WAYNE’S WORDS
November 2006
TOPIC: MY (USE TO BE)
FAVORITE PLACES TO BIKE AND RUN

I use to live off Justus Post Rd. in the heart of Chesterfield.
One of my favorite places to run was down Justus Post to Baxter and then north to Wildhorse Creek Rd.
There is a nice sidewalk and street lights to help you on those early morning runs in January.
The scenery was nice, lots of hills and trees. There were times I would see deer standing near the road grazing in the early morning sunlight.
Within the past two months the bad guys (Bruno Homes) have started tearing up all the trees and leveling the hills on the west side of Baxter in order to put in some townhouses.

I say I use to live off Justus Post.
This summer I sold my condo and bought a house just off Old Clarkson Rd.
Talk about being in the right place at the right time. Within two days in July, I had a contract on my condo and had a contract on the house.
I always wanted a house and a big yard to take care of (Crazy talk, I know).
But what got a fire in my butt, last fall was the planned development right across the street from my condo on Milbridge and Justus Post, in this nice open field lined with trees.
The builder (Bruno Homes again) has started to put in 32 condos with underground parking on this 21/2 acre piece of field.
I just couldn’t stand looking out my window every morning and seeing them tearing up the trees and that land.

If you have live, played, biked, run, walked and driven in and around Chesterfield for the past 10+ years or so, you have seen the alarming rate of development that is/has taken place.
Gone are the good ol’ days of biking from the Smoke House down Airport Rd. without any buildings, parking lots and traffic. Airport Rd. now looks more like Manchester Rd.
The good ol’ days of riding on Wildhorse Rd., without seeing lots of cars and huge trucks blasting by you are pretty much history.
Hell, I can remember when Clarkson Rd. was two lanes and there wasn't much traffic on it!
It’s disheartening to see fields and woods torn up so some developer can come in and put up high density housing.
If you ask people why the moved west to Chesterfield, most will say because of the trees and fields, the open areas, the quiet neighborhoods.
But, these areas are dwindling, sometimes at an alarming rate.
We all know that to bike on a quiet road without much traffic you have to keep going farther and farther west.
Even then you have to plan out your rides.
Gone are the days when you could ride out to St. Albans on a Sunday morning and not see many cars.
This alarming rate of development is just something that bothers me when I want to go out somewhere peaceful to run or bike.
There should be a balance between development and natural undisturbed areas to workout, play and enjoy.
We all need roads that are less traveled, quiet, where we can work on our target heart rates, and not worry about getting run off the road.
Maybe one of you readers will someday be in the position to make an important decision in planning and zoning, to decide to have more development or to leave an area alone in its natural state.
I hope you and people in those positions will make the right choice.

Until Next Time,
Train Smart, Live Right
Wayne