ATT Satellite Dish Redux

Source from:  bullcityrising.com 08/29/2007

Remember the satellite dishes we posted about here earlier in the week? The new ones that have sprouted up over next to the American Tobacco Trail? I posted on the story more as a 'huh, isn't that interesting' heads-up to what the construction was all about. But the dishes have raised a chorus of outrage on the ABCDurham list and on Gary's blog from folks who want to see it disappear back to the American Tobacco campus -- or at least be better hidden. Driving by the dishes on Friday, I was struck by how close the dishes are to the trail. Formerly there was a decent amount of space to the west side of the trailhead to stretch or just walk off a long ride. Now, the fence starts almost at the rear of the information kiosk for the trail. I appreciate all that the American Tobacco complex has done for downtown Durham (and have been a vocal booster of the City and County's investments in redevelopment.) But I can't help that wish that something more aesthetically appropriate could be done with this parcel than to install satellite dishes on them. I've dropped a note to Tommy Schenck, the GM of Fox 50 WRAZ, to see whether any more information is available about thee dishes, and I'll share anything I hear back. Though I'd like to see them eventually relocate, there is an interesting historical parallel that strikes me as somehow appropriate about their new location. The dishes stand in almost the exact area where the railroad tracks carried work material into and out of the old American Tobacco factory. So too as that land was once the site that transported the outcome of the factory's commercial engine, so too do the dishes themselves in a 21st-century way. Today's work product, though, is a bit less tangible and a lot more high tech than the tobacco and cigarettes of yesteryear -- which is a pretty neat metaphor for how the ATC's function and commercial role, and that of Durham's as a whole, has changed. Still, nice metaphors aren't worth jack when they're just icing on an eyesore. Though perhaps this will bring Durham closer to the alien landings we contemplated here a few months back? Enditem