Sunday, April 13, 2008
The Rest of the Story: Power Outage
If you were like me, you had to wonder why your electricity went out on the nicest day, so far, of 2008. The News Tribune has an explanation. I had a project to work on, and so had to drive quickly to my office in Puyallup to get electricity while pondering the mysteries of Tacoma Power.
Funny enough, yesterday was the day that our ancient cherry tree set to bloom. So I had already been thinking quite a lot that morning of Tacoma Power. My loyal readers, both of you, will recall that it was Tacoma Power's pruning group that went through our yard and savaged the property, especially that tree. As I have said at numerous times, if this group was in charge of trimming trees throughout the city, we would have to change the name of our community from Lakewood to Lake.
The excuse at the time was that trees can jump and even branches far below a power line pose a threat to Tacoma Power (I can't honestly say that Tacoma city representatives put it quite as directly as I just did). Every spring, I look out at the poor tree, still majestic though more than halved in size. And I ponder the damage that arrogance, fueled by the twin powers of arrogance and monopoly, can do. That residual feeling of violation is one of the the things that fuels me as an elected official. We who are supposed to serve a greater public good must always remember that government can, in big and small ways, change property and lives without caring or asking. The ability to do that, alone, is cause for reflection and concern.
But yesterday, Tacoma Power did get energy restored within a couple hours. So let's conclude on a note of gratitude. Tacoma Power crews would probably have rather been doing something else on a lovely day; so let's give thanks for hard working men and women on the front lines who keep our cities going.
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Funny enough, yesterday was the day that our ancient cherry tree set to bloom. So I had already been thinking quite a lot that morning of Tacoma Power. My loyal readers, both of you, will recall that it was Tacoma Power's pruning group that went through our yard and savaged the property, especially that tree. As I have said at numerous times, if this group was in charge of trimming trees throughout the city, we would have to change the name of our community from Lakewood to Lake.
The excuse at the time was that trees can jump and even branches far below a power line pose a threat to Tacoma Power (I can't honestly say that Tacoma city representatives put it quite as directly as I just did). Every spring, I look out at the poor tree, still majestic though more than halved in size. And I ponder the damage that arrogance, fueled by the twin powers of arrogance and monopoly, can do. That residual feeling of violation is one of the the things that fuels me as an elected official. We who are supposed to serve a greater public good must always remember that government can, in big and small ways, change property and lives without caring or asking. The ability to do that, alone, is cause for reflection and concern.
But yesterday, Tacoma Power did get energy restored within a couple hours. So let's conclude on a note of gratitude. Tacoma Power crews would probably have rather been doing something else on a lovely day; so let's give thanks for hard working men and women on the front lines who keep our cities going.
