Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Who is to blame for teens doing wheelies in Jeeps on muddy, unfinished development sites?



Where did this jeep parked outside a University of Arkansas dormitory collect the mud?

Up near the railroad near the southwest corner of the Aspen Ridge failed-development site, of course. We've been wondering who was driving across the Town Branch of the West Fork on the old rail spur and leaving big muddy tracks in the 2-year-old streets of Aspen Ridge on the way to Sixth Street or Hill Avenue. As darkness settled over Fayetteville, Arkansas, on Wednesday, February 13, 2008, we spotted a likely suspect. The first sighting occurred as the Jeep careered along the edge of the railroad right of way, just off the southeast side of the track that runs SW/NE at that point between 15th and Dickson Streets. Then he pretty much slid down the muddy side of the right of way and found a level mudhole where a street is supposed to be built.

After he finished doing wheelies, the young male driver went to the University of Arkansas campus and backed into a parking space and sat for at least 10 minutes talking on a cell phone. Assumedly, he was lining up friends to go do the same the following day; or maybe he was asking his parents for extra money for fuel because there are no buses at times he wants to go to class or shopping or maybe he was asking for more money for a car wash, because people are always splashing mud on his car when he drives by the site where the chancellor's mansion is being built with no concern for stormwater regulations or what students learn from the UA official non-policy on city, state or federal water-quality rules.

He might be eligible for a small ticket for driving on the unpaved parts of the development site (the paved streets on the site are already public property, dedicated to the city) if police caught him in the act. Or he might get a polite letter of disapproval if some agency concerned about water quality got on his case. But it really isn't a big deal except for the lack of knowledge about some things he ought to already know and about the lack of courage of his parents, who allow him to drive a vehicle to another state to school when bus tickets to Memphis are cheap. He certainly has no need for a motor vehicle when he lives on the UA campus with everything but free-flowing alcohol that a Hog fan could want or need except maybe a way to go home once every month or so — unless he is living in that dorm without enrolling in course work and has no studying to do.
Finally, however, the attractive nuisance created by the clearing of 30 acres is the culprit here. The kid is just a kid. You expect foolishness from kids.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Poor kid, he's just doing the only thing he knows to do for fun.

Maybe puberty will kick in and he'll start keeping that jeep out of the mud and try to pick up a chick.