Goldfish, Town Planning, and Honey

The convenience store at the end of Columbus Avenue just got in 130 calorie packets of Pepperidge Farm Goldfish @69¢. Why is this news? Heifer International's Overlook Farm in Rutland has a display of a trailer home in rural America which explains that in the boondocks small convenience stores are a way of life-think about getting good nutrition for a family at a convenience store. We're very lucky our "Li'l Peach" has fruit and yogurt, but the Goldfish are by far the healthiest snack type food in the place. This situation isn't from lack of effort on the part of the owner either. She has added a number of snack foods that are a little better than the traditional chips. Knowing a little about the business of grocery stores from my days as an economics teacher, I suppose a Whole Food convenience store empire is unlikely to develop here,  but it's an attractive idea. Unfortunately, a twinkie is shelf life immortal while healthy prepared food has to turn over quickly.

How does this tie-in with town planning? Well, I was checking out a news feed from Earthtechling and came across a reference to Walk Score, a cool website that should be in the toolbox of our excellent town planning department. Walk Score uses a variety of GPS based web sources to rank your address for walking to local conveniences like restaurants and stores. It's a "smart" growth favorable site, because the paradigm is that you should be living in a five story building with a beauty parlor, school, five restaurants, and a supermarket on the other four floors. Just in case anyone forgot about how I feel about "smart" growth! The idea is that things you might want to go to that are within a quarter mile get a top score while things that are a mile away get a zero. It rates the walkability of your home without, as it clearly states, the scenic qualities of the walk (or your chance to get mugged, slip in vomit, or trip over an Occupy protestor-just in case you forgot about how I feel about cities). My house got a 22 on a scale of 0 (center of the Hockomock) to 100 (downtown NYC). I'm a mile away from the bright lights of Rt. 138 and a little more to Shaw's Plaza.  Walking back home after dropping my car off to be serviced on Bay Road takes a half hour. Thank God for Fernandes Lumber or Maggie and I would be a wilderness family. Much as I love the suburbs and walking, that's not right.

In simpler times Easton had 10 school districts marking circles of easy walking around those schools. Almost all of these districts had their own general store. Hubs like Five Corners, South Easton Green, and North Easton had more amenities, but basic needs could be met within walking distance. That still happens in North Easton, and it could happen in other parts of town, even mine, if we find a way to convince people that they won't be mowed down by cars as they walk along. Crossing Route 123 isn't something I want to do on a regular basis so I drive to Fernandes-so stupid!

Here's a good warning for you. Don't buy honey unless you know and trust the person selling it. Buy from a beekeeper. A recent exposé has shown that most supermarket honey is ultrafiltered to remove pollen. Pollen is the only way you can tell where the honey was made so ultrafilitration is used to disguise imported honey from places like China where the honey has been shown to be contaminated with antibiotics and heavy metal. The FDA does not inspect honey as a general rule so there is lots of room for cheating. I'll reserve comment on the political aspects of regulation for another time. Well, no I won't. The current Republican push for less government regulation is bought and paid for by people like the ones who want to sell you dirty honey. Too bad Teddy Roosevelt isn't running in the 2012 Republican primaries-the party might be able to win back its soul (the Democrats need to buy a brain, by the way).