Sherry Chandler » Earth Day Musings on the Paris Wal-Mart Supercenter
Earth Day Musings on the Paris Wal-Mart Supercenter
It’s Earth Day, which seems an appropriate time to point out that ground was broken this week, beginning a process that will devote a considerable amount of green space in Paris (Kentucky) to a new Super Wal-Mart. As you may recall, this development has been a subject of hot local controversy.
According to The Bourbon County Citizen, the 3-year suit to block this development was settled when Wal-Mart made concessions “to design a Supercenter which maintained the cultural identity of Paris and provided a pedestrian friendly environment.” (Apparently, part of this “pedestrian friendly environment” will involve a cross-walk from the Bourbon County high and middle schools to this new Wal-Mart — across a major traffic artery. Impossible to keep the kids away, but I’m sceptical about how safe this affair is going to be.)
Because the development is immediately off Paris Pike, the primary concen was to continue the tree lined design of the nationally recognized road. Other aspects of the development that reflect the local landscape include the curvilinear streets and the tree lined and landscaped plank fenced perimeter.
Since the parking ratio was more than Wal-Mart desired, parking spaces were removed and landscaped islands were added within the parking field of both Wal-Mart and the strip center. The additional landscaping will extend from the parking lot to both the Paris By-pass and the Lexington Road [local name for Paris Pike] along both sides of the interior streets. In addition, the three detention ponds will be landscaped.
Notice those three detention ponds. That little statement assumes some knowledge about this design that I don’t have but I think it probably has something to do with the fact that the area where this Wal-Mart is going had a considerable sink-hole wet-weather pond on it.
All the landscaping, including the shrubbery and trees that extend along the plank fenced perimeter of the property, will have underground irrigation. The majority of the trees will be hardwood, native and deciduous trees.
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All crosswalks will be stamped asphalt to resemble brick which willnot only be aestethic [but also serve as speed bumps].
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In order to maintain the cultural identity of the development, aspects of the surrounding neo-Greek Revival and neo-Federal architecture were incorporated into the structure. These aspects included a deep cornice and applied pilasters…The building material will resemble red brick.
A lead headline in this morning’s NYTimes business section declares “Wal-Mart Flirts With Being Green.” Perhaps it is this flirtation that explains Wal-Mart’s willingness to invest so much in pseudo-brick for Paris, Kentucky. While I understand (but consider misguided) the push in Paris to have this Supercenter, I’ve never understood what, except push for total dominance, has motivated Wal-Mart. There are, after all, three or four Supercenters within a 25-mile circle around Paris.
I am skeptical. But maybe I’ll be surprised. I was skeptical about the Paris Pike project too and it has proved better than I had anticipated — though it will be years before those new-planted trees will look anything like the old-growth trees they replaced. And another drought-year like 2005 will reduce their numbers considerably. Apparently no provision was made for maintaining the trees once they’re planted.
So we get a Wal-Mart with a lot of young trees in the parking lot, pseudo-brick all over the place. As the Lexington Herald-Leader said back in December “It’s still a big box, but it will be a prettier big box.” I see the potential for a lot of kitsch. And a lot of harm to local businesses.
But the dozers are moving.
You can measure your ecological footprint here. Richard Taylor has a sobering poem about doing just that in his collection Braintree (Scienter Press, 2004):
Sizing my Ecological Footprint
Lime is how I paint myself, moderately
green, before unearthing a website
that gauges my impact on the planet.
Putting my best foot forward, I cite
recycling sports pages by the bale,
bandoleers of Bud Lites, scalloped
plastic trays of microwave dinners.
If my windows lack double panes,
I compensate with thermowear,
my furnace never topping a summit
of sixty lean degrees. I gloat
when data inform my office mate
that if all of us imitated his sleek
suburban life, we would need
a boost of 9.3 additional earths.
Then I weigh in at 7.2, reminded
of my faulty septic field,
my clunker coughing up its oily spew,
my children three, some guilty shares
of Global Oil, lapsed Sierra dues—
an ecological footprint not so deep as wide,
like say, a tarred Nike with gripper treads,
not hooves that mangle as they strut but blend
in tainted paths with anyone’s, with yours.
Reproduced by permission of the author.
I have watched the trailer for Al Gore’s documentary film An Inconvenient Truth. The trailer alone is terrifying. But I think it’s a film we all should be required to watch. You’ll find the trailer at the link.
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