Weblog

So, today, I went into downtown Denver for a job interview. On the way there, I took 72^nd Avenue between Kipling and Wadsworth.

Now, let me explain a little bit of history about this road. On the Denver street grid, the important roads are eight roads away from each other: 56^th, 64^th, 72^nd, 80^th, 88^th and so on. However, for the longest time, 72^nd Avenue didn't go through from Kipling to Wadsworth. Even then, the road didn't go through much past Wadsworth to Pierce. If none of this is making sense to those of you that don't live in Denver, I'll come to the point. My lovely, adorable, Pentecostal church that I attended since before I can remember and until I left for college¹ sits right on top of the hill where 72^nd Avenue and Wadsworth Boulevard meet. For years, the citizens of the City of Arvada tried to pass measures that would allow the city to put forth the funding to make the street go through. Just about every time that the measure was on the ballot, it failed.

It seemed that the congregation in our church wanted that street to go through. After all, if 72^nd became a major road instead of just a minor street, the church would have more exposure. Somehow, more exposure meant that more people would come to church and more souls would get saved! Does that seem like pretty solid logic to you? It really shouldn't. Regardless, it's no sin to be of an opinion that a road should go through… unless the situation were more complicated.

There is a woman that I am indebted to. I'm indebted to her because she taught me both Spanish and French when I was in high school. Sure, it was her job to teach us, but her instruction was invaluable. So, how does she fit into this discussion about 72^nd Avenue? Her property sat right where the road needed to go through. In order for the road to go through as planned, the city was going to practice the practice of eminent domain — forcing the party to sell the property for public utility. Essentially, the barn on her property had to be torn down to accommodate the road.

Now, see if you can recognise the dilemma here: one congregation wants a road to be built for supposedly spiritual reasons at the expense of someone else's property. Looking back, it just didn't seem right that we were pushing for something as a congregation (not officially, of course) all while knowing what it was going to cost someone for purposes that really didn't matter and really not caring about it.

I once promised my teacher that I out of respect for her, I wasn't going to use the road. She laughed and said that she didn't care one way or another if I used the road. I obviously didn't keep that promise.

A glass of water sounds good right now.

1. Since I'm not a Pentecostal anymore, I really don't know why I still go there. Maybe I like the people there; that must be it.