Civic pride

Here in Redding, CA, we live on a hilltop off Buenaventura Boulevard, a byway as beautiful as its name.

Buenaventura winds through a canyon, alongside a creek and a nature trail. Near its end, where the road terminates at Highway 273, a new commercial zone of stores and offices has really dressed up what had been a pretty ugly intersection.

So you, the driver, travel through this lovely canyon and through this lovely creekside commercial strip and you have a view of snow-capped Mount Lassen dead-ahead. Incredible. Scenery like this is one reason we live here.

Except. When you get to the busy intersection, you can't see the mountains or the trees. All you can see are rusty train cars that the railroad has chosen to park right in front of you.

The cars have sat there for years. If they were parked fifty yards away, you'd never notice them. They'd disappear into the industrial scenery of the railroad shops. Instead, they're parked directly in the line of sight from Buenaventura, blocking the view of the mountains.

Can't the city ask the railroad to move these eyesores? Or doesn't anybody care?