Watering Sidewalks

Being a kid in the Owens Valley had its advantages; safe streets, individual attention at school, outdoor recreation, tight-knit communities, everything about as perfect as a Norman Rockwell painting crossed with an Ansel Adams photograph. I didn't have to worry about smog, traffic, classroom overcrowding, gang violence, or any of the commonplace city issues, since Independence was, and is, a tiny middle-of-nowhere town. There was one thing, though, that was an issue drilled into me for a long time, and that was the environment. Considering the majority of Inyo County is owned by the Bureau of Land Management, the National Park Service, and the Forest Service, conservation comes to mind a little bit. Plus, having the the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power own more land here than the residents of the county while they divert water via an aqueduct makes for some opinions about water.

When I moved to Lancaster a number of years ago I noticed how many nice, green lawns there were in the nice, new suburban developments. I also noticed swimming pools in back yards, fountains in front of some businesses, and misting lines on some restaurant patio awnings. One thing that never really settled well with me in Lancaster-- and most of Los Angeles County, really-- was their sidewalks. It wasn't that they had more gum to step on than regular sidewalks or that they were any grosser than anywhere else... it's because, every time anyone waters their lawn, they water the sidewalks too. It's not like the sidewalks need it to grow or anything (that's not how cement works) but it almost seemed like some tract homes would point their sprinkler systems more into the street than they would toward their lawns.

I know it's hot in LA County. The climate of the OV and the AV are surprisingly similar, with hot, dry, windy summers and cold, dry, windy winters, but a lot of people don't really know that close to half of their water comes from my neck of the woods. Because it's so hot I can understand wanting a swimming pool, or a drinking fountain for when you're thirsty, or just having water in general, but some wastefulness with the wet stuff can be avoided. California is in a state of emergency thanks to drought, and it's not getting any better, so whenever I see the water that's been diverted from my backyard to water the sidewalks of someone's front yard in Palmdale I get a little peeved. For all the things we do with water-- we drink it, swim in it, poop in it-- letting it pour into the gutter because you can't manage to get it onto your pointless lawn is really dumb.

There are clouds hanging over Mt. Whitney today, and a fresh dusting of snow underneath them. Some snow's fallen in Mammoth Lakes and June Mountain over the last week or so. Maybe if we're lucky we'll get some rain down in Lone Pine, but in the meantime I'll stare at the sidewalks of my apartment complex and wonder why the hell it's so easy to miss the grass in the courtyard.