Chestnut & Front Street Disease

Due to general safety issues with the parking deck behind the library, two blocks away, and also as a special privilege due to the fact that I'm beginning to waddle, I have recently been assigned a new parking spot in the deck on Water Street. One can drive directly into this deck by traversing the corner of Chestnut and Front streets. But look out--the effect is amazing. A sudden onset of retardation seems to inflict nearly every driver crossing this intersection.

Even me--I won't claim to be immune. The first time I drove through there, I had a last-minute blank out on which side of the parking deck it would be appropriate to use, and chose the left. Wrong. Bad idea! Stupid! In America, we keep to the right.

For the rest of the week, I've managed to fight the crippling effects of this disease. But I've witnessed the downfall of others. Most people slow to a 5-mile an hour crawl, for no apparent reason. Others, in more advanced stages, wind down to a full-on halt at the green light. Yes--most tragic--the green light. Even bikers and pedestrians fall victim: a man on his bike lazily creeping into head-on traffic, apparently oblivious. A business man flinging open his car door and stepping out without a single glance at the car careening down this very same path.

Granted, Wilmington seems to cultivate its own special breed of this traffic syndrome, in various forms and degrees, over most of its city streets. However, Chestnut & Front Street Disease seems distinct in its seriousness, its fearsomeness. Medical community, take note!