Blind Spots and Benches

Since I’ve been here almost a month and I've done a lot of exciting things, I should probably talk about them, but I don’t feel like it. There are more important things to discuss, such as zoning rules. And benches.

I hate driving in this town because every time I head out for the grocery store in my trusty wagon, I narrowly miss death by way of being rammed by a car. For some reason, when Roseburg developed, somewhere in the zoning rules, they left out the part about leaving space between a building and the road. My mom likes to complain about the lack of a “greenspace" or "greenbelt” rule in Paradise, which resulted in people only having lawn between their store and the highway, instead of a bunch of trees between their store and the highway. Well, in Roseburg, there isn’t even the option of a lawn in some cases. Nope. Just a cement building (my nemesis is a stone-working shop), a four-foot sidewalk, and a four-lane road.

This lack of space between building and road (which occurs not just on my corner, but all over town) creates some real frustrations for me. As mentioned before, when pulling onto the road by my house, I look left and right a couple times, then look right five more times, because there is always a cement wall in my line of vision. I risk certain death if I pull forward to the point where I can actually see the cars coming, so I get a little thrill every time I successfully turn left and don’t die. *Disclaimer—I am very careful driving here because I recognize the added danger. I’m only exaggerating for comic relief.

The blind spots aren’t just inconvenient/hazardous for drivers, however. Every time I walk down a particular street I feel like I’m going to get creamed by a car or knocked down by a rear-view mirror. Or kidnapped and swung into the back of a pickup because I have nowhere to run, pinned between wall and road. Biking is also difficult, because I’m pretty sure the handlebars on my vintage bike are wider than the sidewalk in some places.

Ahhh, speaking of biking…While I hate driving in Roseburg, I do love biking in it (despite the narrow sidewalk issue).

There is as sa-weet bike trail here. Or maybe it's not that cool, I just like it because it exists. But the bike trail is pretty nice. It starts just across the road from where I live, and since discovering it last weekend, I’ve spent some wonderful evenings cruising through the riverside park on my bicycle. The trail winds along the Umpqua River, which runs right through the center of town. Once I cross under a couple creepy railroad bridges and get on the main bike path, I escape into a land of green trees, happy people (except for the homeless ones), and beautiful sunsets. When I first got to Roseburg and went running in town, I never saw anyone else running or biking. Then I found the bike path and realized that people do exercise here, they just do it in the park. (Which makes sense, I guess.)

So anywho, this bike path is amazing and beautiful, but the best part about it is the benches. A lot of my reflections on this town end up being comparisons between Roseburg and Aix. Roseburg has a ton of benches along the bike path and by the river, and they make great picnicking and reflecting spots. Aix, on the other hand, had a total of four benches in the downtown, and only half of them were ever in the sun at the same time. Les Francais prefer to sit on little chairs in little cafes and sip little coffees, but Roseburgers seem to recognize the value of a good bench in a beautiful place. (I mentioned this bench observation to a friend and he asked if I would write about it in my blog..OF COURSE!)

As usual, I’m generalizing A LOT and making assumptions and other false-ish statements, but this is what I think about when I’m wandering around this town. And I like to write what I’m thinking.

The more I see of Roseburg, the more I like it. Once I figured out how to ignore the sprawl and blind spots, I began to see that it’s really a beautiful town nestled in big hills, with a great river and a decent downtown. It’s a very typical “Amerrican” town, but I’ll get to that later..