborhood right next to an extremely massive freeway, a freeway that didn’t exist anywhere close to its current form when this neighborhood was initially developed.

I’d love to see a selection of prairie plants native to this Blackland Prairie ecoregion of Texas to return. What if a majority of the St. Augustine grass was simply replaced with short grasses such as Bouteloua dactyloides (Buffalograss), Bouteloua gracilis (Blue Grama) and Hilaria belangeri (Curly Mesquite)? This alone would drastically reduce the amount of supplemental watering, fertilizer usage and mowing required. I think that would be a wonderful thing.

What is a thing or two you would like to see improved in your own neighborhood? Something you can control? And maybe even something you can potentially positively influence?

This is a fairly recent view of the Lyndon B Johnson Fwy in Dallas, TX. Here I’m looking east on top of the pedestrian bridge that spans from the corner of Morningstar Ln and Templeton Trl in Farmers Branch, to High Meadow Dr and Cromwell Dr in Dallas.

This was once a much more quiet, eight-lane highway at surface level. The addition of the underground TEXPress lanes result in road and engine noise bouncing off the concrete walls and permeating through the nearby air.

The improvement in auto transit does not make for an improvement as a neighbor. In fact, it does not make for a good neighbor at all. Before this portion of the highway was reconstructed, my half-a-mile-away backyard was mostly a peaceful place, shaded by large trees and largely free from the constant hum of rubber on pavement. Sure, we could hear the highway if we paid attention, but it wasn’t the overbearing wall of noise that now exists.

From the LBJ TEXPress Website:

By employing new tolled TEXpress Lanes we offer drivers a choice in their daily commutes. And by introducing variable fluctuating pricing based on traffic demand, the LBJ Express enables drivers to maintain a more predictable rate of speed. The idea is CHOICE! You have safer, reconstructed general highway lanes, fully-optimized frontage roads, and new and reliable TEXpress Lanes that offer you a convenient trip from one end of the project to the other.

Speaking of CHOICE! What about public transit? What about cycling and pedestrian infrastructure? I635 seems like a perfect place to connect east and west train routes. I’d love to see TxDOT put forth some concerted effort into improving transit as a whole instead of focusing solely on private automobile transit.

I also wonder how green, living walls might reduce noise pollution? And how they might help improve air pollution? Can a certain portion of tolls be directed to making the highway infrastructure a better neighbor to the nearby people and businesses?

This is a fairly recent view of the Lyndon B Johnson Fwy in Dallas, TX. Here I’m looking east on top of the pedestrian bridge that spans from the corner of Morningstar Ln and Templeton Trl in Farmers Branch, to High Meadow Dr and Cromwell Dr in Dallas.

This was once a much more quiet, eight-lane highway at surface level. The addition of the underground TEXPress lanes result in road and engine noise bouncing off the concrete walls and permeating through the nearby air.

The improvement in auto transit does not make for an improvement as a neighbor. In fact, it does not make for a good neighbor at all. Before this portion of the highway was reconstructed, my half-a-mile-away backyard was mostly a peaceful place, shaded by large trees and largely free from the constant hum of rubber on pavement. Sure, we could hear the highway if we paid attention, but it wasn’t the overbearing wall of noise that now exists.

From the LBJ TEXPress Website:

By employing new tolled TEXpress Lanes we offer drivers a choice in their daily commutes. And by introducing variable fluctuating pricing based on traffic demand, the LBJ Express enables drivers to maintain a more predictable rate of speed. The idea is CHOICE! You have safer, reconstructed general highway lanes, fully-optimized frontage roads, and new and reliable TEXpress Lanes that offer you a convenient trip from one end of the project to the other.

Speaking of CHOICE! What about public transit? What about cycling and pedestrian infrastructure? I635 seems like a perfect place to connect east and west train routes. I’d love to see TxDOT put forth some concerted effort into improving transit as a whole instead of focusing solely on private automobile transit.

I also wonder how green, living walls might reduce noise pollution? And how they might help improve air pollution? Can a certain portion of tolls be directed to making the highway infrastructure a better neighbor to the nearby people and businesses?