Debris Snag

Just back from a two-day down state visit. I knew the weather upstate was stormy, producing a lot of rain. But I came back to surprisingly serious flooding locally and within the adjoining villages. The deluge left a significant number of suburban Utica residents living near streams under water. Even the higher surrounding elevations- like the very land that produces the run-off feeding the Ravine- experienced local flooding of cellars and roads.

What are our local leaders saying? There are those boasting about the good work being done in the Ravine. To be fair, the work there did lessen the impact on the residents to the south of us. Debris has been snagged; the water from the Ravine has mostly gone under ground as needed. But above the dam, the Ravine is being destroyed as a result of the work done. This, ironically, is increasing debris and marring the beautiful stream it was.  The ravine redo design was never going to be a solution. And the leaders knew it, or should have. It was the look of a solution, not a solution to the problem. There is just too much water being channeled into Nail Creek (and other creeks in the area!). We are building on and paving over the higher elevations and the wetlands surrounding the Ravine that would be the natural sponge for all this rain. This under-supervised and/or ill-planned development of the higher surrounding elevations is creating enormous run-off. That is the issue.

And, again, the problem is not just in Halleck's Ravine. It is problematic with all the streams in our area.

Our leaders are failing us in their ignorance, their lack of oversight and lack of communication. They are not problem solvers...

There is in our political system a hierarchy, a structure much like a pyramid that is designed to bring local issues to a higher forum that is charged with the greater oversight and understanding of the larger- socially and geographically- picture. And they bear greater responsibility.

The leaders within the local (city) and the higher (county) bodies have failed in their duty. If the city has issues that are caused by the suburbs, then the greater political body, the county and its leaders, is the forum for these issues to be discussed and resolved. And so on up the pyramid. But the buck passing is rampant and the turf protection paramount. Happy talk gives us no relief.

Yet, we continue to re-elect these so-called leaders. Many members of the electorate cry about too much government, but then turn to FEMA for help. This is happening this very day, as I write. Or the injured sue the government for harm. The government reacts by doing something, anything- right or wrong. The result is chaotic and in the long term does more harm!

You can't have it both ways. Stop electing the happy talkers; realize that government is important to our collective well being; expect the leaders to work together for the common good, not just when one's individual welfare is in jeopardy.

The surrounding higher elevations are being developed without proper management of water run-off.  Half a million dollars (roughly the amount spent on the Halleck's Ravine project) in the construction of a culvert, debris snags and the pointing of a dam will not change the increasing volume of water being channeled into what will soon be an inadequate tunnel under the city.

So whose water and debris are we talking about, anyway? In the end it is ours, collectively.

Math (and Art)

Just read part of a piece on the "war" in math curriculums between the old line and the progressives; the use of algorithms versus the more "creative" approaches favored and promoted by progressives in teaching math. The great irony is in the many references to creativity, beauty, and efficiency in the article and in the comments.

We have continually de-emphasized and now decimated the art curriculum in our schools, the very part of the curriculum where the creative aspects of math (of thinking in general) could be utilized. Algorithms have withstood the test of time. They provide foundational constructs in the same way that we employ design elements in art. The time to be creative is after the foundation is laid, not as a substitute for the foundation. Ask any architect.

There is a time and a place for creative thought. The time is after at least some of the basic tools are mastered and the initial place is in the art curriculum. And the need for some experience in the subject matter is needed for all but the prodigies. Algorithms provide this well.

For heaven's sake, again we are up against provincial academic minds, progressive or not, lead by the specialists who seem to have no interest in other areas of thought or modes of learning...

I guess we are seeing the same charge to mediocrity in math that has plagued the art world in modern times, which has similar champions of the "new," favoring those who break with the foundational underpinnings to please the market, not educate the masses...