Tuesday, November 1, 2011

An Island of Light

Main Street is light, but Broad Street is dark. One block of Washington Street might have traffic signals, but the next intersection relies on the courtesy of strangers (wearing thin, apparently, as people struggle to remember how to approach a four-way stop.)

Since we (mostly) regained power last night, Downtown Middletown is open for business - kinda sorta.

On our evening stroll, it looked like all the Main Street restaurants were open - but the biggest crowd was definitely at Eli Cannon's. We talked to one Cromwell couple who were planning to hang out there for quite a while, since their home was without heat, water or electricity - or perhaps because Eli's popcorn machine is back in working order.

Main Street was busy with people seeking light, food and warmth. Our neighbors were walking back from Iguanas Ranas, noting that they had the only house on their downtown street that was still dark. We also met some friends from South Farms, who've been staying at the Inn since the storm began, on their way to Mezzo's for a late dinner.

It was a typical nightly stroll on Main Street - real Normal Rockwell - till we came to the powerless South Green and we suddenly remembered how really dark things were downtown until just yesterday. Kind of like being in the Truman Show and coming to the edge of the set - pitch black as far as we could see.

I'm sure parents of school kids already got the word, but it's another "snow day" tomorrow. Between Irene and Alfred, the kids will have to stay in school till July 4th!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

"One block of Washington Street might have traffic signals, but the next intersection relies on the courtesy of strangers (wearing thin, apparently, as people struggle to remember how to approach a four-way stop.)"

Despite what radio, TV, and Gov Malloy says, "dark" street light do not automatically revert to an all-way stop. There is nothing in the CT DMV regs that states this; I looked, couldn't find it. Ergo, absent functioning traffic control devices, default "right of way" rules apply, where the major street has right of way (for example).

http://www.ct.gov/dmv/cwp/view.asp?a=2594&q=400270

Think of this in a practical situation, where there's a "black" street light in an area where there's no illumination; how is someone unfamiliar with the local area going to know there's even a "black" light there at all?

If you pull in front of someone, expecting them to stop at a "4 way", you're not only possibly wrong, you may be in danger...of course we should work together, but don't automatically take it for granted.