The good, and bad, of paving the desert



When I was a kid, there was a popular song with the lyrics, "They paved paradise, and put in a parking lot". And all of my life, it's been perfectly natural for people to criticize paving, as if they'd be better without it. You know, living in paradise, right?

Growing up in Minnesota, where it was either raining or snowing most of the time, I couldn't imagine living without paved roads - without paving there would be mud everywhere (and even with paved roads and sidewalks we kids managed to track in a fair amount of mud - ask our moms!). Of course in Phoenix, or Southern California, it never rains (except of course when it does) so paving doesn't seem all that important.

I've visited people who live waaaay out in the country near Phoenix, without paved roads, without a paved driveway, and without sidewalks. And while it's fine to visit, I can't imagine dealing with it on a daily basis. The more well-to-do have fine gravel set down, which needs to be attended to every once in a while (like after a heavy rain). Where there's no gravel, but there's vehicle traffic, the desert floor just turns into hard pan (a golfing term), with weeds that sprout up, and ruts, and of course mud after a rain.



Here in Glendale, the streets are paved, as are the parking lots. And that means that there's no mud to step in, no ruts created after a heavy rain, and the transportation that most people choose nowadays, cars (instead of horses) are accommodated.


I watched the local McDonald's parking lot get repaved yesterday, which I had never really thought about before. It has to be done every few years, and the stripes and instructions on the paving have to be re-painted.


Of course, McDonald's could leave the area around its building in a natural state, but the cars would very quickly make a mess of it. They could plant grass, like a polo field, but if you've ever gone to the polo grounds in Scottsdale during the Barrett-Jackson you know that cars, even gently driven, destroy grass pretty quickly. Better for horses!

I know very few people in the Phoenix area who travel in something other than a car, or at least on wheels, whether it's a bicycle or even a golf cart in Sun City. These wheels like pavement. Thank you for driving carefully!
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