trampled may 8th, 2017

the most amazing thing happened this past weekend.

NOTHING.

nothing happened.

you see, it rained on thursday and friday. rained all day. and the construction work does not take place in the rain. so on thursday and friday there were no rumbling cranes, no beep beeping vehicles, no cement trucks or clouds of dust. it was fantastic. we were able to sleep, in our bed, in the morning - something we have not been doing soundly for 5 months now.

and then the real miracle came. on saturday the ground was too mushy for any work to be done. so once again, for the third day in a row, we were able to sleep soundly past 7am. we got up, made breakfast, stepped out in the yard to play with the dogs. and it was quiet. totally quiet.

all day saturday, and all day sunday, for the first time in over 5 months, the entire FORD r&d campus was silent. no air conditioning, no furnaces, no belching buildings. no high powered vacuum trucks. no street cleaning, no lawn mowing, no cement trucks. there was not a sound from the entire complex. my husband and i were amazed.

the complete lack of noise, and the quiet atmosphere , reminded us of why we moved here in 2010. of why this had been, up until summer of 2016, such a wonderous place of calm and beauty.

two full days of absolute quiet.


i actually wrote to joe vicari (land management) and dcampus (head of current overhaul project) and thanked them for whatever gift the neighborhood was being given. told them how 2 days of absolute quiet were such a miracle, and suggested that if each weekend could be like this it would make living on the fringe of this project so much easier.


the solitude also reminded us of how happy and calm we are when there is no noise. up to then, all day, everyday, for months - we have been dealing with construction noise during the day and then building noise at night. LOUD building noise. high pitched, low pitched. and there are frequencies happening here, resonant frequencies, called INFRASOUND, that actually negatively impact human health. it is sound that falls below what a human can hear, but our bones and flesh can feel the sound waves. they cause nausea, dizziness, anxiety, depression, headaches and sleeplessness. the sound waves are esp harmful when humans are exposed to them for long periods of time, and can produce PTSD.


so - the low rumblings that have produced 15 new cracks in our walls and ceilings also have the ability to affect our mental and physical health. oh joy.


some neighbors came by sunday evening and commented on how quiet it was. how for the first time in a long time it was finally quiet in their house. they live about a half block up from us. they mentioned the low rumbling that has been ever present in their house for months now, as have neighbors 2 streets down. those neighbors described it as having a semi or mack truck parked next to their home for 8 plus hours a day. that on some days they cannot think or concentrate on their jobs because the noise and rumbling is so bad.


i do not want to celebrate these neighbors joining my ranks - but my goodness is it nice to not feel so alone in my issues.


this past week, around the first or second of the month, i discovered homeowners near us complaining online in a social media forum. there are people who live clear on the other side of the project, complaining about their houses rumbling and shaking 12 hours a day when dump trucks from the FORD project drive by their homes on Pelham street. that is a good half mile from where we are. south west of us. those folks are not dealing with any of the cranes or drilling or cement trucks, but simply hearing that an area somewhat distant from the project was having issues due to the truck routes of the dump trucks hauling away so many mounds of excavated earth from the auger holes was reassuring. sad - i do not want anyone to be suffering. and frustrating - it is a much wider and larger circle of disruption in our area than just here on elmdale.

then a woman chimed in who lives just around the corner from us. along donaldson. she talked about how sad she was that FORD clear cut the forest in front of her house, and how now she heard all the noise and her house shook and it was so ugly and dreadful compared to what she previously looked at. we emailed each other. we compared photos. we talked about how neither of us had been given any of the info we had requested. so across from my house the parking deck is going in. at the right hand end of the deck (if you are looking out my living room window) there will be a maintenance building constructed. that building will be directly across from her house. she wanted answers on what were the outer walls going to look like and what kind and how much shielding (walling, blocking) would be planted, and no one would answer her questions.


why is this happening in the midst of a neighborhood?  why didn't FORD offer to buy the blocks around the site and help us relocate? in her words - "they've taken this beautiful park like setting and ruined it". you know - i can't agree more.



today is may 8th, 2017. the parking deck work resumed at 7am today. the cranes dug deep holes with their augers. the dumptrucks hauled away earth. the cement trucks rumbled and threw cement dust into the sky. the workers are still working, and it 530pm. they are lowering rebar structures down into holes that will soon be filled with cement - the pile legs to set the deck on. from what was dug today - the deck will at least be in front of half of our yard. we'll see how the rest of the week goes. the last plan we were shown had the deck not so far over to our left.....but i hear the plans keep changing.

and while we were all told initially that this was a 5 year plan (it being one half of the ten year complete overhaul of 2 campuses) then why did FORD lease offices at fairlane mall and in taylor at masco for ten years? the employees on the 340 acre campus across from my house have been relocated for the next ten years.



what is next? when will the design center start? it will be directly to the left of our house. and to build it, according to the plans, other buildings have to be demolished. what a debacle. what a lousy place to have ended up on the front lines of. at least now i know - i am not alone in my frustration. having a few neighbors join me has made me feel validated in my struggle. our collective voice may never be enough to get answers or make change - but we can be informed together, and we can help other people in our community understand what is happening.


my final riff here - why won't bill ford ever answer any of the emails i send him? why won't he get involved? he must feel so high and mighty - like  he is the king, and we are his serfdom, his peons in the community. in his dreams he is probably driving those cranes and running each and every one of us over, grinding us down into the ground. and i'm sure he has a huge smile on his face while he's doing it.